ExplorerPatcher: customization options for the Windows taskbar, Start and File Explorer
ExplorerPatcher is an open source program for Windows 10 and 11 that adds a huge number of customization options to the desktop environment. From restoring the classic Windows 10 taskbar on Windows 11 devices to adding or removing features that Microsoft does not want users to have access to.
The application is tiny and can be run right after download. Note that the screen may turn a solid color for a moment before the changes that it makes take effect. There may also be a Windows SmartScreen warning about the app.
Warning: Explorer Patcher seems to be glitchy with recent versions of Windows 11. The system boots to a black screen, making it unusable. We are no longer recommending this tool, as it prevents Explorer from running.
Windows 11 users will notice taskbar changes right away, as the Windows 10 taskbar style is loaded by default by the application. All of this can be customized by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting properties from the menu.
Speaking of which, the context menu displays "lost" options again, including the ability to show windows side-by-side or stacked. There is also the Task Manager link, which Microsoft removed initially but has restored lately again on Windows 11.
The preferences windows of ExplorerPatcher divides customizations into different subsections. There are sections for the taskbar, Start Menu, File Explorer and the System Tray, and several others.
Each section lists a number of tweaks and changes that users may make to customize the Windows desktop environment. Taskbar alone holds several important options. There, users may switch between Windows 10 and 11 taskbar styles. Depending on that selection, other options become available.
Windows 10 is the default, and it allows users to add or remove items, change the Start button style and taskbar alignment, and move the taskbar from the bottom location to the top or the sides of the screen. There are also options to change the huge icon size to small and define whether icons should be combined or not. The Windows 11 taskbar style has less options, e.g., the ability to place it at the sides or top is not available.
The program's other settings are equally extensive. System Tray, for instance, lists a good dozen options that define behavior; this depends on the selected taskbar style, with Windows 10's taskbar style offering more options than Windows 11's.
For Windows 10, users may show or remove options. There is an option to show seconds on the clock, something on which Microsoft is still working on getting restored on Windows 11. Other options include defining actions when clicking on system tray icons or hiding the show desktop button.
The File Explorer sections offers a similar set of customization options. The default set of changes skips the new Windows 11 context menu by default to display the classic one automatically. Other options include enabling legacy file transfer dialogs, shrinking the address bar height, or disabling the modern search bar.
The Start Menu section allows users to hide the recommended section entirely. While it removes it from the Start menu, it does not unlock the space that it occupies for programs.
Users who explorer the other sections find the option to place a weather widget on the taskbar; this widget is not related to the Windows 11 Widgets feature, but a relict of Windows 10, which Microsoft never rolled out fully. It may be enabled to display weather information on the taskbar. A custom location and styale may be selected for it.
Verdict
ExplorerPatcher is a mighty tool, especially for users of Windows 11 who want access to more customization options (which Windows 10 offered). The program worked well during tests, but there were occasional glitches, such as the inability to move the taskbar from the left position back to the bottom, or that the new window display options were visible over the start menu area. All in all though, it worked fine and is recommended.
Now You: have you tried ExplorerPatcher or other tweakers? (via Caschy)
I love auto-playing videos. It saves me a thousand clicks a day.
And probably costs your a good amount of data, if you don’t have a good plan. Better would be an opt-in than opt-out.
I hate auto-playing videos. Never click on them. Never watch them. Just one more manic marketing/advertising ploy that is rampant on the internet, to grab your attention intrusively, greedily, and glaringly obnoxiously. Second worst is those stupid timed pop-ups to get you to sign-up for something. No wonder so many people have screwed up attention spans.
Telegram is introducing Telepathic Videos, they play in your head and can’t be stopped unless you turn off the app, put the device in your freezer (no signal, batteries die quickly) then go outside into reality. Scary proposition but definitely worth trying.
I appreciate the tip, Ashwin — thanks!
i fucking hate autoplaying videos
YESSSS! :))))
Thanks!
Quick, concise and effective instructions!
Thank you so much!
You saved my life. Thank you! =)
Thanks a lot for the tip!
Unfortunately there’s still no way to stop an autoplaying video once you’ve started it. So you get to choose; either don’t watch it at all… or watch it looping for all eternity.
More great UI design from your friendly neighbourhood Telegram devs. The people who brought you “no scrollbars on OSX” and “allowing other people to remotely delete data on your devices”
Not true, at least not on my Telegram desktop PC setup; I started playing a video that I couldn’t find a way to stop playing in a loop over and over again, which led me to find this article.
I followed the article’s instructions and toggled off the autoplay for videos and GIFs for all three categories, Private, Group and Channel, and once I did that and saved the settings the previously perma-looping video stopped and the UI was replaced with a blank window and a ‘Play’ symbol.
Thanks a lot!
