New Version of ExplorerPatcher

spapakons · Mar 8, 2023

Fredrik said:
Well, good morning! Have you slept well for two weeks?

It is my father's computer and I visit him once a week, he lives about half an hour drive away. So I don't do all the updates in time, I do them once a week. Thanks

Stevein · Mar 8, 2023

Stevein said:
With update KB5022913, changing the File Explorer Control Interface to Windows 10 Ribbon or Windows 7 Command Bar does not work. The Windows 11 Command Bar remains. All features

Also, clicking on the Pen Menu when the Windows 10 Taskbar is active causes a lockup and eventual crash / restart of explorer.

I uninstalled KB5022913:
The Pen Menu works when the Windows 10 Taskbar is active.
The task view button and shortcuts work when the Windows 10 Taskbar is active.

But the Windows 10 Ribbon cannot be activated / nor remove the Windows 11 Command Bar. (As a note, I did try to use the ViVe tool after and that didn't work either, so ....

)

hdmi · Mar 8, 2023

Stevein said:
I uninstalled KB5022913:
The Pen Menu works when the Windows 10 Taskbar is active.
The task view button and shortcuts work when the Windows 10 Taskbar is active.

But the Windows 10 Ribbon cannot be activated / nor remove the Windows 11 Command Bar. (As a note, I did try to use the ViVe tool after and that didn't work either, so .... )

I didn't uninstall KB5022913. Even so, switching between the Windows 10 Ribbon and the Windows 11 Command Bar by changing the setting in ExplorerPatcher still works for me. Maybe it's because I have enabled the Classic Explorer option of Open-Shell 4.4.170, I don't know. As for the Task View button, yeah, clicking on the button doesn't do anything, and neither does pressing Win + Tab. But the other keyboard shortcuts still work, like I have explained in this post. (Another thing I noticed is that the WinX menu also doesn't work, even though I can live without it, just like I can live without Task View, Pen Menu, on-screen volume slider/indicator, and options shown at the bottom of Windows 10 Network flyout.

rechlin · Mar 8, 2023

I just took the new Windows 11 update, after upgrading to the latest ExplorerPatcher, and now both Win-Tab and Alt-Tab cause Explorer to restart. I had the window switcher style set to Windows 10 in EP, but tried switching it to Windows 11 but the issue persists. I've rebooted several times too. Is this a known issue? I saw comments above about Win-Tab but didn't notice others with problems with Alt-Tab.

oldschool · Mar 8, 2023

cbiweb said:
I think I need to seriously start learning to adapt to the default Win11 taskbar & start menu. The day is sure to come when EP dies for good, and I don't want to be taken by surprise at an inconvenient time.

A wise move even if EP continues on, as conflicts are sure to emerge based on user experiences so far.

Hary · Mar 9, 2023

Everything is working perfectly.
Great Job @valinet as always.
Thank you!

rechlin · Mar 9, 2023

rechlin said:
I just took the new Windows 11 update, after upgrading to the latest ExplorerPatcher, and now both Win-Tab and Alt-Tab cause Explorer to restart. I had the window switcher style set to Windows 10 in EP, but tried switching it to Windows 11 but the issue persists. I've rebooted several times too. Is this a known issue? I saw comments above about Win-Tab but didn't notice others with problems with Alt-Tab.

Responding to myself -- although an uninstall/reinstall didn't fix it, I found that restoring it to default settings, then manually setting everything back as I had it, fixed things. So I guess it was something the previous version did to the registry that the new version didn't like.

hdmi · Mar 9, 2023

Also, right-click on the Bluetooth systray icon causes explorer to crash each time. But adding a simple desktop shortcut (to my taskbar toolbar) that points to fsquirt.exe still gets the job done anyway.

