Unable to set the taskbar style to Win 10

[st-tian]

Before reporting your issue

• I have confirmed that this issue does not happen when ExplorerPatcher is not installed
• I do not have "register as shell extension" enabled
• I have tried my best to check existing issues

Repro ExplorerPatcher versions

26100.4946.69.6

Repro Windows Versions

Windows 11 23H2 22631.5189

3rd party tweak software installed

None

Describe the bug

Everything was normal before, but when I shut down and restarted the computer this time, the taskbar returned to the style of Win11, but the tiles still existed. I changed the taskbar style, whether it's "Windows 11", "Windows 10" or "Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher)", the taskbar style remains unchanged, it's still Win11. For this reason, I downloaded the latest version of the software and restarted the file manager multiple times, but still couldn't solve the problem.
I also encountered this problem a long time ago, which seemed to conflict with the new version of WeChat. Therefore, I rolled back the version of WeChat, but this time I did not update any software. How can I find the root cause of the bug and solve it?

Expected outcome

The taskbar style is presented according to my settings.

Actual outcome

The taskbar style is always Win11, no matter how I set it up

Additional info

Crash Dumps

No response

Media

No response

[st-tian]

In addition, I found that the Windows 10 style start menu is also not working properly and cannot be right-click, including for tiles.

[pyrates999]

Your windows version is from April 2025: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/april-8-2025-kb5055528-os-builds-22621-5189-and-22631-5189-b146080a-bd4e-4a10-8ab0-22368c61556b

Please install the latest windows updates.

[st-tian]

Thank you for your reply. So you mean I can solve this problem by updating the system, meaning the software version is incompatible with the system?

Actually, I'm used to not updating the system. Is it possible to solve this problem by reverting to the EP version without updating the system? But I suspect not, because this problem occurs even though my system and software versions haven't changed.

[st-tian]

@pyrates999
And, I've looked at some other questions, and one piece of information I think might be important is that I recently installed third-party antivirus software to handle some potentially virus-infected files. Perhaps that's the cause? I can't use EP properly now no matter what I do. :(

[pyrates999]

You should be updating your windows every month. Newer versions of EP are meant for newer windows updates.

You can try using an older version of EP. But you're missing out on fixes for security vulnerabilities then.

[pyrates999]

You may have gotten a virus because you didn't install windows updates.

When using third party antivirus, you need to add exceptions to it that are in the EP release notes. As otherwise files are removed that EP requires to function. After adding the exceptions, then reinstall EP.

[milestprower92]

@st-tian please include the following files and folders in your antivirus' exclusion list:

• C:\Program Files\ExplorerPatcher
• %APPDATA%\ExplorerPatcher
• C:\Windows\dxgi.dll
• C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy
• C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy

[st-tian]

@pyrates999 @milestprower92 Thanks for your help.
Updating the system didn't resolve my issue. I guess some essential files for EP were deleted. I restored the software's normal functionality through System Restore.
By the way, how do I completely reset EP? I tried reinstalling EP to reset some necessary data and files. But I found that even after uninstalling and reinstalling EP, some of my previous settings remained, meaning uninstalling doesn't fully reset EP's data.

[milestprower92]

@st-tian
the easy route would be by doing it from the properties window

[st-tian]

@milestprower92 Thanks, I would try it when I meet the similar issues next time.