EP/Windows unstable after windows update: KB5029263 -- Fix available!

[gaiking-uk]

Summary

• EP (more accurately, Windows) becomes unstable and basically unusable after windows update installs KB5029263
• This issue is related to: EP broken after installing Windows update KB5028254 #1689 (reported last month)
• The fix for the related issue was to uninstall KB5028254 and disable Preview updates
• This will not work however as KB5029263 is a standard update and so cannot be avoided
  • (Unless you disable ALL windows updates) however I would strongly recommend against this for obvious reasons
• 👤@valinet -- Hopefully you have seen this ticket. AN UPDATE TO EXPLORERPATCHER IS NEEDED ASAP PLEASE!

Additional Information

• Uninstalling the update makes little difference as Windows will automatically re-install the update again a few minutes later
• Attempts to block this specific update using the Microsoft 'hide/show windows updates' tool were unsuccessful

---

Additional Complication: Windows usable/unusable

• I found that Explorer was restarting every 10 seconds or so
• This was significantly slowing down my system as it was still try to load all the start-up apps/services and now stuck also trying to constantly reload Explorer every few seconds
• Because Explorer did not restart within 3 seconds, EP's automatic self-deactivation did not trigger and so my PC was stuck in this cycle for 10+ minutes
• RECOMMENDATION: Increase EP's explorer crash timeout to something like 5x in 5 minutes (rather than just 3x in 10 seconds)

Additional Advice: Getting Windows stable

1. Press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to load Task Manager
2. Load Services tab
3. Right click on: ExplorerPatcher Desktop Window Manager Service and click Stop
4. Run new task msconfig
5. Select Services and un-tick ExplorerPatcher Desktop Window Manager Service

^ The above will manually deactivate EP and at least get your computer usable again!

I raised the original issue with the Preview update (KB5028254) several weeks ago to give Valiant a head's up on this -- hopefully they are already on the case and are able to release an update soon! 🤞🏼

[saamprs]

Same behaviour on my system, just started after installing KB5029263. But, in my case, it stopped itself so the computer is stable, without EP, of course.

[Tiagoquix]

I can also confirm that ExplorerPatcher became unstable on my Windows 11 after installing the KB5029263 update.

[spectralesantiano]

yes same here

[romafrogs]

Same here

[OnWingsOfValor]

Same here, oof.

[exodus444]

Welp... what was a preview update now is a standard unavoidable update and it breaks EP for everyone who didn't turn off Windows Updates.
Please prioritize!

[kp-gl]

...but no need to shout (capitals) or make any stress. This is a free and open project. Of course the maintainer is aware of it -without this pushing.

[gaiking-uk]

@exodus444: Welp... what was a preview update now is a standard unavoidable update and it breaks EP for everyone who didn't turn off Windows Updates. Please prioritize!

Yeah, it's pretty bad! 😔

Ironically I literally even commented in the KB5028254 issue that:

" This is a concern as this update is being applied currently in Preview... Presumably in the next few months, Microsoft will re-publish this update globally as a main (non-Preview) update [and it will then break EP for everyone!] "

In hindsight, while my concern above ended up being exactly what happened - in fairness I thought we might have something like 2-4 months and I wasn't expecting Microsoft to force this out to everyone just over a fortnight later! 🤦🏼‍♂️

---

@kp-gl: ...but no need to shout (capitals) or make any stress. This is a free and open project. Of course the maintainer is aware of it -without this pushing.

Appreciate your comment. I would just say...

• I didn't intend it to come across like that, and don't think my comment has that tone (I only capitalised 10 words out of 300+)
• My main aim was just to make sure it was on Valiant's radar as I didn't get any comment/reply from him on my KB5028254 issue and so wasn't sure how closely he was still working on this project
• I appreciate everyone has multiple things they are working on at any one time and priorities can change, so just wanted to make sure this was clear and alerted Valiant to a somewhat major problem 👍🏼

[2nico4u]

I am having the same issue.

I didn't know what I had until I lost it, I genuinely can't live without EP.

[CedNet]

ExplorerPatcher saves my mental health. Now Microsoft broke my brain again causing EP to break fully and crash.