HaitraMysh · Mar 12, 2023

I found a bug when changing visibility of taskbar notification area icons. I use Windows 10 taskbar. I installed KB5022913 (22621.1344) and ExplorerPatcher 22621.1344.53.1 and now I am unable to change icons that are always visible in notification area. I am trying to change the icons using Notification Area Icons in Control Panel (linked from ExplorerPatcher's GUI).

I have two computers where I tried it. One is freshly installed and updated to version 22621.1344 with EP installed. When I try changing Task Manager's icon to be always visible in notification area, change does not apply. Icon is not visible and after re-opening Notification Area Icons in Control Panel there is selected Show only notifications. It beahves the same way for icons of other applications. However when I try changing visibility of Network or Volume icons (which are currently always visible) the Explorer crashes.

The other computer's OS was installed a few months back and notification area icons visibility was configured before installing KB5022913. Visibility change behaves a bit differently here. It seems that explorer crashes any time I try changing visibility of any icon.

It seems to be problem of Windows and not EP. Has anybody experienced this? Is there any way to fix this?

anom7 · Mar 13, 2023

HaitraMysh said:
I found a bug when changing visibility of taskbar notification area icons. I use Windows 10 taskbar. I installed KB5022913 (22621.1344) and ExplorerPatcher 22621.1344.53.1 and now I am unable to change icons that are always visible in notification area. I am trying to change the icons using Notification Area Icons in Control Panel (linked from ExplorerPatcher's GUI).

I have two computers where I tried it. One is freshly installed and updated to version 22621.1344 with EP installed. When I try changing Task Manager's icon to be always visible in notification area, change does not apply. Icon is not visible and after re-opening Notification Area Icons in Control Panel there is selected Show only notifications. It beahves the same way for icons of other applications. However when I try changing visibility of Network or Volume icons (which are currently always visible) the Explorer crashes.

The other computer's OS was installed a few months back and notification area icons visibility was configured before installing KB5022913. Visibility change behaves a bit differently here. It seems that explorer crashes any time I try changing visibility of any icon.

It seems to be problem of Windows and not EP. Has anybody experienced this? Is there any way to fix this?

Yeah, that way doesn't work, EP is bugged.

The way you can change the icon visibility in the notification area is much simpler: drag icons from hidden area to shown area (or viceversa). This can be done also in Windows 10.

Now the most problematic bug I have with EP is that when using Windows 10 taskbark mode (in order to use "Never combine" option), Windows 11 is not showing when I change volume up/down. If I change the taskbar to Windows 11 it works ok.

Also, there is a problem where the control center's and calendar's popup is showing incorrectly down as is the taskbar was hidden.

It seems MS will add the "Never combine" option in future OS releases. I hope so, in order to get rid of 3rd party software to change OS funcionalities.

I only want to have "Never combine" option in Windows 11 build 22621.1344, if anyone knows how to do it without 3rd party software like EP, Start11, startallback and so on I will be grateful. I tested 2 o 3 differents methods using regedit with no luck.

jaseow · Mar 13, 2023

anom7 said:
Now the most problematic bug I have with EP is that when using Windows 10 taskbark mode (in order to use "Never combine" option), Windows 11 is not showing when I change volume up/down. If I change the taskbar to Windows 11 it works ok.

Same issue I am facing. I had to uninstall the update on my laptop as I change my volume / screen brightness multiple times a day and not having the slider indicator is a huge inconvenience.

HaitraMysh · Mar 13, 2023

anom7 said:
The way you can change the icon visibility in the notification area is much simpler: drag icons from hidden area to shown area (or viceversa). This can be done also in Windows 10.

I dragged icons to change their order but I have never realized that I can use dragging to show/hide them. It realy works.

Thank you.

hdmi · Mar 13, 2023

HaitraMysh said:
I found a bug when changing visibility of taskbar notification area icons. I use Windows 10 taskbar. I installed KB5022913 (22621.1344) and ExplorerPatcher 22621.1344.53.1 and now I am unable to change icons that are always visible in notification area. I am trying to change the icons using Notification Area Icons in Control Panel (linked from ExplorerPatcher's GUI).

