New Version of ExplorerPatcher

hdmi said:

I still remember like it was yesterday that it was raining reports about malware-style behavior of File Explorer and the behavior was also heavily affecting the whole UI of Windows 11 in many cases, and this kept going on for a couple of years, or possibly even longer.

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I never had that problem! So why would I bother about it?

Kees said:

Edit: I had a closer look at the screenshot and my impression is, that still is the ribbon interface, even when certain functions have been hidden.

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Here's an AHK v2 script to completely remove the Ribbon from each already existing File Explorer window:
#Requires AutoHotkey v2.0 #SingleInstance for id in WinGetList("ahk_exe explorer.exe ahk_class CabinetWClass") SendMessage 16,,,"UIRibbonCommandBar1","ahk_id" id

hdmi said:

Here's an AHK v2 script to completely remove the Ribbon from each already existing File Explorer window:

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Did a test on that in my VirtualBox Windows (older version, where I have the ribbon option via the old registry trick).
Is a nice trick and looks rather smooth, but restarting any Window from a shortcut on the desktop requires restarting the AHK script.
Possibly there would be some trick to avoid that, by some batch that would start the explorer window and after that start the AHK script, but for me that just goes too far. Don't want to complicate things that in base are simple.

As I said before: I got used to the UI of the modern File Explorer and will keep using it including the small adjustments I made via Windhawk.

Thanks anyway for your suggestions to solve the ribbon problem.

Kees said:

I never had that problem! So why would I bother about it?

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I think it's actually rather obvious.

Kees said:

But what is usable is the possibilty to delete al the editing control icons in the command bar to only keeping the essential commands, did never use them, always use CTRL C / X / V / Z combinations.

Command area After changing via Windhawk:
View attachment 135499

And I have been able to change the font size of the breadcrumbs (indicating the folder location) as well. Those were way too big on my 125% screen.

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Is there somewhere a list of buttons that actually can be hidden and an instruction on how to style the breadcrumbs?

Open Shell adds cut-copy-paste buttons on the File Explorer window. I am not sure but I think you can remove them. Also gives you the option to use breadcrumbs or not.

spapakons said:

Open Shell adds cut-copy-paste buttons on the File Explorer window. I am not sure but I think you can remove them. Also gives you the option to use breadcrumbs or not.

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By default, when you install Open-Shell it adds a shortcut that points to its help file (OpenShell.chm) in an "Open-Shell" subfolder of the "all programs", or "all" list of the Start menu.
Shortcut:
Help file:
In this help file, there is a whole section dedicated to Classic Explorer Bar and how it can be customized, also including how to create custom commands.
Custom commands in Classic Explorer Bar can also be created with a few special batch scripting techniques. These "special" batch files that you can write are not intended to behave like normal batch files, though, as some restrictions/limitations/rules apply to how they can be used, enough that the word "special" came to my mind—along with the fact that they run invisibly each time when you click on the icon that you have assigned to a special custom command that uses the feature. It is about function over fashion, first and foremost. But what's possible to be achieved with it in that particular sense, it does extremely well.

If you, like me, are in the club of those who know why Open-Shell is still the godfather of all customization tools, then probably, you'll have figured out more than 15 whole years ago how the stuff works. I use it in conjunction with a bunch of scripts and a couple of small programs that I wrote myself. As a matter of fact I just finished writing a new one in C#. I am calling it Deribbonizer. Just need to run a few tests to be completely sure that it's stable, but it looks that way.

hdmi said:

I am calling it Deribbonizer.

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I would be very interested in such an 'app'!
Because at this moment I am using the Classic Explorer bar like you proposed, it appeared to be a very fine tool.
But I do that in the modern File Explorer, where I did disable the command bar completely via Windhawk.
The Windows 10 ribben UI I could not get like I wanted it to be, because I don't manage with the ahk script.
Too often it is showing the ribbon bar, although I disabled it.
The header of File Explorer until now:



The only thing I don't like here is the tabbed title bar, that does not folow the title bar colours I normally have. Would very much appreciate to find a method to make use of the Windows 10 UI, but without the ribbon.

Until now, I thank you for your suggestions in the direction of Classic Explorer toolbar!

PS. Possibly it's gone be time to start another thread, especially for this purpose?
It has little to do with 'New version of Explorer Patcher' anymore.

Kees said:

I would be very interested in such an 'app'!
Because at this moment I am using the Classic Explorer bar like you proposed, it appeared to be a very fine tool.
But I do that in the modern File Explorer, where I did disable the command bar completely via Windhawk.
The Windows 10 ribben UI I could not get like I wanted it to be, because I don't manage with the ahk script.
Too often it is showing the ribbon bar, although I disabled it.
The header of File Explorer until now:

View attachment 135987

The only thing I don't like here is the tabbed title bar, that does not folow the title bar colours I normally have. Would very much appreciate to find a method to make use of the Windows 10 UI, but without the ribbon.

Until now, I thank you for your suggestions in the direction of Classic Explorer toolbar!

PS. Possibly it's gone be time to start another thread, especially for this purpose?
It has little to do with 'New version of Explorer Patcher' anymore.

Click to expand...

Explorer Patcher can switch File Explorer from Windows 11 to Windows 10 or older styles. Install Explorer Patcher and change the File Explorer style to Windows 10 to get rid of the tabs. That's it. I did the same.

spapakons said:

Explorer Patcher can switch File Explorer from Windows 11 to Windows 10 or older styles. Install Explorer Patcher and change the File Explorer style to Windows 10 to get rid of the tabs. That's it. I did the same.

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Don't need explorer Patcher to switch File explorer to Windows 10 style. I have a registry edit that still does it.
But the problem is (as I described here in #2190) that I don't like the ribbon at all (I really hate the ribbon from the beginning it was introduced by MS) and don't need it at all when the (OPen Shell) Classic Toolbar is enabled.

I don't like those 'helpful' coloured options that appear when marking something in the filelist. That is much worse than the tabs as such.

But a Windows 10 UI without that ribbon would be very usefull!

Kees said:

Don't need explorer Patcher to switch File explorer to Windows 10 style. I have a registry edit that still does it.
But the problem is (as I described here in #2190) that I don't like the ribbon at all (I really hate the ribbon from the beginning it was introduced by MS) and don't need it at all when the (OPen Shell) Classic Toolbar is enabled.

I don't like those 'helpful' coloured options that appear when marking something in the filelist. That is much worse than the tabs as such.

But a Windows 10 UI without that ribbon would be very usefull!

Click to expand...

In that case select the Windows 7 style for File Explorer and you are done. No tabs, no ribbons.

spapakons said:

In that case select the Windows 7 style for File Explorer and you are done.

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In the Windows 7 explorer style there is a lot of other stuff I disabled in the past.
Can't find the tricks for that anymore (did not save them anymore), but I remember that for some of the tricks I had not only run some registry files, but had to change the permissions of some registry keys as well. Sorry, but that is not what I would like to go back to.