ExplorerPatcher/CHANGELOG.md

Explorer Patcher Change log

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

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)

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.