New Version of ExplorerPatcher

The-Hive · Jul 1, 2022

Fredrik said:
If you read through the thread and other news, the Explorer Patcher project is considered "resting" at the moment. You can use it with the native WIN11 taskbar but not with WIN10 taskbar anymore if you need WIN-X etc to work.

This is very sad but you have to accept and understand the developers reasons behind it.

Other people can help develop it if they wish to carry it on or contribute

catweazel · Jul 1, 2022

The-Hive said:
Other people can help develop it if they wish to carry it on or contribute

yes , that is ok. I wouldn't be interested anymore, since MS is always changing something, and then as freeware. :)

valinet · Jul 1, 2022

catweazel said:
yes , that is ok. I wouldn't be interested anymore, since MS is always changing something, and then as freeware. :)

Yeah, Microsoft flipping things up every month is a mood killer, indeed.

As for the money, I made it free in order to create a community around it, and because it helped me learn things and in order to help others learn things. Because of its nature, it wouldn’t increase my interest, so to speak, even if I charged money for it. It’s just very uninteresting from some point onwards.

The-Hive · Jul 1, 2022

catweazel said:
yes , that is ok. I wouldn't be interested anymore, since MS is always changing something, and then as freeware. :)

valinet said:
Yeah, Microsoft flipping things up every month is a mood killer, indeed.

As for the money, I made it free in order to create a community around it, and because it helped me learn things and in order to help others learn things. Because of its nature, it wouldn’t increase my interest, so to speak, even if I charged money for it. It’s just very uninteresting from some point onwards.

This is Just My opinion ...
Valinet has done a terrific amount of work and it is much appreciated
Too Many people are too quick to complain if it doesn't work instead of waiting or trying to sort it their selves
Sadly, I do not have the knowledge to contribute to it's development
I would be more than happy if it just continued to work as it does now without any more development, as long as we can get the symbol files or whatever is need to keep the Windows 10 taskbar
I wonder what will happen when 22H2 is here

The-Hive · Jul 1, 2022

valinet said:
Yeah, Microsoft flipping things up every month is a mood killer, indeed.

As for the money, I made it free in order to create a community around it, and because it helped me learn things and in order to help others learn things. Because of its nature, it wouldn’t increase my interest, so to speak, even if I charged money for it. It’s just very uninteresting from some point onwards.

@valinet I quite understand where you are coming from. IMO I think you have achieved what you set out to do (and more) so for me it's just a matterof keeping it working on stable builds as it is now. Thanks for all your hard work, long hours and effort you have contributed

catweazel · Jul 1, 2022

The-Hive said:
I wonder what will happen when 22H2 is here

Let's wait and see, maybe others from Github will continue to develop the EP, with little tips from valinet

Anixx · Jul 1, 2022

Fredrik said:
If you read through the thread and other news, the Explorer Patcher project is considered "resting" at the moment. You can use it with the native WIN11 taskbar but not with WIN10 taskbar anymore if you need WIN-X etc to work.

This is very sad but you have to accept and understand the developers reasons behind it.

I never understood why people needed this Win+X. Everything is accessible from the start menu (say, from Open Shell). If you need Win+X, why the start menu is there in the first place then?

I have the Win key remapped to layout switching.

The-Hive · Jul 1, 2022

catweazel said:
Let's wait and see, maybe others from Github will continue to develop the EP, with little tips from valinet

As I said before @catweazel, all I want from EP is for it to work the way it is now, I don't want any new features and further development, so hopefully (fingers crossed) it won't be far different, I was just concerned about the symbol files and at the end of the day, if it doesn't work then at least we had a good run with it

catweazel · Jul 1, 2022

The-Hive said:
As I said before @catweazel, all I want from EP is for it to work the way it is now, I don't want any new features and further development, so hopefully (fingers crossed) it won't be far different, I was just concerned about the symbol files and at the end of the day, if it doesn't work then at least we had a good run with it

I hope this for the 22H2

The-Hive · Jul 1, 2022

catweazel said:
I hope this for the 22H2

Yes sure is so I just got my fingers crossed

Anixx · Jul 2, 2022

For those who use the tutorial for the classic theme Tutorial: Use of Windows Classic theme with Windows 11 and Explorer Patcher · Discussion #167 · valinet/ExplorerPatcher , in the point 6 there is a mistake.