Thank you, someone posting some disturbing surgery stuff in a group and I’m not keen on having it replay over and over.
Thank you! They really went out of their way to hide this setting, didn’t they. I wonder if that was just incompetence, or outright malice.
Hmm, on the website it states: “There’s no shady stuff as 100% of the website is open source.” No, it required some scripts for the basic website to even load… It can be classified as untrustworthy and poor quality design.
Martin, where do you predict this post will be sent today, will it reach the correct thread or be redirected to some random thread on AI, Social media fads, or be tapped onto a long debate on browser bug comments. Your visitor comments database is kaput! :-/
Martin, the [#comment-4572556] post did weirdly redirect to: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/14/is-beeper-safe/] and now it seems to be back in the correct “.sexy” thread. Maybe it’s a homing pigeon.
However, the last (currently) visible response to the “Wi-Fi” thread, instead nested in the “beeper” one. It also looks like the other posts people made in that “wireless” thread, migrated south and flew into others threads. It’s like Russian roulette with replies trying to reach the right destination nowadays – around here.
privacy.sexy may not be a great resource – for example, one of the scripts in the ‘configure programs’ scripts for Firefox enables ‘privacy.firstparty.isolate’ – FPI is obsolete and has been replaced with dFPI which can be enabled in ‘preferences > privacy & security > enhanced tracking protection’ by selecting the ‘strict’ option
another script disables WebRTC to prevent IP leakage (VPN, etc.) – this is apparently no longer necessary (see ‘[SECTION 2000]’ of the arkenfox js)
Somebody should really do something about the comments chaos. Random dates and topics. Is AI running gHACKS?
Yet another topic with unsynced responses. I sure hope a solution is found soon.
Martin, if this website is really yours, perthaps, we need some “command decisions” from you to get it back on track??
I have reached out to Martin personally and to his credit he replied very quickly. He has informed me that they are aware of the problems and are attempting to fix it.
Martin is no longer involved in the technical management of the site so I imagine if we want to ask someone then our comments would perhaps be better directed towards Softonic.
Love stuff like this.
PORTMASTER
I stopped using this because it doesn’t prevent DNSAPI.dll from allowing the PC to make sneaky connections to Micro$oft. I put my Acrylic M$ blocklist into the Custom Filter option but it Micro$oft URLs would still bypass it (and of course the regular Hosts file).
Back to Acryllic and Tinywall! Most people don’t care about M$ spying on them, but some of us still do. So even though Portmaster ‘owns’ port 52, it still let’s DNSAPI.dll over-ride one’s privacy options.
Oh, the irony!
*Sorry- Port 53 of course, and Acrylic!!
@Martin Brinkmann,
I am the first posted to this (2023/09/09: Notepad++ 8.5.7 fixes 4 security issues) article.
All of the existing comments are about other articles unrelated to “This article published on 2023/09/09: Notepad++ 8.5.7 fixes 4 security issues.”
Should relink them all properly.
@Martin Brinkmann,
You mentioned that comment associations have been “fixed”. but The actual situations are still associated with other articles.
Below is my case,
Posted to:
Notepad++ 8.5.7 fixes 4 security issues: 2023/09/09:
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/09/notepad-8-5-7-fixes-4-security-issues/#comment-4573427
Linked to:
How to disable autoplay videos in Telegram Desktop: 2020/01/02
>> ghacks.net/2020/01/02/how-to-disable-autoplay-videos-in-telegram-desktop/#comment-4573427
Disheartening news for me, as I really rely on SUMO for the updates for the last 5 years or so.
Others I tried–even ones with big brand names–are junks compared to how extensive and useful SUMO’s features are.
Anyone can recommend a list of 2-3 softwares at par with SUMO? Thank you.
That’s very sad news.
I’ve always been a fan of SUMO and DUMO but I’ve not used any of their other applications.
I purchased a lifetime license of Sumo in 2018 and I was very satisfied with this program.
There are not many alternatives and those that exist are not as effective.
See alternatives here : https://alternativeto.net/software/sumo/
Secunia was also abandoned some time ago.
Odd . . . many of their programs were updated within 2023:
https://www.kcsoftwares.com/?download
I haven’t used any of their products, but I have a bookmark to the site. Chances are good that Major Geeks will archive all the products, a sort of repository for KC Software.
Bummer!
There in no alternative to SUMo which scans for software on all drives and support portable apps.
There are many alternatives to SUMO.
https://alternativeto.net/software/sumo/
Whether they cover as many programs is the problem.
Patch My PC Home Updater: https://hiberhernandez.com/descargas/patch-my-pc-updater/
Zero Install: https://hiberhernandez.com/descargas/zero-install/
Sad news indeed. Been using SUMo for a long time.
As mentioned, an article about alternatives would be welcome.
