ExplorerPatcher/CHANGELOG.md

Explorer Patcher Change log

This document includes the same release notes as in the Releases section on GitHub.

22000.258.31.0

Tested on build: 22000.258.

New features

• Cortana button now opens the Widgets panel
• Ability to choose what happens when clicking the Network icon in the system tray
• Possibility to use the legacy clock flyout
• Possibility to use the legacy volume flyout
• Fixes to fully support the classic theme, with a functional taskbar, system tray, Explorer windows, working context menus; read more about this feature here

Feature enhancements

• Reorganized settings in the GUI
• Added option not to have an accelerator for the Properties menu entry in Win+X (#162)

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Windows 10 window switcher failed to display some windows (#161)
• Fixed an issue that prevented Start from opening again until Explorer was restarted after opening File Explorer via the Start menu Explorer icon (#145)
• Fixed patching in libvalinet
• Fixed GUI launch path; GUI now launches in an external process, survives Explorer restarts

Experimental

The application can now be registered as a shell extension. This will enable the Explorer related functionality to work in Open/Save file dialogs as well. This is especially useful for users wanting proper support of the classic theme in Windows 11.

Please note that this is experimental. For the moment, the preferred installation method remains dropping the DLL in C:\Windows. For interested users, I invite you to test this functionality and report your findings in the discussions board.

To enable this, put the 2 DLLs (ExplorerPatcher.amd64.dll and ExplorerPatcher.IA-32.dll) in a secure folder (for example, C:\Program Files\ExplorerPatcher). Then, in that folder, run this command: regsvr32 ExplorerPatcher.amd64.dll. After elevation, a message will display informing you of the operation outcome, and if it went well, Explorer will restart displaying the old taskbar.

To uninstall, run regsvr32 /u ExplorerPatcher.amd64.dll in the same folder and preferably reboot the computer to unload the DLLs from all applications. Then, the files can be deleted just fine.

22000.258.30.6

Tested on build: 22000.258.

• Reworked settings framework
  • More settings are available to customize
  • Most setting changes take effect immediatly
• Implemented Windows 10 window switcher (Alt+Tab)
• GUI
  • Revamped GUI, now the interface is split by categories and is displayed on two columns
  • Regular items do not display a "+" sign anymore at the beginning of their label
  • The current choice is ticked in the drop down menu
  • Regions are now calculated correctly
  • Solved memory leaks
• Option to disable immersive context menus (#96)
• General bug fixes
• Window switcher is now disabled by default (.1)
• Corrected typo in settings (.2)
• Added option to set tray clock to display seconds (.3)
• Added option to set the right click menu of the network system tray icon to launch either (.3):
  • Network settings in the Settings app
  • Network and Sharing Center in the Control Panel
  • Network Connections in the Control Panel
• Added preliminary support for advanced mitigations for correct rendering when using the classic theme (.3)
• GUI optionally loads UI file from DLL folder (helps for easy debugging) (.4)
• Small bug fix for symbols download (.5)
• Better method for closing windows in window switcher (.6)

22000.258.26.3

Tested on build: 22000.258.

• Compatibility with OS build 22000.258
• Option to open Network and Sharing Center instead if Network settings when right clicking the network icon in the system tray
• Centered network and sound right click menus and made them toggle on right click
• Reliability enhancements for Start menu positioning (#78) (.1)
• Fixes #85 (.2)
• Fixes #90 (added option to change taskbar icon size) (.3)

22000.194.0.25

Tested on build: 22000.194.

• Start menu is hooked from File Explorer; please remove the DLL from C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy when using this new version
• Win+X now opens even when the taskbar is set to autohide (fixes #63)
• Win+C now opens even when the taskbar is set to autohide (fixes #63)
• Bluetooth and Safe to Remove menus toggle their visibility when clicked
• Bluetooth and Safe to Remove menus are centered relative to the icon they are invoked from
• WiFi list now correctly toggles when clicking the Network icon in the taskbar
• The settings GUI now supports dark mode and switches correctly when the system theme changes
• The settings GUI draws correctly when themes are disabled (classic theme compatibility)
• Removed interoperability with StartAllBack or StartIsBack

22000.194.0.23

Tested on build: 22000.194.

• Fixed a bug that showedWin+X on the wrong monitor in certain scenarios
• Win+X shows in Windows 11 fashion (centered, above the Start button) if using a centered taskbar with centered Start button as well (using a program like TaskbarX)
• Fixed the bug that prevented the application from loading inStartMenuExperienceHost.exe (thanks to @BraINstinct0 for the report)
• Fixed padding and element sizes in GUI so it better fits on smaller screens (thanks to @Gaurav-Original-ClassicShellTester for the report)
• GUI shows application title when run outside of File Explorer
• GUI stays on screen and just reloads the settings when restoring defaults (instead of closing)
• Keyboard (tab) support for GUI: Esc to close the window, Tab to select the next option, Shift+Tab to select the previous option, Space to toggle (or activate) the option
• Possibility of running the GUI standalone; run this command: rundll32.exe C:\Windows\dxgi.dll,ZZGUI; this has the advantage that it stays on the screen after restarting File Explorer

22000.194.0.22

Tested on build: 22000.194.

• When the taskbar is located at the bottom of the screen, opening the power user menu (Win+X) now automatically highlights the "Desktop" entry in the list. Also, the menu items can be activated either with left click, either with right click. Thus, this enables a behavior where you can double click the Start button with the right mouse button in order to quickly show the desktop (thanks to @Gaurav-Original-ClassicShellTester for the suggestion)

22000.194.0.21

Tested on build: 22000.194.