I just don't understand what Microsoft was thinking not allowing to NOT group programs. It's horrible UI / UX for a developer. I'm struggling all the time finding my way back to a previously opened window.

Design over usability. Complete fail.

[JohnLBevan]

Valinet: Just wanted to say this is the best crash I've ever had; thanks for designing such a great error handler. Not only did it automatically provide a workaround (i.e. auto disabling), but it gave me all the info I needed to take follow up steps; great work; thank-you.

[AgentFire]

Same here, and here is a quick tip:
Press Win+R to quickly crash the patched explorer (to induce failsafe mode).

[jan-glx]

Not sure if related, but when the update installed I got a BSOD ( The bugcheck was: 0x0000004e (0x000000000000009a, 0x000000000066e480, 0x0000000000000006, 0x0000000000000002).

[IMMX5]

See #1702 (comment) for a likely fix - worked for me!

[gaiking-uk]

@CedNet...

ExplorerPatcher saves my mental health. Now Microsoft broke my brain again causing EP to break fully and crash.

100%!... I have been so happy using EP for so long now, that I had genuinely forgotten how bad Windows 11 was... Except as part of my initial issues with KB5028254 and attempts to fix it, I uninstalled EP and got a very sudden and very painful reminder of just how insanely bad W11 is!... I used features like Toolbars pinned to the Taskbar daily - except they've been completely removed in W11

I just don't understand what Microsoft was thinking not allowing to NOT group programs. It's horrible UI / UX for a developer. I'm struggling all the time finding my way back to a previously opened window.

One thing that really annoys me is that they just invent this fictious and false use cases to justify their changes...

• "Users told us that they like Windows 10 but they wish there was more blank/wasted space, so instead of easily-clickable buttons, we'd prefer it if everything was hidden behind menus so that we can spend hours enjoying re-discovering how to do everything again and where everything has moved to"
• "Users expect their laptop to be like their phone"... Do they!?
  • Do many people spend 8 hours writing code on their phone?
  • Or use their phone to rename, move and re-organise hundreds of files?
  • Or use their phone for 8 hours to make a presentation, regularly switching between PowerPoint, a Browser, an Image Editor and Excel?

Design over usability. Complete fail.

Urgh, again, 100%! -- OK Microsoft, let's go back to the above and fine, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and agree users told you they don't value productivity on their PC and value easy access to apps with a single tap... Except in your implementation, I can access LESS apps on my laptop's 16" start menu screen than I can on my phone's 6" home screen!

---

@JohnLBevan: Valinet: Just wanted to say this is the best crash I've ever had; thanks for designing such a great error handler. Not only did it automatically provide a workaround (i.e. auto disabling), but it gave me all the info I needed to take follow up steps; great work; thank-you.

Don't get me wrong, EP is great! It improves SO MANY things in the daily Windows experience, it's fantastic!... And again, any urgency or stress that it might seem like I am giving off is NOT down to frustration at EP in anyway -- on the contrary, it's that I have been so happy with EP and it making such a positive improvement, that now every hour having to use Windows 11 without it, and suffer the UI as Microsoft designed it to be, is just painful!

---

Anyway, I have to really hold back in this reply as if I let myself start, I could easily spend the rest of the day just listing all the issues with the Windows 11 UI/design, and the frustrating arrogance Microsoft seem to have about it all (as in "We know what users want better than they do")

[OnWingsOfValor]

See #1702 (comment) for a likely fix - worked for me!

Oh holy shit, thank you. Turned my night around.

[CedNet]

See #1702 (comment) for a likely fix - worked for me!

Can confirm, this worked. Mental stability regained!

Microsoft HAS been given strong negative feedback about this after the release of Windows 11:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-11/how-to-enable-never-combine-taskbar-buttons-windows-11/m-p/2824344
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-insider-program/how-to-let-windows-11-quot-never-combine-taskbar-buttons-quot/m-p/2513043

Maybe make a Windows version for developers, where usability and productivity is in focus. It's been 2 years so far of Windows 11 features overlapping Windows 10 ui components. They released Windows 11 in an unfinished non-production ready state.

