New Version of ExplorerPatcher

Davy49 · Feb 6, 2022

AndreTen,
Thanks for your reply, I think I'll wait and see it I receive anymore replies. If not I'll follow your suggestion.

The-Hive · Feb 6, 2022

@Davy49 I would have a look at your set up, no problem here

The-Hive · Feb 6, 2022

The only problem I have is the Icon for the command centre is lower ( not in line ) with the other icons

valinet · Feb 6, 2022

Slavic said:
When I tried to perform the command you described, it shows this error message:
View attachment 20370
File ep_weather_host_stub.dll itself exists and administrator has full control over it (I specifically checked this).
Advice "debug it" may be good, but I guess it can be done only by developer with debugger using the test DLL complied with debug symbols.

Another possible problem may be in lack of "dependent .DLL files". List of DLL references in current version of file:

ep_weather_host_stub.dll - this file
RPCRT4.dll - C:\Windows\System32\ ver. 10.0.22000.434
KERNEL32.dll - C:\Windows\System32\ ver. 10.0.22000.434
ole32.dll - C:\Windows\System32\ ver. 10.0.22000.120
VCRUNTIME140.dll - C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ ver. 14.24.28127.4
no such file in C:\Windows\System32\
api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll - C:\Windows\System32\downlevel\, ver. 10.0.22000.1

Apparently the problem is that I don't have 64-bit Visual C++ runtime VCRUNTIME140.dll, which is not provided by typical Windows 11 installation, but may be installed later by third-party software, so people may even not know that it already exists. You should have it too with IDE you use for programming (VS 2017 maybe). So, need to make sure that end users have this runtime installed. Or replace the calls to more common DLL like msvcrt.dll, of course if it's possible. It's my current supposition.

But I think I still don't fully understand: the reference to VCRUNTIME140.dll also exists in ep_setup.exe, how could it work without this DLL? It should show similar error.

Hi

Thanks for the report, it pointed me in the right direction. Unfortunately, I forgot to change the `ep_weather_host_stub.dll` library to compile the runtime library statically, and instead it was defaulting to using the runtime library from the OS, which for some stupid reason still doesn't come built-into Windows and apparently you do not have it installed. Anyway, as is the case with the rest of the binaries shipped with ExplorerPatcher, I should've made this compile with the library built-in, it's just that I forgot to do it this time. Anyway, I have corrected that, and it should be working just fine with the recently uploaded 42.5 pre-release. I also fixed a couple of other bugs in this version.

Sorry for the late reply, I had a full week and no time to work on this, and only today I had a bit of time to address the issues that were reported during the past few days.

Thanks for understanding.

hdmi · Feb 8, 2022

Davy49 said:
Hi All,
I installed the explorerpatcher software, I'm using it on windows 11 pro version 21H2 OS build 22000.469 . So far it seems like my only issue is the following: Before I installed the explorer patcher software I was able to see if I had any new messages in the mail app (outlook) on my taskbar icon. Now since I installed the software that function doesn't function properly, also now when I go into taskbar behaviors that selection as well as the show my taskbar on all displays is grayed out & not active. I miss being able to be notified when I receive new mail like I was receiving, I'm still hoping that I'll be able to figure out what's causing this issue. By the way, I'm currently running version 22000.469.41.16 of the explorerpatcher software.
Thanks
Update: I found the cause of the issue I was having, I had the taskbar icons set to the small size, I decided to change the back to the default (large) size. As soon as I did so my mail app started showing notifications of new mail again. Also, in the taskbar behaviors area the show badges (unread messages counter) on taskbar apps is no longer grayed out but is now active again and it's checked on. Now I'm wondering if I really need to keep the explorer patcher installed ?

The show badges option being grayed out when using the Windows 10 taskbar with small icons is normal, but new e-mail notifications should still appear. What happens to notifications after you change the taskbar icons size back to small?

