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Explorer Toolbar does not appear #2561
Description
Describe the bug
With recent versions of Windows 11, the Windows Explorer Toolbar does not appear.
Area of issue
Windows Explorer
To reproduce
- Open a Explorer window.
- The Classic Toolbar for Windows Explorer is not present.
Expected behavior
The Classic Toolbar for Windows Explorer should appear.
Notice that this also happens with the current release version 4.4.198, not only in the pre-release.
Open-Shell version
4.4.202
Windows version
Windows 11 Pro 25H2
Additional context
Using also ExplorerPatcher, OldNewExplorer and WindHawk. (Also tried unstalling OldNewExplorer and disabling all WindHawk extensions)
Reacted by Ibuprophen
Activity
LloydPhillips-Dev commentedon Oct 24, 2026
Updating to 26H2 seems to be the real fix.
I only needed to make 3 registry edits following @rixtech method here:
Nothing else needed to be done:
#2365 (comment)
I made a new install of 26H2 to check and it worked great & very simple.
I then updated my old 25H2 install once i knew it worked, as I had been waiting to update until a good fix was available.
I had done all the other vivetool and uninstalling updates, but due to hitting the wall, and the MS MIDI rollout, i was waiting.
All seems great now with Open Shell Explorer bar and my MIDI stuff.
spapakons commentedon Oct 30, 2026
I just upgraded my main PC from Windows 11 26H2 26300.9711 to 26300.9818. After restart File Explorer would conflict with Explorer Patcher utility and crash/restart all the time. The solution was to press CTRL+ALT+DEL and start Task Manager. Then from there execute msedge to open Microsoft Edge so I could download Explorer Patcher and install it again to do an in-place upgrade/repair. Classic Explorer Bar from Open Shell still is visible and works, so the respective Registry fix wasn't cancelled by the upgrade. If I encounter any other issues, I will let you know.