Win+Tab and Alt+Tab issue

[stransh]

Win+Tab and Alt+Tab not working after the last update

Using Windows 10 taskbar
Windows 11 22H2
OS Build 22621.2134

Edit:
Workarounds:

• As a workaround, you can use the Windows 11 taskbar instead but it'll introduce another issue. Right clicking the taskbar will crash Windows Explorer (Taskbar style "Windows 11". Explorer crashes upon right-clicking the taskbar #1805). You can work around it by going to ExplorerPatcher's properties, the advanced page and disabling "Do not change the taskbar context menu". You can access ExplorerPatcher's properties from your Start Menu or Windows Search.
  • If you want to separate taskbar items and show labels, you can use Windhawk, Start11 or StartAllBack (you can disable the custom Start Menus with the latter two)
• If you don't need Task View, you could alternatively use a different alt+tab experience such as Simple Window Switcher.
• If you still want to use the Windows 10 taskbar and use virtual desktops, you can use SylphyHornPlus11 or VirtualDesktopHelper or VirtualDesktopAccessor to use keyboard shortcuts.

[jamietudor]

Same problem here.

[LegitKnots]

Hello, I'm having this same issue and i dont usually update my pc. Just updated explorer patcher and this time for me its win+tab thats broken, which i use day to day so this might be an issue. I can post my current windows build and what not

also for quick reference, the previous builds people are showing in this issue, are not preview builds or otherwise, a non-stable build, as well as mine

[BraINstinct0]

FYI: the alt-tab works, but whenever win-tab is applied, alt-tab will stop working too.

[jamietudor]

Looks like the same bug is affecting the mainstream release. I've removed EP and the reg key and re-installed: the problem remains.

[spersad]

Any thoughts on how to fix this? I am having the same problem. Even re-insalled Win11 again but that did not work. I am not able to remove the 22H2 version at all. Thank you.

[Amrsatrio]

@daviddgz They removed "26008830" aka "STTest" in 22621.2134 completely, as in the code that runs when it's off is no longer here. It is what EP uses to workaround this issue in 22621.1413, therefore this among other issues like volume popup not showing and Windows 11 flyouts overlapping the Windows 10 taskbar, happened again.

I'm afraid to say that a moderate amount of effort is needed to properly and completely fix this on 22621.2134+.

[hakan-demirli]

@Amrsatrio StartIsBack and other commercial tools still function correctly. I assume someone can just find the correct calls by examining those commercial apps under IDA Pro or x84dbg ?

[felikjunvianto]

I was thinking to rollback first to last known version that has both functionality works. Does anyone have a record of that?

[Amrsatrio]

@hakan-demirli I found the functions related to the placement bug, myself. Also figured out a way to patch them in order to fix the placements. Might gonna push a PR if it works flawlessly on both 1992 and 2283.

Also fixed Win+B, but still haven't fixed the task view (Win+Tab) and the volume popup. Alt+Tab works until you try to invoke task view.

If anyone could send me the twinui.pcshell.dll of 22621.2134, it would be very appreciated.

[hakan-demirli]

@Amrsatrio A pull request would be great.

EDIT: I am on Windows 11 22621.2283 not 2134. Please ignore the rest.
I uploaded it to different platforms in case some goes down:

File.io:
url

Github: (change the extension pdf->dll. really github 🙄?)
twinui.pcshell.pdf

Anonym:
url

I hope sharing a windows dll for 'educational' purposes won't violate github TOS.

[Amrsatrio]

@hakan-demirli #2097

[Amrsatrio]

I'm almost done with my PR. Fixed everything but the pen workspace button. Those who are tech savvy enough may compile my version for your own purposes and let me know of any issues 😉.

[jamietudor]

MS just announced Windows 11 23H2 will be out on 26th September, including task bar ungrouping, task bar labelling and so on. I think I'll go native Windows 11 at that point: not sure this current problem with EP is getting fixed anytime soon.

[Diablo-D3]

They haven't announced the return of the small taskbar, even though they did say it'd be back in time for the next Win11 version.

For all their convincing that the new taskbar was just a normal conventional WinUI3 program, a lot of absolutely no real work is happening on it.

[Amrsatrio]

Sorry for being off topic but, is there a Discord or something which we can use to communicate about stuff related to EP in real time without pinging everyone involved in the issue?

Anyways, I've built a release of my fork with the fixes. Those who can't wait till Valinet accepts my PR may download my automatically built releases here and let me know of any issues. The issues mentioned in this thread except Win11 taskbar right click crashing should be fixed properly with my build.

[valinet]

Sorry for being off topic but, is there a Discord or something which we can use to communicate about stuff related to EP in real time without pinging everyone involved in the issue?

Anyways, I've built a release of my fork with the fixes. Those who can't wait till Valinet accepts my PR may download my automatically built releases here and let me know of any issues. The issues mentioned in this thread except Win11 taskbar right click crashing should be fixed properly with my build.

Hi

I just now had time to take a look - as you hinted to, the multitude of emails I receive make it hard to discern useful stuff from less useful stuff, so to say. For the past few days, I haven't really looked, unfortunately, so I missed them and only caught up with it now, sorry.

The commits look REALLY promising, even more, they look AWESOME! THANK YOU very much, the patches look great and are a great contribution for which I would like to express my direct, honest and kindest gratitude. Thank you.

If you're interested, I'd very much enjoy to add you as a maintainer for this project, so you can make contributions directly on master. Let me know if you fancy that. It seems to me that your help could be very useful for this project and the community, and that can only bring me joy, so I salute that.

Regarding Discord, if you think it would be useful and want to maintain such channel, I have nothing against an 'official' channel like that which I could advertise in the README on the main page of the project, as yet another way to engage with the community.

I will finish looking through the commits shortly and will merge them with the my branch and push an updated version.

Thanks again

[valinet]

I have merged the changes into master, thanks again.

[Amrsatrio]

Thank you so much Valinet for finally looking at my stuff! And yes, I made them awesome so that others (who know how to reverse x86-64 programs) can understand what's going on so they can potentially update them on their own.

Of course, an access to master would be very appreciated since, as an avid EP user from 22000 days (and a Win11 taskbar hater no matter what they added into it), I will assure you that I can make quick changes to the fixes that I know how they work.

And about Discord, I'll have a second chance at thinking about creating that because I'm also limited in time but, being able to use Win11 with Win10 taskbar is my top priority.

[Amrsatrio]

Should major aka breaking issues like this happen again, or just want to vibe together, here's a new Discord where you can report them on and expect an instant response (I hope): https://discord.gg/gsPcfqHTD2 ♥️

[klodoma]

Thank you for fixing this!!!!