[AgentFire]

Can confirm, it worked even before the symbols got downloaded. No second restart was needed as well.
Simply uninstall - clean reg - install did the trick.
Noice.

[gaiking-uk]

See #1702 (comment) for a likely fix - worked for me!

Huge thanks to @IMMX5 for sharing this tip!... have to admit, as it was posted a few weeks ago I wasn't sure if it would work for KB5029263 (which came out literally just yesterday) but very glad to confirm that it does! 🎉

---

✅ Fix Summary

I realise it isn't a huge time-saving, but in an effort to help as much as I can, I have put a summary of the steps to get EP working again below...

1. Uninstall EP
2. Remove these registry keys (you can save the below as a .reg file if you prefer)...

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ExplorerPatcher]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ExplorerPatcher]

3. Reboot
4. Reinstall EP (the latest / same version you that was installed previously will work)

NB: The above should work up to and including Windows 11 22H2 build 22621.2134

---

Also, I want to thank everyone for their efforts on this and so thanks also to @AgentFire for your tip...

Press Win+R to quickly crash the patched explorer (to induce failsafe mode).

I had EP installed on another machine and found pressing Win + R repeatedly caused EP to self-deactive MUCH more quickly, so thanks for sharing this too! 👍🏼

[Phoenix-]

Alt-tab / win-tab is not working after reboot. Is it just me?

[gaiking-uk]

Alt-tab / win-tab is not working after reboot. Is it just me?

Alt + Tab: ✅ Works for me (I am using the "Simple Windows Switcher" option)
Win + Tab: ❌ Doesn't work (although TBH I can't remember what this was supposed to do)

[Phoenix-]

Thanks.
I'm using Alt-Tab in default(WIn-11) mode.
Looks like it's reported already.
#1801

[exodus444]

It's not crashing, but Win-Tab is not working and after pressing Win-Tab once the Alt-Tab also stops working.

Edited: also the right-click on the windows icon button stops working too.

[exodus444]

Not sure if related, but when the update installed I got a BSOD ( The bugcheck was: 0x0000004e (0x000000000000009a, 0x000000000066e480, 0x0000000000000006, 0x0000000000000002).

Very unlikely... BSOD's happen when error happens in the kernel space (drivers/hardware failure)

[jan-glx]

@gaiking-uk re title change: having workaround available is not the same as having this fixed. Every single EP user (>>15000 people) that gets this update today will run into a explorer crash loop, unless this is fixed, released & they are lucky to have their EP update before the update installs.

[rdeforest]

Alt-tab works for me, ctrl-win-(left/right) work, but Win-tab and clicking the "task view" button both do nothing as of the most recent Windows update. I tried the work-around above (Uninstall EP, remove reg entries, reboot, install EP) to no avail.

Edit to add:
This served as a reminder of how much I depend on EP, so I sent money to [email protected] out of gratitude for all the benefit I've received so far. I also hope it encourages an expedited fix, but I don't feel entitled to it.

[SuperStark]

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ExplorerPatcher

Confirm this works – simple reinstallation was not working, removing the keys sorted it.
Running with KB5029263 ✔️

Though this is a patch not a bugfix, a bugfix would be to implement an auto update to do the same.

[pyrates999]

Same Error in Windows 11 10.0.22631.2199 (Beta Channel) https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2023/08/18/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-22621-2199-and-22631-2199-beta-channel/ Win11 Bar Still Present when install explorer patcher 22621.1992.56.1

Is there a reason why you're running an insider build instead of a release?

[murigny]

if all fix doesn't work for you,
this is my workaround:
1 - uninstall explorerpatcher and purge registry entry
2 - delete user appdata folder (roaming) "explorerpatcher"
3 - uninstall last win update KB5029263 in powershell admin console: wusa /uninstall /kb:5029263
4 - reboot PC
5 - install "windows update blocker (wub)" and block updates
6 - reinstall explorerpatcher.

