Warning
ExplorerPatcher has a history of being falsely detected as malware by antiviruses (including Defender). This is likely due to its behavior, such as placing binaries in C:\Windows and performing in-memory patches on system components (notably explorer.exe and twinui.pcshell.dll) which is similar to how some game cheats operate.
- Currently, Defender does not flag this release, but it is likely that future updates may being flagged by Defender's machine learning-based detection systems within a few days of release.
- If Defender or another antivirus detects any part of EP as malware, it may prevent proper installation/uninstallation or cause explorer.exe to fail to start, leaving your computer with a non-working shell..
- Issues related to antivirus detections will be closed immediately. Discuss this in #3670 or #3228.
We strongly recommend excluding EP's binaries from antivirus scans. Expand the section below for which paths to exclude and more information:
Please include the following files and folders in your antivirus' exclusion list to prevent issues due to antivirus detections:
- C:\Program Files\ExplorerPatcher
- %APPDATA%\ExplorerPatcher
- C:\Windows\dxgi.dll
⚠️ IMPORTANT: explorer.exe will not start if this file exists but is blocked from being loaded.
- 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"
- If your antivirus deletes the downloaded setup file, you may need to temporarily disable real-time protection or save the file in an excluded folder.
- If you are uncomfortable with this process, or if your antivirus is managed by your company, we advise against using ExplorerPatcher. Please consider alternative solutions instead.
Caution
We DO NOT recommend using the Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher) taskbar on work and mission-critical machines. Microsoft's monthly cumulative and "security" updates (which also bring new features and under the hood changes) can cause Explorer to be unstable or fail to start at all if EP has not been updated accordingly. More info here.
We typically release a new version with the fix within a day after such a breaking change, but we cannot control whether users install the update promptly.
Tested on OS builds 22621.3296, 22631.5189, 22631.5335, 26100.3476, 26100.4061, and 26100.4188.
1
- Start10: Fixed Pin to Start on 226x1.4541+ and 261xx.2454+. (#3984) (4ef3667, 123ea8b)
- sws: Added support for 24H2. (#3765)
- ep_dwm: Added support for 24H2. (#3555)
- ep_dwm.exe has been renamed to ep_dwm_svc.exe to get around 24H2 upgrade blocks. (115b462)
- ep_dwm: Now always unregistered on uninstallation, regardless of whether it was running during the uninstallation or not. (858b634)
- Setup: The failure message now displays the associated code line number that failed, to assist in troubleshooting. (c64a17e)
- Taskbar10: Fixed disabling immersive menus on ARM64. (8b4d8db)
- Taskbar10: Fixed Win+X menu still having Windows Terminal entries when Windows Terminal is not installed, that crashes Explorer when selected. (1b20cbd, 207f669)
- For now, if you want to have PowerShell entries, Windows Terminal must be uninstalled.
- Taskbar10: Fixed Win+X entry clicks doing nothing on 26xxx.5551+ ARM64.
- GUI: Added dropdown indicators to dropdown entries. (9f71a5c)
- GUI: The language names now include the country name. (3f11766)
- Localization: Added Czech translations. (Thanks @9hb, @andrewz1986, and @Panzimy!)
- Localization: Added Spanish (Spain) translations. (Thanks @AlejandroMartiGisbert!)
- ep_taskbar: Added support for "Show desktop button: Hidden" setting. (#4020) (1be6658)
- ep_taskbar: Fixed a bug that prevented shortcut global hotkeys from working on 24H2. (#3777, #4016)
- ep_taskbar: Fixed a bug that prevented the taskbar from resizing properly after DPI changes. (#3796)
- ep_taskbar: Added the following languages: German, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Spanish (Spain), Turkish, Ukrainian, Chinese (Simplified).
- ep_taskbar: Fixed a number of memory leaks and code/behavior inaccuracies.
2
- ❗ ep_taskbar: Fixed incompatibility with 26200.5603 (Dev), 26120.4151 (Beta), and 26100.4188 (Release Preview). (#4321)
- ep_taskbar: Now supports all Windows 10 versions supported by EP (17763/1809+). (aec8c70, 1edb989)
Please consult the README for more details.
A detailed change log is available here.
An archive containing all the files generated during the build process (including dxgi.dll and symbol files) is available here.
This release has been published automatically from commits up to and including 14807a5 in branch master.
