New Version of ExplorerPatcher

spapakons · Oct 27, 2025

In 25H2 you can also choose which appearance of start menu you prefer. Try changing that to see if it makes any difference.

hdmi · Oct 27, 2025

Trebo58 said:
Ran both
dism /cleanup-image /online /restorehealth followed by
sfc /scannow?
AV is Windows Defender

Uninstalled ExplorerPatcher, rebooted Windows, and ran both again and still no Start menu.

I see. This is a strong indication that something was already broken before you installed ExplorerPatcher for the first time. I would uninstall ExplorerPatcher again, then try a repair install of Windows with an in-place upgrade. Then if the Windows 11 Start menu is working again like normal, create a full system image backup with your preferred imaging software just in case. Finally, reinstall ExplorerPatcher again.

Trebo58 said:
So I have reinstalled ExplorerPatcher to give me my Quicklaunch toolbar back

Sometimes it can happen that you need to manually reboot after you install/update (and/or you change certain settings in) ExplorerPatcher. Once that's all set and done, ExplorerPatcher has always continued to be perfectly stable IME at least until the next time when Windows Update feels like it needs to break more stuff although it's been happening a lot less frequently to me for almost a year now so, at very long last, Microsoft seems to have ironed out most of those specific wrinkles in Windows 11 that would otherwise break the customization tools we so heavily depend on—to neutralize the bad stains.

Trebo58 · Oct 28, 2025

Thank everyone for your help, but unfortunately, there has been no change. I have therefore purchased an HP Desktop Pro 600 G5 with an i3 9th Gen processor and will add Windows 25H2 to it, then rebuild my entire system.

I will be back on the forum looking for guidance to upgrade RAM and CPU

Wolfzz · Nov 3, 2025

ExplorerPatcher 26100.4946.69.6 Final
Tested on OS builds 26100.4946, 26100.5074, 26200.5751, and 26220.6682.

1

ep_weather: Fixed "Unable to load weather information" due to changes in Google's side. Thanks @davids5 for the fix! (#1334, #4351) (c3c83ff)
Start11: Fixed hiding of Recommended Section on recent builds of 24H2. Thanks @m-wigley for the fix! (#4476) (9106226)
GUI: File Explorer > Title bar is now available again on >= 22H2. Thanks @SandTechStuff! (583fa53)
Reduced the occurrences of the Windows 11 bug in Explorer windows where WM_SETTINGCHANGE would scroll the folder items list to the top. (fa19402)
Changed hooking library to SlimDetours. (ff30457)
- On ARM64, fixes incompatibilities with certain Windhawk mods that hook CreateWindowExW such as Taskbar Volume Control.
- On ARM64, fixes a very slim chance bug where hooked functions would cause a crash when called until a reboot.
ep_taskbar: Now statically links to private functions it uses. (ab99f26)
Taskbar10: Fixed folder toolbar menus and Toolbars > New toolbar not working on builds with TrayThreadBSTA (54481602) feature flag turned on, such as 26100.5074+. (#4542) (1bbe207)
GUI: Windows 8 Network flyout is now no longer an option on builds >= 25346 as van.dll was removed. Thanks @m-wigley for the fix! (#4478) (72c6983)
On Windows 11 22H2+, Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher) taskbar a.k.a. ep_taskbar is now used by default. (ad2fa72)

2

Fixed weather button not having an icon. (#4545) (6959c69)
- You may need to perform "Clear weather widget local data" in EP properties > Weather.

3

File Explorer: Fixed "Shrink address bar height" resulting in broken graphics on recent 24H2 builds. (#4552) (6d946bd)
Start10: Fixed open/close animation patching on x64 27938+ and ARM64 27881+. (201a7e5, 79f8dd3, f873888, 465117e, 4434d10)
Start10: Fixed Windows 10 Start menu refusing to open when the new Windows 11 Start menu feature flag(s) are enabled. (#4523) (afd109f)
Fixed Windows 10 Alt+Tab and Windows 10 taskbar Win+X functionality on ARM64 226x1 and 27686+. (18dfcd0)

4

File Explorer: Corrected shrunk address bar toolbar button size when Servicing_CFDNavButtonsTheming (NI: 56845961, GE: 52061322) is enabled. (#4552) (9e91030)

5

Start10: Fixed Windows 10 Start menu not opening on 22H2/23H2 ARM64. (c08b0a6)

