this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024
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790
Microsoft is blocking Windows Customization Tools (www.neowin.net)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
259 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

TLDR: StartAllBack, ExplorerPatcher and some other projects are being blocked on 24H2.

One more reason to switch to Linux

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[–] [email protected] 85 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They're not exactly "being blocked" but rather the legacy ability to tell explorer.exe to load the older style Taskbar, which those apps load then modify, is going away. I'm not defending this nor do I like it, but it would be like saying some Linux distro is BLOCKING customization because some legacy app dependent on Xorg will not work after they switch to Wayland.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

They’re not exactly “being blocked”

Simply renaming the executable works to re-enable Start All Back. They are being intentionally blocked by Microsoft.

Like in the case of StartAllBack, you can bypass the block by simply renaming the executable to something else. If you want to upgrade to a newer build, delete the app, update your system, and then launch it using a renamed executable.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Not if you're using the preview build, where the entire functionality is removed. The warning is just a preemptive preparation for beta users. The bottom of the article indirectly mentions this.

But sure, downvote me.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

deleted by creator

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The article is actually incomplete. Some insider builds already lack the old taskbar, it can't be invoked and if an application relies on it you simply get a crash.

This is not new behavior from Windows. When legacy features are going to be removed, they do stagger updates when users have known software conflicts installed, they also might throw warnings. This is exactly what we are seeing now.

Though the fact this small article is just reporting on Reddit information rather than testing insider builds is not my fault nor my concern.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

deleted by creator

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

sounds like a 21st century version of quack3.exe.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

They are, to the best of Microsoft security professionals' abilities

Just kidding, the devs are probably using ExplorerPatcher themselves and are sabotaging this asshole move