The line

Code:

"Userinit"=C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe /run /tn "Classic"

should be

Code:

"Userinit"="C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe /run /tn \"Classic\""

Otherwise it does not get imported via regedit.

A more up-to-date version of the tutorial can be found here: Windows Classic theme on Windows 11 and Windows 10 1903+ | WinClassic

Johnboy200 · Jul 2, 2022

Windows update KB5014668 to 2022 21H2 (OS Build 22000.778)
EPatcher 22000.708.46.6 causes the Windows Start menus to fail.
Have uninstalled 22000.708.46.6 and the Start Menu works, uninstall KB5014668 and the Start menu works ok with EP patcher.

As far as I know KB5014668 will be included in a Windows mandatory update soon so looks like I'm caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Edit...
Just tried a previous EP version and it still causes Windows Start menus to fail.

Is EP still being supported?
I can't make out from the posts here if it is or not.

MaRio · Jul 2, 2022

Johnboy200 said:
Is EP still being supported?

Read post #735

Johnboy200 · Jul 2, 2022

MaRio said:
Read post #735

Thanks for your helpfull reply.
So maybe it is, maybe it isn't, maybe it is sometimes, maybe nobody really knows.

Valinet did a really good job and I've used EP since he first released it and I really appreciate all he's done, I know it must be a really hard job to keep something as complicated as EP updated especially when MS keep changing the goal post.

So I suppose it's spin a coin time, Tails not use it or Heads wait until you can't actually use it.

So what ever Valinet was saying in that wall of text, yes, no or maybe, I'd just like him to know all his work has been appreciated.

The-Hive · Jul 2, 2022

As I said before, EP has achieved what it set out to do (and more) Not forgetting things were all different during lockdown. so all we can hope for is it to carry on working as it is now or a least with the win10 taskbar IMO

Johnboy200 · Jul 2, 2022

The-Hive said:
As I said before, EP has achieved what it set out to do (and more) Not forgetting things were all different during lockdown. so all we can hope for is it to carry on working as it is now or a least with the win10 taskbar IMO

Just be aware that when MS update KB5014668 installs the Start Menus will stop working if you have EP installed. At the moment you can uninstall KB5014668 and continue to use EP but soon that won't be an option.

hdmi · Jul 3, 2022

Johnboy200 said:
Windows update KB5014668 to 2022 21H2 (OS Build 22000.778)
EPatcher 22000.708.46.6 causes the Windows Start menus to fail.
Have uninstalled 22000.708.46.6 and the Start Menu works, uninstall KB5014668 and the Start menu works ok with EP patcher.

As far as I know KB5014668 will be included in a Windows mandatory update soon so looks like I'm caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Edit...
Just tried a previous EP version and it still causes Windows Start menus to fail.

Is EP still being supported?
I can't make out from the posts here if it is or not.

I have KB5014668 installed on my Win 11. The Start Menu still works for me in EP 22000.708.46.6 so have you tried doing a repair upgrade of your Windows.

Johnboy200 · Jul 3, 2022

hdmi said:
I have KB5014668 installed on my Win 11. The Start Menu still works for me in EP 22000.708.46.6 so have you tried doing a repair upgrade of your Windows.

Can you right click on it ok?

hdmi · Jul 3, 2022

Johnboy200 said:
Can you right click on it ok?

Yes. If you can't, then here's a possible fix for that:

valinet · Jul 3, 2022

As far as EP was concerned, it was never supported on preview stable builds, mainly because Microsoft often doesn’t publish the symbols for the system files (or takes a very long time to do so). Since all this saga has begun, I kept wondering if that’s the case here as well. Bombarded by “not working” emails, yet no one identified what the root cause was. I did not have time to look on it. Maybe the thing will start working again when the stable update comes and that has the symbols available and maybe the backend implementation for WinX is the same as in previous builds. Yeah, idk, has to be investigated… less fatalism would be nice, the program still works without that. Same with the Win 10 Start menu, nothing radical probably changed considering the thing is unsupported.