As for keeping ExplorerPatcher installed, I vastly prefer small icons because it's the only way to reduce the taskbar height to a single row, which saves on screen real estate and causes the least amount of distraction for me. Setting the taskbar to auto hide just causes more of a distraction IME and besides, the info that the taskbar provides also is critically important to me so it needs to be kept visible excepting only when fullscreen watching a movie or similar kind of visual experience is the goal. My tray icons all are always visibIe. I also like the classic ability to hide the date and show seconds on the clock. But having a Taskbar Toolbar in the center of my taskbar and another Taskbar Toolbar to mimic the old (XP/Vista) Quick Launch area right next to my Start Button on the left also is key to what I describe as a productive work environment, i.e. the exact opposite of wanting to sit in a corner and watch paint dry until the sun goes down, and then there's still other things, like the Simple Window Switcher and the flyouts that act sane and and and.... sorry what was the question?

hdmi · Feb 8, 2022

Davy49 said:
I think I'll wait and see.

Old Painless is waitin'

Davy49 · Feb 8, 2022

hdmi said:
The show badges option being grayed out when using the Windows 10 taskbar with small icons is normal, but new e-mail notifications should still appear. What happens to notifications after you change the taskbar icons size back to small?

When I changed the taskbar icons back to the small size the e-mail notifications didn't display correctly again.

hdmi · Feb 10, 2022

Davy49 said:
When I changed the taskbar icons back to the small size the e-mail notifications didn't display correctly again.

One thing that might fix this issue is to reinstall and re-register all MS Store apps for the current user by following these steps:

1. Close all MS Store apps

2. From an elevated Windows PowerShell or elevated Windows Terminal, run the following commands one at a time:

Code:

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode}

Code:

Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

3. Reboot

Stigg · Feb 10, 2022

It's a shame that we have to resort to such radical measures to restore functionality to Windows 11 that we already had in Windows 10.

AndreTen · Feb 25, 2022

Long time no posts here..

Valinet has made some great changes to EP lately. This is from latest .18 experimental version... Windows 10 AStart menu is back, if someone is missing it:

Stigg · Feb 26, 2022

AndreTen said:
Long time no posts here..

Valinet has made some great changes to EP lately. This is from latest .18 experimental version... Windows 10 AStart menu is back, if someone is missing it:

View attachment 22929

Do you get a choice of menus?

Wannagofast · Feb 26, 2022

The new Windows 10 version of the start menu does seem to work fine for the most part.
But you can only pin programs to it that are already listed in the start menu.
In Windows 10 (and 11) you can pin standalone executables to the menu as well.
I can right click on them, and it offers to pin them to the start menu.
But it does not work. Hopefully he can get that to work as well.

peace
wanna

AndreTen · Feb 27, 2022

Stigg said:
Do you get a choice of menus?

Don't really understand the question...Sorry

You mean context menu on Start menu items? Yes, pin to start, uninstall etc works just fine. On the items that are there.. pinning of folders doesn't work

valinet · Feb 27, 2022

To chip in on this, I saw that as well. The reason for it is rather simple: `AppResolver.dll` is among the libraries responsible for making this work. For Windows 11, it was changed so that it always talks with the pinned items backend from the Windows 11 menu, rather than the Windows 10 one.

The good news is that using the version from 22000.51 still works with current builds and allows pinning to Windows 10 Start from whichever program loads it (it has a check in the form of the `StartDocked::ShouldUseStartDocked` function that queries the famous `Start_ShowClassicMode` registry entry). I will implement code in the coming pre-release to have ExplorerPatcher use this older DLL which will enable pinning to Start to work again from File Explorer, for example.

By default, it will work only from folder windows from File Explorer. For it to work from Open/Save file dialogs, or folder views like Everything Search, for example, you have to register the program as shell extension, which will load a minimal implementation of ExplorerPatcher into all processes on the system that load Explorer-related things, so that it can provide this redirection to the older DLL there as well. Although, I don't really recommend this option (the reasons why are described here: Using ExplorerPatcher as shell extension · valinet/ExplorerPatcher Wiki), it is there. The default experience of being able to right click something in File Explorer, click "Pin to Start" and have it appear in the Windows 10 menu I think will do it for the majority of people.