6

File Explorer: XAML folder views are now disabled when Windows 11 Command Bar is not used. (80414f5)
- This fixes crashes when navigating away and returning to Home/Gallery on 22H2/23H2 (#3447), and when opening Home on 26xxx.7019+.
File Explorer: Fixed Alt+D not working on builds with modern (XAML) navigation bar in File Explorer. (#2847) (a80d9dc)
File Explorer: Mitigated breakages on builds with tabs in File Explorer: (75178ec, df7d604)
- Fixed menu bar behavior when Windows 7 Command Bar is used. Pressing Alt will now summon the menu bar immediately like it used to. (#2676)
- Fixed window position and size saving when Windows 10 Ribbon is used. (#2243)
Taskbar10: These settings now take effect on ep_taskbar: (#4097) (48e1de3)
- Pinned items act as quick launch (don't group with active apps)
- When the taskbar shows button labels, remove the extra gap around pinned items

Known issues we will address in the short term:

Changing weather icon pack to "Microsoft" has no effect.
On Nickel (Windows 11 22H2/23H2), when the new Windows 11 Start menu is enabled, using Windows 10 or Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher) taskbar will crashloop explorer.exe.

Release 26100.4946.69.6 · valinet/ExplorerPatcher

CautionThis GitHub repository (valinet/ExplorerPatcher) is the only official distribution channel of ExplorerPatcher. Do not download "ExplorerPatcher" from any other places than this releases page...

github.com

asteski · Dec 20, 2025

Try3 said:
My ExplorerPatcher guide to Windows 11 Taskbar Toolbars

This is my advice about using ExplorerPatcher to get back Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 11. I've posted this advice because I could not find anywhere that told the whole story. I will welcome suggestions for improvement to what I've written concerning getting the Taskbar Toolbars back.

ExplorerPatcher can be used used to get back Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 11 [that will behave the way they did in Windows XP - 10].
ExplorerPatcher can be installed and set up within 5 minutes.

(...)

For anyone who uses toolbars and wants to expand its functionality, I can recommend my app called WinMac Menu. It's a highly customizable context menu that allows to put any shell objects, folders and files as menu items, among few custom functions like power options, recent items list, this pc and user folder objects as folders and etc. You can trigger it from tray icon, pin it to taskbar, user hotkey (using AutoHotkey) or even replace start menu with it (using Open-Shell).

With WinMac Menu, you can achieve something like this:

OAT · Dec 20, 2025

asteski said:
For anyone who uses toolbars and wants to expand its functionality, I can recommend my app called WinMac Menu. It's a highly customizable context menu that allows to put any shell objects, folders and files as menu items, among few custom functions like power options, recent items list, this pc and user folder objects as folders and etc. You can trigger it from tray icon, pin it to taskbar, user hotkey (using AutoHotkey) or even replace start menu with it (using Open-Shell).

With WinMac Menu, you can achieve something like this:

View attachment 157515

I see you are the author of that software.
Thanks for your hard work.

LesFerch · Dec 20, 2025

asteski said:
For anyone who uses toolbars and wants to expand its functionality, I can recommend my app called WinMac Menu.

@asteski I really like your WinMac-Menu app. It may become a permanent member of my system tray. All the preconfigured menu items provide instant gratification and the Settings are logical, powerful, and intuitive. Kudos!

P.S. I encountered an issue where some of the menu items changed to separators. I'll open an issue on the GitHub page for that.

hdmi · Dec 20, 2025

asteski said:
For anyone who uses toolbars and wants to expand its functionality, I can recommend my app called WinMac Menu. It's a highly customizable context menu that allows to put any shell objects, folders and files as menu items, among few custom functions like power options, recent items list, this pc and user folder objects as folders and etc. You can trigger it from tray icon, pin it to taskbar, user hotkey (using AutoHotkey) or even replace start menu with it (using Open-Shell).

