It's no secret that there are plenty of people who dislike some of the UI changes Microsoft made in Windows 11. And as a result, many apps have come out to fix or change the behavior of some parts of Windows 11 to make it more friendly towards long-time users. ExplorerPatcher is one such solution, and a free one at that.

ExplorerPatcher provides a lot of customization options that allow you to revert some of the changes Microsoft made with Windows 11, and it does its job well enough. It's not exactly an impressive app, but it's one I can see being useful for many people.

What is ExplorerPatcher?

ExplorerPatcher is an open-source project on GitHub that helps you customize Windows to be more familiar and useful. According to the project description, ExplorerPatcher aims to "improve the working environment on Windows".

In reality, this mostly translates to bringing back the way things worked in Windows 10, so you can have a Start menu with tiles, or a resizable taskbar that can be moved anywhere.

What I like about ExplorerPatcher

It can customize a lot of Windows 11

I've reviewed a few apps that focus on customizing the Start menu and taskbar, but one thing that's nice about ExplorerPatcher is that, despite being free, it can actually customize the Start menu, taskbar, and File Explorer, so it gives you a fairly complete toolset for making Windows 11 feel like Windows 10 across the board. However, it's worth mentioning that the Windows 10 taskbar will be going away in Windows 11 version 24H2, so the app will no longer offer that option, at least not until some kind of workaround is implemented.

It can even change some options for the system tray, so if you opt for the Windows 10 taskbar, you can choose between the Windows 11 and Windows 10 flyouts for the Wi-Fi connections or keyboard layouts. For the clock, you can even use the Windows 7 style. Oh, and yes, the Windows 10 taskbar can also be moved to any edge of the screen.

ExplorerPatcher even includes different window switcher styles (for the Alt+Tab) combination. You can use the default Windows 11 style, or go for the more square-ish Windows 10 style, or even a very old-school Windows NT style, which only shows app icons. There's also an option called Simple Window Switcher, which gives you customizations like adjusting rounded corners, choose between light or dark theme, and add the desktop to the list of apps so you can show it more easily.

But there's a lot of smaller things, too. You can reassign the Windows + C shortcut to open the Clock flyout instead of Teams or Copilot, or even prevent certain Control Panel items from redirecting to the new Settings app. Heck, you can even add a custom weather widget to the Windows 10 taskbar to replace Microsoft's "news and interests" .

It makes the Start menu more versatile

Focusing specifically on the Start menu, ExplorerPatcher is pretty cool in a couple of ways. For one thing, it can bring back the Windows 10 Start menu, which is already a nice option. I don't dislike the WIndows 11 menu, but I do think the Windows 10 style is a bit more efficient,with the All apps list always visible, plus it can be resized. ExplorerPatcher also makes the Windows 10 style fit in Windows 11 a bit better by giving rounded corners not just to the menu, but also to the tiles themselves. It's cool because if you shrink the tiles to the smallest size, they're basically just like icons, so it doesn't really look any worse than the Windows 11 style.

But if you do like the Windows 11 style, there are still some cool options here. For one thing, you can disable recommended content in the Start menu altogether. It's much easier than the built-in method for hiding this content, and more effective, too. Plus, if you don't like the pinned apps section either, you can make it so that the Windows 11 Start menu always goes to the All apps list by default.

One option that's also very welcome here is the ability to make it so that pressing the Windows key on your keyboard opens the Start menu on whatever screen your mouse cursor is on. It's not the default behavior, but it's a great option to have.

It's super lightweight

I also have to commend ExplorerPatcher for just how small it is. The installer for this app is a mere 2MB in size and there really isn't much here to consume a lot of resources. Sure, the app is a bit barebones in terms of the UI and what it offers, but if all you want is to revert some UI elements to older versions, it does that without the bells and whistles. It's free and very lightweight, plus fairly straightforward to use, so it's hard to complain.

What I don't like about ExplorerPatcher

Using an older File Explorer has big downsides

While the ability to use the Windows 10-style File Explorer is cool at first glance, especially because the Windows 10 Ribbon is so much more capable than the new Command Bar, there's one big problem with it. This is just the Windows 10 File Explorer, and that means you're losing tab support. This is a pretty big deal to me, and it kind of shows that there isn't anything too fancy going on with UI options here. ExplorerPatcher mostly digs up hidden options in Windows, though there are options here for things like hiding the search and navigation bars, or shrinking the address bar height (for the Windows 10 style, at least).

Also unlike that app, ExplorerPatcher uses all the classic Windows 10 icons, which just don't look as nice as the ones on Windows 11. I get some people may prefer that look (somehow), but StartallBack really spoiled me here.

One thing some apps like this tend to do is give you the option to use the Windows 7 Command Bar too, and I just don't get the point of it. But hey, the option is there.

A big part of it is going away soon

I've already mentioned this above, but if you're getting ExplorerPatcher for the taskbar customization, it's worth keeping in mind that this capability is going away with Windows 11 version 24H2. Sure, you can stay on an older version of Windows for now, but that won't last forever. Of course, it's possible the developers will find a way to implement this classic taskbar style at some point, but we don't know that yet.

To be clear, I don't think much is lost by removing the Windows 10 taskbar, but if you're getting this app for that, you may be disappointed soon.

There are some issues here and there

I'd also point out that I've had some issues with ExplorerPatcher on my PC. Nothing is too frustrating, but one thing in particular I've noticed is that the Start menu button and the Start menu itself have separate alignment options. That means you can sometimes end up with a Start menu button on the left that opens the Start menu at the center of the screen. It's also strange that the default option for centering the taskbar icons doesn't include the Start menu button.

Some smaller things include the menu sometimes spawning the wrong location before moving to the correct alignment after making a change in the settings, or if you set the Windows 11-style Start menu to open the All apps list by default, it may still open the pinned area if you open it twice in quick succession.

Should you get ExplorerPatcher?

I didn't want to call this a review for a couple of reasons. First, it's a free app, so anyone has the option to give it a shot without any risks. Second, this is the kind of app that's aimed at very specific people. There are a lot of things here I personally don't see much value in, but I know it's an important app for many.

If you don't like how Windows 11's UI works and you want your PC to be more like Windows 10, ExplorerPatcher does that, and it does it well. It doesn't try to "modernize" or change anything too much, it just gives you a fairly plain Windows 10 experience with some extra customization options if you want to make it even more efficient. Again, it's a free app, so you have nothing to lose by trying it, and it might just make you like your Windows 11 PC a bit more.