stefankueng/tools

KB5027303 breaks StExBar - and every other? - Explorer extension

VulcanTourist opened this issue · 3 comments

After Windows update KB5027303, the behavior and UI of Explorer is changed and seems to no longer support extensions. Explorer's View menu no longer includes any options to manage the behavior of extensions, and they appear to have been disabled, all of them, not just StExBar.

Is there a means to work around this, or is StExBar effectively dead for Windows 11 now?

What you are describing is the change in the Windows Explorer UI.

To revert to the old UI run the following command:

reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve

To change it back run the following command:

reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve

What is the difference in the above 2 registry commands? They are identical, but I assume the 2nd one should have different?

I didn't try the registry change above, but I was able to use the old "open the Control Panel and enable Toolbars from the View menu" trick for the past few years. Until this week, Windows Version 10.0.22621.3296 has pushed down, and Control Panel trick didn't work exactly. But https://www.makeuseof.com/restore-file-explorer-classic-ribbon-interface-windows-11/ shows how to still use the CP and go "up" (I had to go up twice) and you get an Explorer w/ the full set of menu items, and I could re-enable StExBar finally!