I have two computers where I tried it. One is freshly installed and updated to version 22621.1344 with EP installed. When I try changing Task Manager's icon to be always visible in notification area, change does not apply. Icon is not visible and after re-opening Notification Area Icons in Control Panel there is selected Show only notifications. It beahves the same way for icons of other applications. However when I try changing visibility of Network or Volume icons (which are currently always visible) the Explorer crashes.

The other computer's OS was installed a few months back and notification area icons visibility was configured before installing KB5022913. Visibility change behaves a bit differently here. It seems that explorer crashes any time I try changing visibility of any icon.

It seems to be problem of Windows and not EP. Has anybody experienced this? Is there any way to fix this?

I haven't experienced the explorer crashing when trying to Customize system icons in the notification area, and, these specific settings still appear to be working like normal. But I can confirm that trying to show/hide notification area (non system) icons─i.e. by individually toggling each one─has no effect so only the Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar (checkbox at the bottom) still works in there.

Vespertide · Mar 13, 2023

A bit interesting how under the "known issues" tab in the official release notes Microsoft is acknowledging that the update will break ExplorerPatcher along with StartAllBack:

Might this mean that Microsoft is officially allowing the use of these tools? (or at least not actively working against them?)

On another note, it would be really great if the issue with the disappearing on-screen volume slider would be looked into as it is currently keeping me from using ExplorerPatcher

hdmi · Mar 13, 2023

Vespertide said:
A bit interesting how under the "known issues" tab in the official release notes Microsoft is acknowledging that the update will break ExplorerPatcher along with StartAllBack:
View attachment 55125
Might this mean that Microsoft is officially allowing the use of these tools? (or at least not actively working against them?)

On another note, it would be really great if the issue with the disappearing on-screen volume slider would be looked into as it is currently keeping me from using ExplorerPatcher

Last time when they tried to lock us out of these kinds of customizations, a lot of us spun Microsoft around so relentlessly, they're not very likely to forget any time soon.

Silbian · Mar 14, 2023

I just updated Win11 with the KB5023706 who brings the Winver to 22621.1413. Fortunately all is still working smooth.

Microsoft in the release notes about known issues wrote :
"After installing this or later updates, Windows devices with some third-party UI customization apps might not start up. These third-party apps might cause errors with explorer.exe that might repeat multiple times in a loop. The known affected third-party UI customization apps are ExplorerPatcher and StartAllBack. These types of apps often use unsupported methods to achieve their customization and as a result can have unintended results on your Windows device."
Anyway, it sounds like "we do as we like, we don't care, we just warn you ( a little late, the mess was already done a couple of weeks ago with the 1344 version ). They simply read this forum, after...

spapakons · Mar 14, 2023

I recently had installed the latest Windows updates on my father's computer. After restart Explorer kept crashing as described above. The solution was to press CTRL+ALT+DEL and click to open Task Manager. Then I went to Details and killed all Explorer.exe instances. Then I clicked on New Task and typed msedge to launch Edge. I downloaded and installed the latest Explorer Patcher version, that's it. No more issues. I did 2-3 restarts to confirm, Explorer worked perfectly. So next time I will also update to the latest Explorer Patcher version before restarting after installation of Windows updates.

jaseow · Mar 14, 2023

Seems there was a security update (KB5023706) that is not optional and will install automatically. Lost functionality of the volume / screen brightness slider

With the previous update at least I could just roll back and choose not to install it so I could still have a functioning volume / screen brightness slider.

cbiweb · Mar 14, 2023

jaseow said:
Seems there was a security update (KB5023706) that is not optional and will install automatically. Lost functionality of the volume / screen brightness slider

With the previous update at least I could just roll back and choose not to install it so I could still have a functioning volume / screen brightness slider.

I lost the slider with KB5022913. Explorer Patcher bug.