New Version of ExplorerPatcher

Same here, the Apps installed from the Microsoft Store, I think they are called Universal Windows Apps or something do not show on the W10 menu, show on the Win11 menu. Still I prefer the Win10 menu and use the search function for those missing but would be nice to know what happened

From what I understand reading this, ExplorerPatcher uses Windows own Start menu.
So Microsoft must've broken something, since it is an unsupported menu it probably won't be fixed.

I checked Start11, but their menu doesn't have Live tiles (and since they've never mentioned they'll add it I doubt they will) and StartAllBack doesn't have the Windows 10 menu. Ah well. Guess I'll have to live with the subpar Start11 menu now.

Hi,

The applications i have manually added at startup does not launch...
(shell:startup --> C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup)

I don't know if it is a bug or just a different way to manage soft at startup with Win10...

Can you help me,
Thank you

I decided to go with Start11. Not a big fan of Stardock products but at least it has a Start menu like Windows 10.
Pity about the live tiles though.

Rosmano said:

I decided to go with Start11. Not a big fan of Stardock products but at least it has a Start menu like Windows 10.
Pity about the live tiles though.

Click to expand...

I tried Start11 some months ago but I discovered that the program seem to insert a dll hook into explorer.exe for every other program start. The consequence was that the process explorer.exe occupied like 1+ GB RAM after an uptime of just a day (or possible two). Same behaviour on two different computers. I don't remember what Win release I had back then but 22000.something.

I asked about this behaviour (twice) in Stardocks forum but nobody wanted to give an answer so I guess that this is predicted and planned behaviour from their side. Can anyone in this thread confirm if Start11 still have these memory problems?

I really hope that's fixed. Otherwise I really don't know if I'll stick with Windows 11, even if I want to.

Hello!
I'm just here to report a small bug with the Win10 fullscreen start.

The start menu is not dismissed when you type/search, and the start menu's z order is higher than the searchbox. Thus you can't type to search while using the fullscreen start.

Hope this gets seen and fixed- thanks for the work!

I just upgraded to Windows 11 22H2 from Windows 10. The first thing I did was change the super-thick taskbar to be smaller the registry setting “TaskbarSi” key = 0. However, I noticed that some of the icons were not lining up AND the time/date was cut-off.

So, yesterday I tried ExplorerPatcher + TranslucentTB; which looks exactly like Win10... perfect! However, today, I noticed that Explorer.exe will sometimes crash when I click/right-click the Start Button. Then, it says TranslucentTB has crashed.

Does anyone have any tips to prevent ExplorerPatcher + TranslucentTB from crashing? I really don't want to install/use StartDock products since they consume extra system resources just for cosmetic purposes.

I wouldn't mind ONLY using the “TaskbarSi” key = 0 setting by itself... however, I need a way to get the taskbar icons/system tray to display correctly.

MKANET said:

I just upgraded to Windows 11 22H2 from Windows 10. The first thing I did was change the super-thick taskbar to be smaller the registry setting “TaskbarSi” key = 0. However, I noticed that some of the icons were not lining up AND the time/date was cut-off.

So, yesterday I tried ExplorerPatcher + TranslucentTB; which looks exactly like Win10... perfect! However, today, I noticed that Explorer.exe will sometimes crash when I click/right-click the Start Button. Then, it says TranslucentTB has crashed.

Does anyone have any tips to prevent ExplorerPatcher + TranslucentTB from crashing? I really don't want to install/use StartDock products since they consume extra system resources just for cosmetic purposes.

I wouldn't mind ONLY using the “TaskbarSi” key = 0 setting by itself... however, I need a way to get the taskbar icons/system tray to display correctly.

Click to expand...

I need to test this more. I haven't been able to make it crash since it happened. Maybe I'm doing something that inadvertently causes explorer to crash.

Where's the new version?

MKANET said:

I just upgraded to Windows 11 22H2 from Windows 10. The first thing I did was change the super-thick taskbar to be smaller the registry setting “TaskbarSi” key = 0. However, I noticed that some of the icons were not lining up AND the time/date was cut-off.

