ExplorerPatcher does not modify any system files. It just stores some of its settings in the registry.
Settings management
If you get a black screen with only a mouse cursor, usually it's because the explorer process has crashed or failed to load. When this happens it should still be possible to open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc and, next, in Task Manager, click on Run new task. In there, the explorer process can be started by running a command:
explorer.exe
If this doesn't work and doing a reboot also doesn't fix the problem, then you can still try to uninstall ExplorerPatcher by running a command:
%programfiles%\ExplorerPatcher\ep_setup /uninstall
...or try to bring up the ExplorerPatcher settings window panel by running a command:
rundll32.exe C:\Windows\dxgi.dll,ZZGUI
Each time after Windows Update finalizes the install of a Cumulative Update such that it updates Windows 11 to a new build number so it requires doing a reboot, ExplorerPatcher should automatically download the new symbols from Microsoft. It should show a notification to inform that this download went successful. Each time after this notification pops up, I choose to manually reboot once more, to prevent hiccups that may otherwise occur at a later point in time. When they start to occur, they occur in such a way that these hiccups don't go away until I reboot anyway still nevertheless do that's why.
Further, unless you understand what you are doing, you shouldn't run ExplorerPatcher on anything besides production builds of Windows 10/11 so, if it works for you on an insider build, then it's just because you are lucky.
Finally, even though it warns you in the Updates section that receiving pre-releases versions if available is not recommended, always making sure to use the latest pre-release of ExplorePatcher greatly helps to improve the chance of not running into bugs, as Windows keeps frequently changing via Windows Update, due to Microsoft loving to fiddle with it to the point (and beyond) of treating us like rats stuck in a lab. Programs like Open-Shell and ExplorerPatcher exist to unstuck us from the lab. Without these two open source projects, we would be in dire straits (or probably a lot worse).
