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 22621.4317.67.1 changelog:
Tested on OS builds 22621.3296, 22631.4391, 22635.4440, 26120.961, 26100.1150, and 26100.2161.
Changes:
- Taskbar10: Win+X now works again on 226xx.4317+. (cc9b6b3, #3837)
- Start10: Fixed an issue where the resource loader failed when the drive letter of the boot drive is other than C:. Thanks @ittrgrey for pointing out! (fc25c25)
- Start10: Fixed an issue where the Start menu crashes when summoning the context menu of an item that has jump list entries on builds 226xx.4391+ and 261xx.2130+. (4978024, #3842)
- ep_taskbar: Fixed an issue where "Not responding" windows are not handled properly.
- ep_taskbar: Flashing taskbar items are now animated.
- ep_taskbar: Narrator now describes the "Show desktop" button.
- ep_taskbar: TrayUI class is now exported.
- Localization: Added translations for Portuguese (Brazil). Thanks @thiagojramos!
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
- C:\Windows\dxgi.dll
- C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy
- C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy
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" Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Windows\dxgi.dll" Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy" Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy"
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 22621.4317.67.1 | ARM64 | ~10.0 MB (Open Source)
View: ExplorerPatcher Home Page | Features