How To Use Explorer Patcher To Bring Back Many Windows 10 Styles On Windows 11

Windows 11 had the most significant design changes compared to all previous iterations. Microsoft completely changed the Windows design language. While the changes were greatly welcomed by some, others missed the good old Windows 1o design.

If you are also one of those people who want to go back to Windows 10-style menus and visual appearance, Explorer Patcher is a third-party software that can help you without upgrading your OS. Created by Valentin-Gabriel Radu, this lightweight software is safe and straightforward to use. The best part might be that it reverts the taskbar back to Windows 10-style when you install it.

Download and Install Explorer Patcher

First, go to github.com/ExplorerPatcher and click on the ‘Setup program’ link. This will bring up a File Explorer window on your screen, which you can use to select the directory where you want to save the setup file.

Once downloaded, double-click on ep_setup.exe file to run the installer.

If you receive a Smart Screen alert, click the ‘Play anyway’ button.

No visual dialog box will appear, but your screen may go completely blank for a moment. This is completely normal, and once your screen becomes visible again, you should be able to notice the changed appearance of the taskbar on your computer.

To access the Settings menu of Explore Patcher, right-click on the taskbar and click on the newly appeared ‘Properties’ option.

You will now see the main settings window of Explorer Patcher.

There are many options for various UI elements that you can configure using Explorer Patcher. For your convenience, we have listed the changes that you can perform with the UI elements.

Tweak Taskbar Appearance

To change the taskbar location on the screen, click on the ‘Primary taskbar location on screen’ option and choose one from the drop-down menu. You will need to restart File Explorer for this, so click the button in the bottom left.

The suffix will require you to restart File Explorer, while the one marked with the little ‘arrow’ suffix will open another Windows Settings window on your screen.

To toggle the ‘Search’ and ‘Taskview’ buttons, click their respective options to make them visible or remove them from the taskbar. Similarly, click on the ‘Auto-hide taskbar’ option to toggle the setting off.

The changes should appear immediately on the taskbar.to change the taskbar alignment

, click on ‘Primary taskbar alignment’ and choose the appropriate option using the drop-down menu. If you have multiple monitors connected and want to change the taskbar placement on the secondary monitor, use the ‘Secondary taskbar location’ option.

Again, you’ll see the changes take effect immediately.

To combine taskbar items (of the same program), click the ‘Combine taskbar icons’ option and choose either ‘Never Combine’ so that apps have separate icons or ‘Combine When Taskbar Is Full’, which Will act as ‘Never Combine’. combine’ option until the taskbar is completely filled and cannot display individual icons.

There are many more configurable settings, and since they’re pretty self-explanatory, feel free to explore them.

configure system tray options

To toggle the flyout behavior for the Tray pop-up menu, Center tray icon pop-up menu, and Pop-up menu, click each option from the list. Enabled options are indicated by a ‘tickmark’, and disabled options are marked by a ‘cross (X)’.

To change the target location window when you right-click on the ‘Network’ icon and click on the option ‘Open network and Internet settings’, click on the corresponding option, and select the appropriate target location. You can also change the flyout style when you click on the tray icon.

By clicking on each icon option and selecting an appropriate option. The ‘Network’ icon has a number of options, and you can configure it to open the Settings window as well. For other options, you can choose the flyout style of Windows 10 or Windows 7.

Change File Explorer Settings

If you don’t want to toggle/change the above mentioned options, you can skip this step.

Once you have enabled the setting, you can toggle the options by clicking on them respectively.To change the ribbon menu style

Click on the ‘Control Interface’ option and select the ‘Windows 10 Ribbon Menu’ option. You can also disable the Windows 11 context menu

Or use the Windows 10 File Transfer dialog box by clicking on individual options. As stated above, enabled options are indicated by a ‘tickmark’, and disabled options are indicated by a ‘cross’ prefix.

To change the Start menu style in Windows 10, click on the ‘Start Menu Style’ option and then select the ‘Windows 10’ option from the drop-down menu.

To change the position of the Start menu and the number of times that apps are shown, click the ‘Position on screen’ option to place the Start menu in the center or at the edge of the screen. Use the drop-down menu for a number of apps to be shown in the Start menu ranging from zero apps to unlimited.If you have more than one screen and want to change which Start menu pops up when you press the Windows key

Click on that option in the list and select the monitor number from the list.

To disable the ‘Recommended’ section or to open the Start menu in the ‘All apps’ section, click on the respective options to toggle the setting.

Replace other miscellaneous UI elements

To change the Windows Switcher back to the Windows 10 style, go to the ‘Window Switcher’ tab from the sidebar and click Options on the right side of the window. Then, select ‘Windows 10’ from the list.

If you want to keep the weather widget on the taskbar, click on the ‘Weather’ tab from the sidebar and then click on the ‘Show Weather on the Taskbar’ option to toggle it off.

Once enabled, you will see several options to configure the preferences according to your taste. You can also disable quadrants when sniping

By clicking on the ‘Other’ section from the sidebar. Then, click on the option ‘Disable quadrants when snapping windows’. As you will need to restart Explorer for this to take effect, click on the ‘Restart File Explorer’ option in the lower left corner.To go back to angular corners and disable rounded corners of app windows

Click on the option ‘Disable rounded corners for application windows’ under the ‘Other’ category. Ctrl to shut down C , Win Shortcut to Microsoft Teams and open Clock instead, click ‘Open clock flyout when pressed’ C ,

Instead of the Microsoft Teams option.

Roll Back to Default Windows 11 Appearance

If you want to go back to the default Windows 11 appearance and revert all the changes you made, you can uninstall Explorer Patcher from your computer.

To do this, go to the Start menu and click on the ‘Settings’ tile.

Then, click on the ‘Apps’ tab from the left sidebar to continue.

Next, click on the ‘Installed Apps’ tile to proceed.

Now you can either search for Explorer Patcher using the search bar or scroll down manually.

Once located, click on the ‘Ellipsis’ icon and select the ‘Uninstall’ option.

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Afterwards, an alert may appear on your screen to confirm the uninstallation. Click ‘Yes’ to permanently remove the software. Your screen may flicker or go black for a few seconds, which is normal. Upon successful uninstallation, the appearance should revert to the default Windows 11.