So, yesterday I tried ExplorerPatcher + TranslucentTB; which looks exactly like Win10... perfect! However, today, I noticed that Explorer.exe will sometimes crash when I click/right-click the Start Button. Then, it says TranslucentTB has crashed.

Does anyone have any tips to prevent ExplorerPatcher + TranslucentTB from crashing? I really don't want to install/use StartDock products since they consume extra system resources just for cosmetic purposes.

I wouldn't mind ONLY using the “TaskbarSi” key = 0 setting by itself... however, I need a way to get the taskbar icons/system tray to display correctly.

Click to expand...

First, make sure that you are using the Microsoft Store app version of TranslucentTB. Next, in Windows Settings you can go to Apps | Installed apps ➜ search for TranslucentTB ➜ click on the three dots ➜ choose Advanced options. There you can repair the app or reset. See if that helps.

On a side note, personally, I, find that Open-Shell 4.4.170 is the way to go for anyone who, like me, uses ExplorerPatcher + TranslucentTB on Windows 11. (Even, if you still prefer to use the Windows 11 Start Menu─albeit the Windows 7 style option is still the best choice by far IMO.) The reason for this is simple: go to Settings for Open-Shell Menu | Controls tab. Immediately you will see what I mean. On the Start Button tab, just remember to check the Align to corner of the screen checkbox. And BTW, I also use the Classic Explorer option of Open-Shell, it lets you keep the expand/collapse chevrons in the nav pane of File Explorer from fading, and it also lets you reduce the line spacing of the nav pane (I have this value set to -1 so it matches the reduced line spacing that you get from turning on compact mode in File Explorer). Another useful tip IMO is that you can reduce the taskbar height even further still, with or without Open-Shell. Click on the picture below to zoom in, see what I mean?






%ProgramFiles%\Open-Shell\Buttons\Win11 button.png

so yeah, when did all the UWP apps disappear when using the Win10 style start menu? I can't even pin anything like the calculator to my Start menu. I can figure out when this happened...just noticed it today?

starbuck said:

so yeah, when did all the UWP apps disappear when using the Win10 style start menu? I can't even pin anything like the calculator to my Start menu. I can figure out when this happened...just noticed it today?

Click to expand...

I'd say it started with the December patch Tuesday release.

starbuck said:

so yeah, when did all the UWP apps disappear when using the Win10 style start menu? I can't even pin anything like the calculator to my Start menu. I can figure out when this happened...just noticed it today?

Click to expand...

KB5021255 - December update is the last one that works with ExplorerPatcher. It started getting buggy with the January update.

I tried to stay on this version for a while, hoping ExplorerPatcher getting updated soon, but it seems it's dead now. The developer of this project has already shown little interest in maintaining the project since 2022, announced the closure of the issues and discussion page..

The project is open source, but no one is interested in contributing.... Would be cool if the project was officially integrated in StartIsBack, but Tihiy, also shows no interest integrating the Windows 10 XAML menu.

Gravarty said:

KB5021255 - December update is the last one that works with ExplorerPatcher. It started getting buggy with the January update.

I tried to stay on this version for a while, hoping ExplorerPatcher getting updated soon, but it seems it's dead now. The developer of this project has already shown little interest in maintaining the project since 2022, announced the closure of the issues and discussion page..

The project is open source, but no one is interested in contributing.... Would be cool if the project was officially integrated in StartIsBack, but Tihiy, also shows no interest integrating the Windows 10 XAML menu.

Click to expand...

As long as you can live with the Win11 Start menu EP still works perfectly on 22621.1265.

I recently experimented a lot with an old HP EliteDesk G2 SFF, 32GB, i5 and Win11 22H2 (several builds: Win11_22H2_English_x64v1, ..., 22621.1255). I was able to use EP along with OpenShell V4.4.189 and was rather satisfied.

