New Version of ExplorerPatcher

Fredrik · Oct 23, 2022

R84MK said:
No. I only see wallpaper on my desktop. I have no info from Explorer Patcher.

Well there you go. It's not faulty EP but Microsoft who haven't released corresponding symbols. As usual in other words and is why preview versions doesn't always work and that isn't possible to make a workaround for with regards to how EP is working.

Johnboy200 · Oct 23, 2022

R84MK said:
No. I only see wallpaper on my desktop. I have no info from Explorer Patcher.

I'm sure you must've tried but just incase you haven't did you try restarting Explorer via the taskmanager which if I remember rightly you can get to by pressing alt+ctrl+delete

R84MK · Oct 23, 2022

Johnboy200 said:
I'm sure you must've tried but just incase you haven't did you try restarting Explorer via the taskmanager which if I remember rightly you can get to by pressing alt+ctrl+delete

Yes i restart explorer and its not works.

PS: Why you use alt+ctrl+delete ? faster is ctrl+shift+esc.

spapakons · Oct 23, 2022

I have installed all the updates up to 22621.7xx (official release version, no Insider's) and Explorer Patcher works fine. Whatever bug there was in the Beta or Dev version is fixed at the final release.

R84MK · Oct 23, 2022

Ok explorer patcher works but only when i enabled Windows 11 task bar. When i enable Windows 10 task bar explorer freeze and context menu not work.

Edit:

Ok. Explorer Patcher works but not Windows 7 bar. Windows 10 taskbar not works because i use WindowBlinds 11 beta.

spapakons · Oct 23, 2022

I use Open Shell and doesn't affect Explorer Patcher if I use the Windows 7 start menu. If you uninstall both Windows Blinds and Explorer Patcher, then install only Explorer Patcher, make a test to see if it works properly. Then install Windows Blinds and see if that affects Explorer Patcher. Try an older stable version, avoid Beta.

R84MK · Oct 23, 2022

spapakons said:
I use Open Shell and doesn't affect Explorer Patcher if I use the Windows 7 start menu. If you uninstall both Windows Blinds and Explorer Patcher, then install only Explorer Patcher, make a test to see if it works properly. Then install Windows Blinds and see if that affects Explorer Patcher. Try an older stable version, avoid Beta.

I install Explorer Patcher and works on insider beta. Then i install WindowBlinds 11 beta and when i apply new skin classic taskbar, menu start and context menu not works.

spapakons · Oct 23, 2022

Why are you using Windows Blinds? Maybe you can use an alternative application that doesn't break Explorer Patcher.

cmd430 · Oct 24, 2022

spapakons said:
I have installed all the updates up to 22621.7xx (official release version, no Insider's) and Explorer Patcher works fine. Whatever bug there was in the Beta or Dev version is fixed at the final release.

I use EP just to disable the recommended section in the Start Menu, and a few other minor Start Menu tweeks like the amount of frequent apps and it "works" on 22621.754 but only if i use the Win10 Start Menu, using the Win11 Start Menu breaks a lot, the Start Menu doesn't open, and the Task Bar is extremely slow to paint (shows as a blank bar for minutes) and then once it does paint you can't open the notification area etc, all these issues go away after changing to use the Win10 Start Menu or uninstalling EP
I am currently on the Release Preview Insiders ring so not complaining about breakage, but it might need to be looked at if this build is pushed to release without any changes as I'm sure I'm not the only one using EP for this purpose, It is possible this is caused by a lack of Symbols and will self fix once they are released however

derykmarl · Oct 24, 2022

saltocean said:
@derykmarl You're welcome.
When I prepared the first script, I postponed the version control. Thanks to your message, I remembered and added the version control to the script. ExplorerPatcher_Updater.bat now first compares the installed version with the latest version on Github. If the version on GitHub is new, it will download it and run the install command.

Brilliant, thanks again!

I take it if we only want the latest general release and not the latest pre-release we could probably just change the URL to https://api.github.com/repos/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/releases/latest (?). (And probably remove the array selector, though technically it works either way.)

Hard to tell at the moment as the newest version is a general release but the json structure is the same and still spits out a usable download URL.
Edit: Found the API docs and this confirms adding /latest gets you the latest non-prerelease

derykmarl · Oct 24, 2022

Sorry to double post but seemingly the forum disables editing after some time.

In terms of automating saltocean's batch file updater via Task Scheduler, I found that the variables the version checking uses don't seem to populate with the "run whether user is logged in or not" setting, they also don't if you try to run it as SYSTEM. The solution to this is to run as the user account (pick a primary user if in a workplace) and choose 'Run only when user is logged on'. Leave on "Run with highest privileges" as before. For ours I also changed the cd /d "%~dp0" to cd /d c:\windows\temp as the batch file is running from a read-only share.

Just in case the info is useful for anyone else doing the same thing.

sephdo · Oct 24, 2022

I have two PCs running Windows 11 Pro Build 22621.675 with Explorerpatcher version 2261.608.51.3 (In EP about it says OS Build 10.0.22613675) and on both of them and the search feature seems to not be working at all anymore.

What I mean by the search feature is hitting the windows key and then just typing in the programs name. It used to search and made opening programs really really easy and it takes soooo much longer without it. The search button on the taskbar is also unresponsive but search in windows explorer is working just fine. I have tried various troubleshooting steps by restarting windows services related to search but none of them seemed to work. Also uninstalling and reinstalling Explorer patcher did not help either. Has anyone else run into the same problem? At first I thought it was just my PC with the issue but when it didn't work on the 2nd PC either it made me think that there's something wrong with either the windows build or EP.