• Implemented configuration GUI; to access it, right click the Start button (or press Win+X) and choose "Properties" (thanks to @BraINstinct0 for the suggestion)

22000.194.0.20

Tested on build: 22000.194.

• Huge code refactoring, improved memory patching
• Updated README with better description of the software and how to use it
• Drastically reduced the number of symbols required (around 40MB to download, instead of over 400MB previously)
• Improved Start menu and search positioning, now it is not necessary to have the DLL in C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy, please remove it from there.
• Skin "Bluetooth" pop-up menu
• Option to hide the search bar in File Explorer completely
• Option to disable the control center button in the taskbar
• Removed the option to disable the modern search box in File Explorer. Instead, you now run a command which disables it globally on your user account (works in "Open" dialogs as well); read here
• Removed the option to disable the immersive (new) context menu in File Explorer. Instead, you now run a command which disables it globally on your user account; read here
• Ability to disable command bar is described here
• Option to apply Mica effect on File Explorer windows (requires StartIsBack64.dll), read here
• Option to skin system tray icons to match Windows 11 style (requires StartisBack64.dll), read here

22449.1000.0.18

Tested on the following builds: 22449.1000, 22000.176, 22000.1.

New in this version:

• Ability to disable the "modern search box" in File Explorer and uses the classic functional search from early Windows 10 versions or Windows 7/8. To disable this and still use the new search, set General\AllowModernSearchBox = 1 in settings.ini

Fixes:

• Much improved algorithm for enabling the classic taskbar after symbols have downloaded on newer builds
• Restored compatibility with RTM build of Windows 11 (22000.1)
• Fixes the "modern search box" not working correctly when the DLL is used in C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy

22449.1000.0.16

New in this version:

• Compatibility with OS build 22449.1000.0.16.
• Fixed bug that prevented console from showing when the AllocConsole setting was specified in settings.ini

22000.168.0.14

• Start menu and search now respect the taskbar alignment setting
• Ability to customize the number of "Most used" apps in the Start menu apps list
• Symbols are automatically downloaded for Start menu and search; to have the application work with those two, place the DLL in the following additional 2 locations:
  • C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy
  • C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy

22000.168.0.12

• Support for showing the app list by default in the Windows 11 Start menu; to enable this feature, copy the DLL to C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy and restart Explorer (works only on 22000.168 for the moment, will be generally available after more testing is performed).
• Win+X is now shown correctly on multi monitor setups
• Other bug fixes

22000.168.0.11

Fixes #3 and #10.

22000.168.0.10

Improved Explorer hooking.

The application now comes in the form of a single DLL file (dxgi.dll) which you have to place in %windir% (usually C:\Windows). Restart Explorer and that's it.

Please make sure to uninstall the old version before using this new one.

22000.168.0.9

Implements #6 (option to revert to classic context menu). To disable this feature, add this to the settings.ini file:

[General]
AllowImmersiveContextMenus=1

22000.168.0.8

The popup menu for "Safe to Remove Hardware" is now skinned in the same style as the Win+X menu and the taskbar context menus, in order to improve UI consistency.

22000.168.0.7

Enables compatibility with ArchiveMenu.

22000.168.0.6

Fixes #5 (removes the delay at logon on newer builds like 22000.168; the bug is similar to the effect introduced by UndockingDisabled on these newer builds).

22000.1.0.5

Offsets are now determined at runtime

The application was tested on builds 22000.1 and 22000.168.

• Library downloads and parses symbols in order to determine function hooking offsets at runtime and saves the data in a "settings.ini" file located in the application folder for future use; the file is invalidated when a new OS build is detected
• The main executable attempts to determine the location where a jump has to be patched out so that Explorer remains on the 'show old taskbar' code path; it will systematically patch each jz/jnz instruction and will check whether Explorer still runs fine, and, if it does so and does not crash, whether the old taskbar got actually shown; once the offset is determined, it is saved in the "settings.ini" file for future use
• Please have an unmetered active working Internet connection when running for the first time
• Messages from the patcher (i.e. install/uninstall successful message, symbol downloading message) will now display in a toast (Windows 10 notification) if possible; when Explorer is not running, it falls back to using standard MessageBox'es
• Disabled the pre/post build command that restarted sihost.exe in Debug builds

22000.1.0.4

New in this release

• Win+X combination is now handled and opens the power user menu

Of note from previous releases:

• Start menu is now displayed on monitor containing the cursor when invoked with the Windows key if the appropriate configuration is made into the registry (enables a functionality which was previously available in Windows 8.1). To activate this, follow this tutorial: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5943-start-menu-open-main-last-display-windows-10-a.html
• The power user menu (Win+X) is now skinned using the system theme, as it was in Windows 10

22000.1.0.3

Start menu is now displayed on monitor containing the cursor when invoked with the Windows key if the appropriate configuration is made into the registry (enables a functionality which was previously available in Windows 8.1).

To activate this, follow this tutorial: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5943-start-menu-open-main-last-display-windows-10-a.html

22000.1.0.2

Fixes #1 (the menu is now skinned using the system theme, as it was in Windows 10).

22000.1.0.1

Added functionality to bring back the power user menu (Win+X).

22000.1.0.0

Initial version of the application. Only x64 builds.