Is there Any Way We Can Hide the File Explorer Ribbon?

Sorry for a basic question, but...

Is there any way to hide the File Explorer Ribbon, as has been available in many other applications for a long time? I'd like to maximize the space to display actual useful info...

I may just be missing it somewhere, but I haven't seen how. I use the compact view and I've really no use for tabs, as I prefer to open File Explorer in separate windows and drag from window to window. I simply want to see more actual data (folders, files) in File Explorer panes.

Windows 11, the most I can show is this:


Windows 10, by contrast doesn't waste all that space with the ribbon:


For both I dislike that the lines are spaced differently in the two panes. Ideally they'd be the same (i.e., the main pane would be more compact).

Any ideas what I can do to hide the ribbon in Win 11?

-Noel

Welcome to the forum, Sorry but the new File Explorer app is currently not customizable.

Hello @NoelC and welcome to ElevenForum.

The ribbon bar is there to stay but you can disable the Tabs.

1. Go here and download ViVeTool-v0.3.2.zip
2. Create a folder in C:\ called zVIVE
3. Extract the contents of the .zip file you downloaded to: C:\zVIVE
4. Open an elevated (as admin), command prompt.
5. Type: cd C:\zVIVE
6. When the prompt changes to... c:\zVive, type: vivetool /disable /id:37634385 and vivetool /disable /id:36354489
7. Reboot the computer, and the Tabs should be gone.




Here's a few more tweaks...

ExplorerPatcher has an option (in the File Explorer section of its settings window panel) that allows you to change the Control Interface to Windows 10 Ribbon. (The tabs in File Explorer will also be gone.) It also has an option to shrink the address bar height. Open-Shell has a feature called Classic Explorer, it has an option (on the Navigation Pane tab of its settings window panel) that allows you to reduce Tree item spacing (change it to -1 to make it look the same as your bottom screenshot). As for the white line that is visible in your bottom screenshot, read this:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ite-line/cbe57f40-22e3-4ee2-8eab-7ba3758445c1

So, here's how File Explorer can be made to look like on Windows 11:

Thanks - and especially for the "white line" fix for Win 10 Explorer.

>change the Control Interface to Windows 10 Ribbon
Exactly what I'd like it to look like, rounded corners and all. Thank you, hdmi.

W/regard to re-enabling the Win 10 UI in File Explorer...

• Does ExplorerPatcher break System Integrity? I.e., does SFC /VERIFYONLY still report "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations"? I'd rather not corrupt that.
• I am not getting new tabs in File Explorer windows now (I remember a tweak for that), so I certainly won't miss them.
• I worry that reverting to dormant code is not likely to be supported forever, but then Win 11 isn't exactly new and it still works. I can potentially revert the tweak.

NoelC said:

W/regard to re-enabling the Win 10 UI in File Explorer...

• Does ExplorerPatcher break System Integrity? I.e., does SFC /VERIFYONLY still report "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations"? I'd rather not corrupt that.
• I am not getting new tabs in File Explorer windows now (I remember a tweak for that), so I certainly won't miss them.
• I worry that reverting to dormant code is not likely to be supported forever, but then Win 11 isn't exactly new and it still works. I can potentially revert the tweak.

Click to expand...

It doesn't modify any system files so no, it doesn't break them. I tend to agree that tabs are not needed in File Explorer. After Windows 10 had come out, I stayed on Windows 8.1 with ClassicShell until finally, I bought another new laptop at the start of 2018. At that same time, I closely kept watching (on a desktop PC that wasn't mine) Windows 10 evolve very slowly from what I like to refer to as the Botch Tuesday rat-in-a-lab type of user experience to a (somewhat) mature OS. ClassicShell had various problems with Windows 10 so that also was part of my reason why. You had to put in extra effort to stop Windows 7 from nagging you to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, whereas Windows 8.1 had an official (documented by Microsoft) registry setting to permanently stop the nagging, and that setting kept working like a charm. (Even, if you had disabled the charms... lol) So, here comes my point. Where there's Windows, there's duct tape. When Windows stops breaking, that will be the day when people should start to really be worried.

ExplorerPatcher just flat didn't work. I found the setting mentioned and made sure to reboot, but File Explorer still shows the ribbon. Windows 11 is 22H2 build 22621.2134. I'll have to experiment with it more, but my first suspicion is that the system may be protecting itself from modification, even though I have most of that stuff turned off.

-Noel

Ah, it works ONLY if you don't have [ ] Launch folder windows in separate process checked. I'll have to mull over whether I want to lose the added stability I perceive from that setting. I suppose I have to try it for a while... :)

-Noel

Result: Only a few rows of pixels difference now, to get back to something that was more bloated than in even older versions of Windows, but at least not egregiously so. Like you, hdmi, I held onto a heavily tweaked Win 8.1 for quite a while, but some things just required I move up. Now I'm holding onto Win 10 as long as I can - or until I can get Win 11 to be just as productive, and this is one more step in that direction. Thanks again!

Win 10:


Win 11: