# ExplorerPatcher 26100.4946.69.1_1b977ad — 26100.4946.69.1

- Product: ExplorerPatcher (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/explorerpatcher)
- Vendor: Valentin-Gabriel Radu
- Date: 2025-09-09
- Version: 26100.4946.69.1_1b977ad
- Original notes: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/releases/tag/26100.4946.69.1_1b977ad
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/explorerpatcher/releases/26100.4946.69.1-1b977ad
- Labels: Pre-release; Platforms: Windows

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

---

- **fixed** — ep_weather: Fixed "Unable to load weather information" due to changes in Google's side
- **fixed** — Start11: Fixed hiding of Recommended Section on recent builds of 24H2
- **added** — GUI: File Explorer > Title bar is now available again on >= 22H2
- **fixed** — Reduced the occurrences of the Windows 11 bug in Explorer windows where WM_SETTINGCHANGE would scroll the folder items list to the top
- **changed** — Changed hooking library to SlimDetours
- **fixed** — On ARM64, fixed incompatibilities with certain Windhawk mods that hook CreateWindowExW such as Taskbar Volume Control
- **fixed** — On ARM64, fixed a very slim chance bug where hooked functions would cause a crash when called until a reboot
- **changed** — ep_taskbar: Now statically links to private functions it uses
- **fixed** — Taskbar10: Fixed folder toolbar menus and Toolbars > New toolbar not working on builds with TrayThreadBSTA feature flag turned on, such as 26100.5074+
- **removed** — GUI: Windows 8 Network flyout is now no longer an option on builds >= 25346 as van.dll was removed
- **changed** — On Windows 11 22H2+, Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher) taskbar a.k.a. ep_taskbar is now used by default

> [!WARNING]
> <ins>**ExplorerPatcher has a history of being falsely detected as malware by antiviruses (including Defender).**</ins> 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 <ins>**`explorer.exe` to fail to start**, leaving your computer with a [non-working shell](https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/wiki/Frequently-asked-questions#help-my-screen-is-black).</ins>.
> * 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:
> <details>
>
> 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`
  ⚠️ **<ins>IMPORTANT: `explorer.exe` will not start if this file exists but is blocked from being loaded.</ins>**
> * `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:
> ```ps1
> 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.
> </details>

> [!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](https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/issues/4321) if EP has not been updated accordingly. More info [here](https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/wiki/ExplorerPatcher's-taskbar-implementation#%EF%B8%8F-warning---read-thoroughly-before-using).
>
> 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 26100.4946, 26100.5074, and 26200.5751.

###### 1

* ep_weather: Fixed "Unable to load weather information" due to changes in Google's side. Thanks @davids5 for the fix! (#1334, #4351) (c3c83ff)
* Start11: Fixed hiding of Recommended Section on recent builds of 24H2. Thanks @m-wigley for the fix! (#4476) (9106226)
* GUI: File Explorer > Title bar is now available again on >= 22H2. Thanks @SandTechStuff! (583fa53)
* Reduced the occurrences of the Windows 11 bug in Explorer windows where `WM_SETTINGCHANGE` would scroll the folder items list to the top. (fa19402b)
* Changed hooking library to SlimDetours. (ff30457)
  * On ARM64, fixes incompatibilities with certain Windhawk mods that hook `CreateWindowExW` such as [Ta

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