And wait for a good fix :)

[SiteSplat]

@gaiking-uk why was this marked as fixed for KB5029263? its not the case as far as I can read? so many issues open under that win update. Can you confirm this last release of EP works under KB5029263? What am I missing? :-)

[murigny]

I consider that it is not a fix but a workaround which does not work for all.
So, I'm agree with @SiteSplat.
My workaround work for everybody.

We can wait for a real fix

[gaiking-uk]

@SiteSplat - why was this marked as fixed for KB5029263? its not the case as far as I can read? so many issues open under that win update. Can you confirm this last release of EP works under KB5029263? What am I missing? :-)

@murigny - I consider that it is not a fix but a workaround

To try and explain everything...

I updated the title to include the ✅ Fixed status primarily as at the time it was very time-critical... Microsoft pushed out KB5029263, hours later myself and others had major stability issues, with Explorer crashing every 10-15 seconds and computers being stuck at 100% utilisation as they never completed the initial login and loading of the system.

• At the time, the only way to get the system usable again was to uninstall EP (awful!)
• 1-2 users then advised that by doing a few simple actions: [1] uninstall, [2] double-click .reg file, [3] re-install, this fully resolved the stability issues and it was possible to run EP on a system that had KB5029263 installed (what this issue is about).
• The above all happened within 24-84 hours of KB5029263 being pushed out
• While an official coded-fix (updated version of EP) from valinet would of course have been ideal -- in the interim, the trade-off of spending 5 minutes to 'fix' (resolve) the issue seemed reasonable and worth highlighting to users (i.e. adding the keyword ✅ Fixed so people could essentially...
  • Be affected by KB5029263 and experience their system become unstable
  • Come to GitHub, see this issue
  • Spend 5 minutes and resolve the issue

---

To the best of my knowledge...

• The steps of [1] uninstall, [2] double-click .reg file, [3] re-install fully resolves the system stability issue (explorer constantly crashing)
• Some users reported minor lingering issues after performing the above (e.g. Alt+Tab not working), however this is not what this issue was created for
• I guess not everyone is happy spending 5 minutes to resolve the issue themselves and would prefer that valinet fully fix this problem explicitly with an updated version

---

To recap / going forward...

• People can read this page and find the steps to resolve the stability issue (un-changed)
• I will leave it valinet to CLOSE the issue, when this is fixed directly in EP
• On balance, I thought the '✅ Fixed` tag did more good (by helping people desperate to get EP working again) than harm (by introducing potential confusion) however as several people have commented and seem to feel quite strongly about the semantics of whether an issue is 'fixed' or 'resolved' or 'there is a workaround' I have amended the issue title to try and better clarify.

Hope that clarifies / explains and is acceptable to all.

[art-programmer-007]

After updating with KB5029263 stops working qtranslate (a small and very useful translator), to be exactly - its hotkeys stop working (by default - double ctrl), instead, when you press a single ctrl, a dotted frame-window for OCR translation appears (OCR translation from the screen- is one of possibilities of this program, but this update broke the program, causing it to work improperly). Currently, the only solution is either to disable global hotkeys in qtranslate, which makes it very inconvenient to use, or to constantly roll back the system state (with macrium reflect) and constantly remove this update.

[pyrates999]

After updating with KB5029263 stops working qtranslate (a small and very useful translator), to be exactly - its hotkeys stop working (by default - double ctrl), instead, when you press a single ctrl, a dotted frame-window for OCR translation appears (OCR translation from the screen- is one of possibilities of this program, but this update broke the program, causing it to work improperly). Currently, the only solution is either to disable global hotkeys in qtranslate, which makes it very inconvenient to use, or to constantly roll back the system state (with macrium reflect) and constantly remove this update.

Please file this as a new issue. But before you file it, uninstall EP with the update KB5029263 installed and see if it is still happening. If it is still happening with EP uninstalled, then EP is not causing this.

[tbcam88]

@SiteSplat - why was this marked as fixed for KB5029263? its not the case as far as I can read? so many issues open under that win update. Can you confirm this last release of EP works under KB5029263? What am I missing? :-)

@murigny - I consider that it is not a fix but a workaround

To try and explain everything...