However the following problem BROKE EP (release 2023-01-04) for me definitively: It is not possible to create a new User with any of the above .ISO while EP is installed - the first time you activate the new user account the blue Windows Installing-Window will go on and on and on (not sure if it sometimes terminated...). If you restart the PC and log in to the new account it will show the 5 questions (location, .... - well where we always click <no>...) but you will never arrive to answer all 5....

How to fix it: Log in with the credentials of the first installed user, uninstall EP (look on GitHub how to do it!), delete the new user and recreate it. Win11 will initialize the new user within 2 minutes to the 5 questions, which can be answered now! It is important to uninstall, not simply reset EP!

The developer closed discussion on GitHub. So the problem can not be reported (well, he points to this page somewhere...). No way I'm going to use a tool where no bugs can be reported...

I decided to rely on OpenShell and WinaeroTweaker. First I believed it would not be possible to have small icons on the taskbar that way - however after booting they mysteriously were back. Obviously I must have used a setting in OpenShell or WinaeroTweaker, that accomplishes this feature as well!

I was not able to search all 63 pages of this tread - so please excuse if someone did report this earlier!

Gravarty said:

The project is open source, but no one is interested in contributing.... Would be cool if the project was officially integrated in StartIsBack, but Tihiy, also shows no interest integrating the Windows 10 XAML menu.

Click to expand...

The reason why almost no one is still interested in the Windows 10 Start Menu is actually really very simple: it just looks and feels like a sliding puzzle, and, a lot of people are still trying to mentally recover from the old schizophrenia that was once called Windows 8 Metro UI with its fullscreen Start Screen and fullscreen Microsoft Store apps, not to mention "Botch Tuesdays", the Charms that never could be charming, and of course the Windows Phone fiasco that came bundled with this whole madness.

Fredrik said:

As long as you can live with the Win11 Start menu EP still works perfectly on 22621.1265.

Click to expand...

It still works perfectly if you, like me, just use Open-Shell as opposed to keep driving in circles.

Blacksmith said:

No way I'm going to use a tool where no bugs can be reported...

Click to expand...

Bugs in Windows can always be reported to Microsoft. Where things get truly interesting is when you start to realize what factually happens after that. LOL!

Blacksmith said:

I decided to rely on OpenShell and WinaeroTweaker. First I believed it would not be possible to have small icons on the taskbar that way - however after booting they mysteriously were back. Obviously I must have used a setting in OpenShell or WinaeroTweaker, that accomplishes this feature as well!

Click to expand...

Neither Open-Shell nor Winaero Tweaker are needed to reduce the taskbar icons size to what I have shown (here in this thread on multiple occasions, and elsewhere).

Neither Open-Shell nor Winaero Tweaker are needed to reduce the taskbar icons size to what I have shown (here in this thread on multiple occasions, and elsewhere).

Click to expand...

I want to use Open-Shell anyway: I'm using so many programs, that I need the compact WinXP style of the old days... Same for the Explorer-Context menus - that way I stumbled over Winaero Tweaker. I'm sure there are different ways to accomplish what I do...

Footnote (offtopic):

Bugs in Windows can always be reported to Microsoft. Where things get truly interesting is when you start to realize what factually happens after that. LOL!

Click to expand...

Well, if MS does not have it, it is 'by design'...

Personally I think this is a pity. I'll never understand why they try to make people wear a corset in 21-century! e.g.
- I like the idea of the context menu offering the small icons for Copy/Paste. But why did they need to mutilate the rest of the context menu?
- Why do they force us to use Folders for 'Photos', 'Documents', ... when structured people organize their data by project...
- Why do they offer the the six famous folders not only in 'Home' nut enumerate right below the same 6 folders. And force us to have both? The idea to structure the File-Explorers Navigation plane is great (and the default may be even practical for a home user) - but as a professional I want to organize my data myself!
- I do understand that they invest so much effort in making Win an OS for Tablets and Phones as this is fancy - but why do they cripple the OS for work on the desktop - 90% of the users?
...