ExplorerPatcher is a versatile and free tool that allows you to tweak and enhance the Windows Explorer. It comes with a range of useful features, including the ability to add new context menu items, change file name colors, and enable hidden features.
Feature summary
- Choose between Windows 11 or Windows 10 taskbar (with labels support, small icons and lots of customization).
- Disable Windows 11 context menu and command bar in File Explorer and more.
- Open Start to All apps by default, choose number of frequent apps to show, display on active monitor and more.
- Choose between the Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows NT Alt-Tab window switcher with customization.
Lots of quality of life improvements for the shell, like:
- Skin tray menus to match Windows style, make them behave like flyouts and center them relative to the icon.
- Choose action when left and/or right clicking the network icon.
- Revert to the Windows 7 search box in File Explorer, or disable Windows Search altogether.
- Disable immersive menus and use mitigations that help you run the real classic theme without glitches.
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Discover the program"s full range of features by reading this wiki article.
ExplorerPatcher 22621.3880.66.4 changelog:
Tested on OS builds 19045.4598, 22621.3296, 22621.3810, 26120.961, and 26244.5000. (Note: 22621 and 22631 share the same OS files)
Taskbar10: Introduced a new taskbar implementation: Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher).
- You can try this implementation out by changing the "Taskbar style" to "Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher)".
- For now, this is only available for builds 22621, 22631, and 22635. Other builds will not have the option.
- Refer to this wiki article for more information including important ones.
Details
- Taskbar10: Due to false positive antivirus detections, the new taskbar implementation is no longer bundled in the setup program.
- If you want to use the new taskbar implementation, you can download the appropriate DLL for your system from the Releases page of its releases repository, and then manually putting it in C:\Program Files\ExplorerPatcher without the architecture specifier.
- For example, for 226xx builds on x64-based systems, download ep_taskbar.2.amd64.dll, rename to ep_taskbar.2.dll, and lastly put it in C:\Program Files\ExplorerPatcher.
Introduced support for ARM64 devices
- These builds are only tested on and made to work with 24H2 ARM64 builds. Older ARM64 Windows versions than 24H2 may not work as expected.
- Added an "Update now" button into update notifications for easier updating.
- Revised how files are packed in ep_setup for smaller size and easier maintenance.
- EP"s taskbar implementation for 24H2 is now available in its releases repository, as ep_taskbar.5.dll. If you want to try this out, follow the steps explained above.
ExplorerPatcher is now officially compatible and supported on Windows 11 24H2
- Start10: Now works again on 24H2 and 226xx.3930+.
- Taskbar10: EP"s taskbar DLLs are now included again in the setup files.
- Taskbar10: Network icon now shows again on 24H2.
- Start10: Fixed positioning when the taskbar is not placed at the bottom, on 24H2 and latest 22H2/23H2 builds.
- Taskbar10: Fixed taskbar jump list flyout positioning when the taskbar is not placed at the bottom, on latest 22H2/23H2/24H2 builds.
- Setup: Updated the code for dealing with locked files, this should reduce the chances of getting setup failures due to locked files.
- ep_taskbar: Fixed tray icons not being saved on 24H2.
- ep_taskbar: Removed the Copilot button on 22H2.
Important note:
Please include the following folders in your antivirus" exclusion list to prevent issues due to false positive detections:
- C:\Program Files\ExplorerPatcher
- %APPDATA%\ExplorerPatcher
For Defender, you can run the following script in PowerShell as an administrator:
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Program Files\ExplorerPatcher" Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "$env:APPDATA\ExplorerPatcher"
A little request from developer: Because the development of EP"s taskbar implementation took a lot of effort for 8 consecutive months, and that an ARM64 device to support the making and testing of ARM64 builds is not cheap, it would be really appreciated if you can donate @Amrsatrio via Ko-fi.
Please consult the README for more details.
A detailed change log is available here.
Download: ExplorerPatcher 22621.3880.66.4 | ARM64 | ~10.0 MB (Open Source)
View: ExplorerPatcher Home Page | Features