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ivan_45th's avatar
ivan_45th
Copper Contributor
Oct 06, 2021

Windows 11 Explorer and Taskbar Issues

Hello everyone!
I upgraded Windows 10 to Windows 11 today and got these problems:
1) Explorer has an old design from Windows 10.
2) The taskbar has the old design from Windows 10 and the Start and Search buttons don't work.
Some time ago I installed an insider build and everything worked fine, however I went back to Windows 10 then to wait for the release version of Windows 11. Now I got these problems.
Does anyone know how I can fix this?

7 Replies

  • Mousefluff's avatar
    Mousefluff
    Iron Contributor

    ivan_45th

    This can recover a bricked device post-upgrade (Index of 1 means Home Edition) ->

    1.) Download Windows 10 ISO Image to "C:\Win11_English_x64.iso"

    2.) Install WinRAR: https://www.win-rar.com/download.html?&L=0

    3.) Extract ISO Image to "C:\Win11_English_x64"

    4.) Start Powershell -> Start Menu -> Run -> taskmgr -> File -> Run new Task -> %SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -> Select "Create this task with administrative privileges." -> Click OK.

    Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope LocalMachine -Force
    DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:C:\Win11_English_x64\sources\install.wim:1 /LimitAccess;
    DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase;
    ./SFC /SCANNOW;
    Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register
    "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"};
    Get-AppxPackage | Reset-AppxPackage;
    Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell\Update\Packages" -Name "UndockingDisabled" -Value "00000000";
    Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search" -Name "SearchboxTaskbarMode" -Value "00000001";
    Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" -Name "NoTaskGrouping" -Value "00000000";
    ./taskkill /f /im explorer.exe;
    ./CMD /Q /C START /REALTIME explorer.exe;

    5.) Run Windows Update (6.) Finalize the patches / updates / verify integrity of the image

    DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase;
    ./SFC /SCANNOW;

     

  • Mousefluff's avatar
    Mousefluff
    Iron Contributor

    Follow these steps in this order, and then reboot your computer:

    1.) Download Windows 10 ISO Image to "C:\Win11_English_x64.iso"
    2.) Download and Install WinRAR: https://www.win-rar.com/download.html?&L=0
    3.) Extract ISO Image to "C:\Win11_English_x64"

    4.) Start Powershell -> Start Menu -> Run -> taskmgr -> File -> Run new Task -> %SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -> Select "Create this task with administrative privileges." -> Click OK.

    Change the execution policy so you can run scripts locally:
    5.) Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope LocalMachine -Force;

    Use any one of these to verify which edition of Windows 11 you have installed:

    6A.) Get-ComputerInfo -Property Windows*
    6B.) Get-ComputerInfo | select WindowsProductName, WindowsVersion, OsHardwareAbstractionLayer
    6C.) systeminfo /fo csv | ConvertFrom-Csv | select OS*, System*, Hotfix* | Format-List
    6D.) (Get-WmiObject -class Win32_OperatingSystem).Caption
    6E.) [System.Environment]::OSVersion.Version
    6F.) [Environment]::OSVersion
    6G.) winver
    6H.) systeminfo

    Make sure to select the index in the ISO image, based on the Edition of Windows you have currently installed:

    7.) DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:"C:\Win11_English_x64\sources\install.wim"

    Details for image : C:\Win11_English_x64\sources\install.wim

    Index : 1
    Name : Windows 11 Home
    Description : Windows 11 Home
    Size : 15,854,479,870 bytes

    Index : 4
    Name : Windows 11 Education
    Description : Windows 11 Education
    Size : 16,136,983,252 bytes

    Index : 6
    Name : Windows 11 Pro
    Description : Windows 11 Pro
    Size : 16,134,043,048 bytes

    Index : 8
    Name : Windows 11 Pro Education
    Description : Windows 11 Pro Education
    Size : 16,136,934,462 bytes

    ----------**********----------**********----------**********
    **********----------**********----------**********----------

    If you have Windows 11 Home, the index is set to 1...

    If that is the correct Index, then Restore the running operating system image with the ISO you previously extracted:
    8.) DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:C:\Win11_English_x64\sources\install.wim:1 /LimitAccess

    Cleanup the component store, remove superseded components, finalize patches:
    9.) DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

    Scan to replace any obsolete, corrupt, or missing files:
    10.) ./SFC /SCANNOW

    Reinstall ALL Apps first:
    11.) Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"};

    Reset All Apps:
    12.) Get-AppxPackage | Reset-AppxPackage;

    Run this in Powershell to reverse the Start Menu / Taskbar changes:

    13.) Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell\Update\Packages" -Name "UndockingDisabled" -Value "00000000"
    14.) Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search" -Name "SearchboxTaskbarMode" -Value "00000001";
    15.) Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" -Name "NoTaskGrouping" -Value "00000000";

    Restart Explorer to see the taskbar changes:

    16.) ./taskkill /f /im explorer.exe;
    17.) ./CMD /Q /C START /REALTIME explorer.exe;

    18.) Run Windows Update (Settings -> Windows Update)

    Remove superseded components, and finalize the image:
    19.) DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

    Scan to replace any obsolete, corrupt, or missing files:
    20.) ./SFC /SCANNOW
  • Bankerlang381's avatar
    Bankerlang381
    Copper Contributor

    I am also having this problem having previously rolled back to Windows 10 from preview release.

    • ivan_45th's avatar
      ivan_45th
      Copper Contributor

      Everyone I know with this problem did the same, rolled back from the release preview on Windows 10 and got this bug when upgrading from Windows 10 to the final Windows 11. Is there really no solution for this, except for a clean install of Windows 11?

  • thinh191's avatar
    thinh191
    Copper Contributor
    Same Issue. I solved it by opening "Control" and change the date to a future day and restart.

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