Btw, the Windows 10 and Windows 11 menus have different storage places for the tiles data (what tiles you have pinned), so if you pin something in the 10 menu, it won't automatically appear in the 11 menu and vice versa. Also, when using the 10 menu, there will be a small bug let's call it (or inconvenience, maybe), in that right clicking an already pinned item in Explorer will show the "Unpin from Start" entry but clicking it won't produce any result. Ofc, unpinning from Start will still work, so I don't think that's such a bug problem. What is important is that pinning from Explorer will work with the 10 menu, and yeah, I got that to work, it will be there. and ofc, if I figure out how to solve that, I will solve that as well, but I don't want to delay this until I determine that, because I don't think it is worth it.

Thanks

Edwin · Feb 27, 2022

Some elements will not honor my accent color.

Edit:
Nevermind! I got it back!

Stigg · Mar 1, 2022

AndreTen said:
Don't really understand the question...Sorry

You mean context menu on Start menu items? Yes, pin to start, uninstall etc works just fine. On the items that are there.. pinning of folders doesn't work

What I meant is, the new start menu style is now a Windows 10 look-alike.
I just wondered if you could change the style to classic Windows XP, Windows 7 style etc.

In Start11, you can easily change the Start Menu style to whatever Windows version you prefer.
In fact, you can have both a Windows 11 Start Menu and any other Windows style you prefer and you can choose which one you want to use at any time.

hdmi · Mar 1, 2022

Stigg said:
What I meant is, the new start menu style is now a Windows 10 look-alike.
I just wondered if you could change the style to classic Windows XP, Windows 7 style etc.

In Start11, you can easily change the Start Menu style to whatever Windows version you prefer.
In fact, you can have both a Windows 11 Start Menu and any other Windows style you prefer and you can choose which one you want to use at any time.

Open-Shell lets me choose between 3 different styles, I picked the Windows 7 style and assigned it to Middle Click and Shift+Win. In ExplorerPatcher, I picked the Windows 10 style and assigned it to Left Click and Windows Key like so:

valinet · Mar 1, 2022

Stigg said:
What I meant is, the new start menu style is now a Windows 10 look-alike.
I just wondered if you could change the style to classic Windows XP, Windows 7 style etc.

In Start11, you can easily change the Start Menu style to whatever Windows version you prefer.
In fact, you can have both a Windows 11 Start Menu and any other Windows style you prefer and you can choose which one you want to use at any time.

It's not a Windows 10 look-a-like. It's the actual menu from Windows 10. I am just a single developer, I barely keep up with all the things anyway, implementing an entire Start menu overnight is not that easy. ExplorerPatcher doesn't have any Start menu code built-in.What it does is it hooks into what is available in the OS (the Windows 10 Start menu is still shipped in Windows 11) and alters that, fixes it to work etc. The Windows 7 menu, as far as I know, is not shipped anymore with Windows, so one can't resurrect that back.

Start11 implements their own menus that look like the Windows 10 and Windows 11 and Windows 7 menus and whatever, so ofc they can allow those to work in any scenario they envision, since it's entirely their implementation, they control the code 100%.

Implementing Start menus from scratch is a big undertaking, and I don't really see the point. As people above mentioned, there are plenty of alternatives that one can use. Why would EP really need to implement that when a great tool like OpenShell exists, for example, which is both free and open source...? It's not like, in the end, the implementation would turn out to be hugely different, or that OpenShell performs bad and it needs a replacement. In fact, it runs fine in my limited time testing it. With EP, I try to focus on working in the problematic areas where there aren't great tools to fill the gap. Regarding a Windows 7 menu, as I said, there are already plenty of excellent, long tested choices.

Wannagofast · Mar 1, 2022

And your doing a fine job valinet.
Thank You

peace
wanna

The-Hive · Mar 9, 2022

Just changed to dual Boot, one is normal release build and works fine, the other is the latest dev build and every time I try to restart explorer it goes to a dark blue screen, when ExplorerPatcher is removed restarting explorer works fine. any tips?