With WinMac Menu, you can achieve something like this:

View attachment 157515

Not bad because it also has the first letter activation, but I still vastly prefer to use SystemTrayMenu for its first letters (plural) search field with the autoscrolling in each cascaded submenu/folder item (that is, plus the fact that it also is portable and it also can be run as multiple instances that are possible to be configured individually).

asteski · Dec 21, 2025

hdmi said:
Not bad because it also has the first letter activation, but I still vastly prefer to use SystemTrayMenu for its first letters (plural) search field with the autoscrolling in each cascaded submenu/folder item (that is, plus the fact that it also is portable and it also can be run as multiple instances that are possible to be configured individually).

fyi WinMac menu is also portable and allows to run multiple instances (from a single exe) with separate config files. Search by multiple letters sounds cool, I'll try to implement this.

asteski · Dec 22, 2025

asteski said:
For anyone who uses toolbars and wants to expand its functionality, I can recommend my app called WinMac Menu. It's a highly customizable context menu that allows to put any shell objects, folders and files as menu items, among few custom functions like power options, recent items list, this pc and user folder objects as folders and etc. You can trigger it from tray icon, pin it to taskbar, user hotkey (using AutoHotkey) or even replace start menu with it (using Open-Shell).

FYI I've created a new Wiki page, describing a possible use cases for the app.

Slavic · Apr 21, 2026

Windows Central recently published a good review of ExplorerPatcher:
I tested this Windows 11 customization app with 42 million downloads — why aren't more people discussing it?

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/explorerpatcher-windows-11-customization

spapakons · Apr 21, 2026

Explorer Patcher doesn't do all the customizations alone, so we add two or more other tools, such as Open Shell, Mica for Everyone and others. However, when we mix two or more customization tools incompatibilities can occur. Like we say in Greek "when many roosters shout, the dawn comes late" (meaning when many try to do one's job, the job is not done properly).

Slavic · Apr 21, 2026

spapakons said:
Explorer Patcher doesn't do all the customizations alone, so we add two or more other tools, such as Open Shell, Mica for Everyone and others.

Yes, I use both EP and Open-Shell Menu, currently 4.4.195. I haven't noticed any conflict between them, maybe because I didn't change the default EP "Start menu" settings. Also Windows Update no longer complaints about these utilities, especially EP, unlike about a year ago when I had to uninstall or temporarily disable them before system update.

pietcorus2 · Apr 21, 2026

" currently 4.4.195 ".............4.4.196 works better , latest version also........ :wink:

Slavic · Apr 21, 2026

pietcorus2 said:
" currently 4.4.195 ".............4.4.196 works better , latest version also........

You are right, 4.4.196 is the last stable and 4.4.197 is a pre-release. Anyway, update has a sense

On the other side, Open-Shell doesn't have "Check for update" in the settings (ExplorerPatcher has it), so people may miss the latest release. I think it's because of historical reasons, but now, when this project is on GitHub, implementing such check is much easier. Maybe developers will add it soon or later.

spapakons · Apr 21, 2026

As discussed in another thread, stay at build 8039 or older. If you update to a higher build, Open Shell Classic Explorer will disappear and stop working.

hdmi · Apr 21, 2026

Slavic said:
Yes, I use both EP and Open-Shell Menu, currently 4.4.195. I haven't noticed any conflict between them, maybe because I didn't change the default EP "Start menu" settings. Also Windows Update no longer complaints about these utilities, especially EP, unlike about a year ago when I had to uninstall or temporarily disable them before system update.

ExplorerPatcher lets you replace the Windows 11 default Start menu but it doesn't let you choose between replacing the menu and keeping both menus readily accessible whereas Open-Shell Menu settings has a Controls tab where you can assign multiple keyboard and mouse actions to whatever you want. Open-Shell Menu is completely separate. It doesn't interfere with the default Start menu at all. It actually even stores its pinned items in a separate folder, that's why you can see both "Pin to Start" and "Pin to Start menu (Open-Shell)" appear in the context menu.

hdmi · Apr 21, 2026

spapakons said:
If you update to a higher build, Open Shell Classic Explorer will disappear and stop working.

Classic Explorer Bar will disappear and stop working. Classic Explorer itself will not.

spapakons · Apr 21, 2026

hdmi said:
Classic Explorer Bar will disappear and stop working. Classic Explorer itself will not.

Pardon my wrong choice of words, but you get the idea. Don't update until a workaround is discovered.

Slavic · Apr 21, 2026

spapakons said:
If you update to a higher build, Open Shell Classic Explorer will disappear and stop working.

I use only Open-Shell Menu, while all changes in the Explorer are made by ExplorerPatcher. No conflict between them at all.

New Version of ExplorerPatcher

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