Kaspersky will be happy, they’ve been flagging SUMo as “incompatible software” for years, only because it competes with their KIS’s Software Updater junk. No “Ignore” option for their blatant anti-competitive deceit. Of course.
—
What’s with all the old unrelated posts crap? @Martin Brinkmann can you please get rid of that time-wasting nonsense, it makes reading and finding genuine comments a serious PITA!
Very sad news indeed.
Before SUMo I was using WebMon, a free software which was monitoring web sites for changes and it was very good, but the software was discontinued and stopped working correctly on https sites for which it was not programmed.
I think that I will return to this kind of software, I am actually trying the free version of “WebSite-Watcher” which is a shareware, and I’ll try to find some other softwares of this kind.
Actually this is the only kind of software which would be able to “find” new versions for installed softwares but also for portable softwares.
Under: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/11/kc-softwares-maker-of-sumo-and-other-apps-is-shutting-down/
to:Sputnik
>Before SUMo I was using WebMon, a free software which was monitoring web sites for changes and it was very good, but the software was discontinued and stopped working correctly on https sites for which it was not programmed.
There is modern recreation of WebMon, which support https (and a number of other additional features), called WebChangeMonitor:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/webchangemon/
Also, in addition, I can recommend a somewhat similar program Ketarin (HP: ketarin org) – it has not been updated for quite a while (but not as long as WebMon), but is fully functional. Its plus is that it can also download files (in fact, this is its main function – after detecting changes, like WebMon, download a given updated file). Everything must be configured manually, as in WebMon, so as an alternative to SUMO may not be for everyone, but for someone who used WebMon – very much so.
@Lemegeton
Thank you very much for this info, I will check both of these programs !
I prefer alert of new versions rather than manual updating so the installer/portable app can be scanned via VirusTotal before installation. SUMO gave the alert and a right-click option to open the app folder, which was all I ever used.
Wingetui is an alternative to SUMO but it is not as comprehensive. It misses seeing some of my software. The article above mentions ‘several good alternatives’. Alternativeto lists a lot but lacks https://alternativeto.net/software/sumo/ but does not give thorough reviews.
Has anyone experience with the free version of IObit Software Updater?
(Yes I know that IO does everything to overwhelm your PC, and Malwarebytes is still very angry/aggressive towards IO, but they have some very good (free) programs, and you can rely on that they are not one-man-projects).
I have tried it. It sneaky installs a brunch of other programs which causes an almost uncontrollable chaos. So not advisable (through the updater program itself seems to be very functional).
Sad to see this. I enjoyed using SUMO over the years! Thank you KC Softwares for all the great applications.
I prefer alert of new versions rather than manual updating so the installer/portable app can be scanned via VirusTotal before installation. SUMO gave the alert and a right-click option to open the app folder, which was all I ever used.
Wingetui is an alternative to SUMO but it is not as comprehensive.
Ketarin (https://ketarin.org/index.php) looks interesting and I just downloaded this morning to start tinkering. It takes a bit of work to configure each piece of software. When first run it downloads the software on each link. Subsequently, it downloads new versions. It is portable, so you could load it plus downloads onto a USB stick and use it to install the same apps on different (compatible) computers.
https://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/22/keep-software-installers-up-to-date/
Sorry to hear about SUMO.
Patch My PC is another alternative.
Plus winget, or WingetUI
The new version (10) of uCheck now allows mentioning custom locations.
I did a test with installer and portable version, but without success.
I asked their support if this option is reserved for the paid version.
Their answer:
“Hi,
Thanks for your message.
Yes it should be scanned in the Free version as well. However, it’s just client capability for now.
We are in the process of adding portable links in our database right now, so it’s normal if there’s very few (or not) software found in these locations.”
?
Sad, SUMP was by far the best program for finding the latest updates, even for obscure apps. Would like to see them open source their entire line up, so someone else can take up the torch! Would be sad to see it go down to no good end! Thank you SUMO for all the good work you’ve done for the public good!
Just used SUMo, Patch My PC, and winget.
SUMo found 9 major, and 16 minor updates
Patch My PC found 8 updates
winget found 11
False negatives: determines there was no update, when in fact there is an update
False positive: determines there is an update, when in fact there is no update
winget has a lot of issues.
False negative: it didn’t list updates for Chrome, and Thunderbird
Also had one false positive, i.e., there was an update when in fact it doesn’t exist.
The Microsoft C++ Redistributable updates leave old ones behind, so winget reports then out of date.
There was a false positive for Patch My PC.
SUMo is the most comprehensive and accurate of the three products tested.
I did not find any false positives or false negatives.
I originally used Secunia to check for updates until is was discontinued.
Just ran SUMo, Patch My PC, and winget.
Both SUMo and Patch My PC found an update for LibreOffice, but the winget upgrade command missed it.
The winget list command shows LibreOffice, but no update.