Towards the end of August, Microsoft announced through its health dashboard that third-party app compatibility issues in the Start menu had been resolved. This was right after ExplorerPatcher, one of the affected apps (Stardock’s Start11 was not), fixed Windows 10’s Start Menu issues.

ExplorerPatcher developer Valinet has released not one but two updates in a row. The releases were tested on Windows 11 build 22621.1992, which happened to be the July 2023 patch.

Then, a few days ago, ExplorerPatcher received a new update, version 22621.2283.57.2, which fixes several bugs related to File Explorer and the taskbar. From the version name itself, you might have guessed that the update was tested in Windows 11’s latest Patch Tuesday.

Another pre-release update has since arrived, fixing bugs related to the taskbar mode you’ll never integrate. The full changelog for both updates is below:

22621.2361.58.1

Tested on OS 22000.2416, 22621.1, 22621.2134, 22621.2361, 22631.2338 and 23545.1000.

Details

1

• Taskbar 10: Fixed Windows 10 taskbar not appearing in Windows 11 builds with “never merge” in the new taskbar. (bc3bbc7)
• Taskbar 10: Pen menu course fixed explorer.exe at +22621.2134. (1977d78)
• Taskbar 11: Fixed a crashing bug explorer.exe When right clicking on the new taskbar in Windows 11 builds with “never merge” in the new taskbar. (6023718)
• File Explorer: EP is now trying to prevent crashes related to the new Windows App SDK views. (b426d2c)
• In OS builds 22621+, fixed a crash bug explorer.exe When functions are required b twinui.pcshell.dll (for Win+X and Windows 10 Alt+Tab) could not be found in the fallback method. (6023718)

22621.2283.57.2

Tested on OS build 22621.2283. The installer requires internet connectivity.

Details

1

• Taskbar 10: Fixed locations of Action Center, Control Center and Notification Previews in OS build 22621.2134+ (thanks @Amstereo).
• Taskbar 10: Fixed a bug that prevented the task view and/or the window switcher (Alt+Tab) from working on an operating system build 22621.2134+ (thanks @Amstereo).
• Taskbar 10: Fixed a bug that prevented volume and brightness from being displayed (thanks @Amstereo).
• Taskbar 10: Fixed a bug that prevented the Win+A (the activity center), Win+N (the control center), f Win+B (focus on tray scroll button) Shortcuts from working on OS 22621.2134+ (thanks @Amstereo).
• Taskbar 10: Fixed the context menu of the new OS button IME 22621.2134+ (thanks @Amstereo).
• Taskbar 11: Fixed a crashing bug explorer.exe When right-clicking on the taskbar in OS build 22621.2134+.
• Quality of life improvements regarding icon data (thanks @Amstereo).

2

Fixed a bug that crashed explorer.exe on OS build lower than 22621 (Windows 11 22H2). (dfee1ae)

In case you want to download the latest final version, go to the Neowin software page or GitHub. On the latter, you can also find the pre-release versions.