Johnboy200 · Oct 24, 2022

R84MK said:
Yes i restart explorer and its not works.

PS: Why you use alt+ctrl+delete ? faster is ctrl+shift+esc.

If ever I boot to a blank screen alt+ctrl+del gives you more options the most useful being able to restart ect as well as the task manager where as ctrl+shift+esc just gives you the task manager so I tend to use the former but I suppose if you only want the task manager and save a few seconds then the latter is adequate.

R84MK · Oct 24, 2022

spapakons said:
Why are you using Windows Blinds? Maybe you can use an alternative application that doesn't break Explorer Patcher.

Why ? because only WindowBlinds has themes from older Windows. WB10 on WIndows 10 works ok only WB11 beta has some bugs on Windows 11. But this is beta program not rtm.

sephdo · Oct 25, 2022

sephdo said:
I have two PCs running Windows 11 Pro Build 22621.675 with Explorerpatcher version 2261.608.51.3 (In EP about it says OS Build 10.0.22613675) and on both of them and the search feature seems to not be working at all anymore.

What I mean by the search feature is hitting the windows key and then just typing in the programs name. It used to search and made opening programs really really easy and it takes soooo much longer without it. The search button on the taskbar is also unresponsive but search in windows explorer is working just fine. I have tried various troubleshooting steps by restarting windows services related to search but none of them seemed to work. Also uninstalling and reinstalling Explorer patcher did not help either. Has anyone else run into the same problem? At first I thought it was just my PC with the issue but when it didn't work on the 2nd PC either it made me think that there's something wrong with either the windows build or EP.

Nvm. A complete manual uninstall with dism and sfc checks in between and reinstall eventually fixed my issues.

derykmarl · Oct 25, 2022

I thought we'd got automatic updating working (via the batch file and scheduled tasks) but seemingly there is absolutely no reliable way to do so. I was wrong about it working when scheduling the task as the user (I think it worked for me because I'm local admin on the test machine). If "-UseBasicParsing" is added to the "Invoke-WebRequest" then at least it works as the SYSTEM user manually, but it doesn't want to run automatically on startup or shutdown for some reason.

Putting it as a start-up script in GPO almost works but causes some kind of unique breakage where you can't click the start menu (does nothing) and it grumbles some files are in use when you uninstall it.

Completely stumped - I think we'll just have to bite the bullet and have the users get used to Windows 11 being different and not consistent with the Windows 10 machines (i.e. give up on Explorer Patcher) sadly. I've spent the entire day battling this.

Fredrik · Oct 25, 2022

Just want to say that Explorer Patcher works perfectly with 22621.755 that was released tonight. Corresponding symbols was released by Microsoft. No problems with either START, WIN-X or anything.
That is, of course, without other dubious software like Open Shell, Window Blinds etc.

derykmarl · Oct 26, 2022

Hesitant to say because I keep jinxing myself but I think (just as I was on the verge of giving up) I have auto updating via the batch file working in my workplace environment. Redirecting the batch file output to a text file helped, as it identified a problem being that I was trying to execute it from a network share before the PC had established contact with the domain controller.

Latest steps which seem to work:
1) Amend the 'Invoke-WebRequest' line in saltocean's batch file to add '-UseBasicParsing' (it's probably a security thing but the SYSTEM account requires this)
2) Not sure if necessary but I also change the working directory on line 2 to %TEMP% (I'm not sure what the working directory for a SYSTEM task would be but %TEMP% resolves to c:\windows\temp)
3) Create Group Policy Object e.g "Explorer Patcher Update" at domain level, change security filter to just the machines that need it (I'm manually adding them as they get Windows 11 and manually pushing the settings from the exported .reg file to the user first, including "don't check for updates")
4) In the GPO - computer - preferences - files, copy the batch file using 'update' from the network share to c:\programdata\ourcompany\update-explorerpatcher.bat
5) In the GPO - computer - preferences - control panel - scheduled tasks, create a new "Windows 7 Upwards scheduled task", call it something like "Update Explorer Patcher", have it run on Windows Start-Up, as SYSTEM with highest privileges, and run c:\programdata\ourcompany\update-explorerpatcher.bat

After doing gpupdate I've uninstalled EP and shut down a few times now and when starting back up, it's back, meaning it's working...

cmd430 · Oct 26, 2022

cmd430 said:
I use EP just to disable the recommended section in the Start Menu, and a few other minor Start Menu tweeks like the amount of frequent apps and it "works" on 22621.754 but only if i use the Win10 Start Menu, using the Win11 Start Menu breaks a lot, the Start Menu doesn't open, and the Task Bar is extremely slow to paint (shows as a blank bar for minutes) and then once it does paint you can't open the notification area etc, all these issues go away after changing to use the Win10 Start Menu or uninstalling EP
I am currently on the Release Preview Insiders ring so not complaining about breakage, but it might need to be looked at if this build is pushed to release without any changes as I'm sure I'm not the only one using EP for this purpose, It is possible this is caused by a lack of Symbols and will self fix once they are released however

Received an update today from build 22621.754 -> 22621.755 that had symbols released alongside it and the issues i was having with start menu breaking entirely last build have been resolved

sudoeste · Oct 26, 2022

sudoeste said:
Found a bug that has been here for a few versions and didn't find anything regarding it.

if you right click start menu icon and select "Windows PowerShell (admin)" powershell will open as unelevated user (and no UAC). If choosing Windows Terminal (Admin) it will open as elevated (and show UAC).

If you right click the start menu icon again after clicking "Windows PowerShell (admin)" explorer will crash

Running 22000.1042 and 22621.608.51.1

@valinet is this a known bug?