I updated the title to include the ✅ Fixed status primarily as at the time it was very time-critical... Microsoft pushed out KB5029263, hours later myself and others had major stability issues, with Explorer crashing every 10-15 seconds and computers being stuck at 100% utilisation as they never completed the initial login and loading of the system.

• At the time, the only way to get the system usable again was to uninstall EP (awful!)

• 1-2 users then advised that by doing a few simple actions: [1] uninstall, [2] double-click .reg file, [3] re-install, this fully resolved the stability issues and it was possible to run EP on a system that had KB5029263 installed (what this issue is about).

• The above all happened within 24-84 hours of KB5029263 being pushed out

• While an official coded-fix (updated version of EP) from valinet would of course have been ideal -- in the interim, the trade-off of spending 5 minutes to 'fix' (resolve) the issue seemed reasonable and worth highlighting to users (i.e. adding the keyword ✅ Fixed so people could essentially...

  • Be affected by KB5029263 and experience their system become unstable
  • Come to GitHub, see this issue
  • Spend 5 minutes and resolve the issue

To the best of my knowledge...

• The steps of [1] uninstall, [2] double-click .reg file, [3] re-install fully resolves the system stability issue (explorer constantly crashing)
• Some users reported minor lingering issues after performing the above (e.g. Alt+Tab not working), however this is not what this issue was created for
• I guess not everyone is happy spending 5 minutes to resolve the issue themselves and would prefer that valinet fully fix this problem explicitly with an updated version

To recap / going forward...

• People can read this page and find the steps to resolve the stability issue (un-changed)
• I will leave it valinet to CLOSE the issue, when this is fixed directly in EP
• On balance, I thought the '✅ Fixed` tag did more good (by helping people desperate to get EP working again) than harm (by introducing potential confusion) however as several people have commented and seem to feel quite strongly about the semantics of whether an issue is 'fixed' or 'resolved' or 'there is a workaround' I have amended the issue title to try and better clarify.

Hope that clarifies / explains and is acceptable to all.

Tried this today but the constant crashing persists. :(

Has the developer perhaps bailed on this project? It seems strange a few weeks have passed and there's been no update or even an explanation provided with regards to the status of the situation. He owes us absolutely nothing of course, I just find it peculiar that it doesn't seem to have been discussed at all.

[pyrates999]

duplicate of: #2051

Please close this one.

Possible fixes:

1. In ExplorerPatcher Properties, go to Advanced and tick Do not change the taskbar context menu
2. In ExplorerPatcher Properties, go to File Explorer and untick Disable the windows 11 context menu
3. In ExplorerPatcher Properties, go to Taskbar and set Taskbar style to Windows 11

[pyrates999]

@SiteSplat - why was this marked as fixed for KB5029263? its not the case as far as I can read? so many issues open under that win update. Can you confirm this last release of EP works under KB5029263? What am I missing? :-)

@murigny - I consider that it is not a fix but a workaround

To try and explain everything...

I updated the title to include the ✅ Fixed status primarily as at the time it was very time-critical... Microsoft pushed out KB5029263, hours later myself and others had major stability issues, with Explorer crashing every 10-15 seconds and computers being stuck at 100% utilisation as they never completed the initial login and loading of the system.

• At the time, the only way to get the system usable again was to uninstall EP (awful!)

• 1-2 users then advised that by doing a few simple actions: [1] uninstall, [2] double-click .reg file, [3] re-install, this fully resolved the stability issues and it was possible to run EP on a system that had KB5029263 installed (what this issue is about).

• The above all happened within 24-84 hours of KB5029263 being pushed out

• While an official coded-fix (updated version of EP) from valinet would of course have been ideal -- in the interim, the trade-off of spending 5 minutes to 'fix' (resolve) the issue seemed reasonable and worth highlighting to users (i.e. adding the keyword ✅ Fixed so people could essentially...

  • Be affected by KB5029263 and experience their system become unstable
  • Come to GitHub, see this issue
  • Spend 5 minutes and resolve the issue

To the best of my knowledge...

• The steps of [1] uninstall, [2] double-click .reg file, [3] re-install fully resolves the system stability issue (explorer constantly crashing)
• Some users reported minor lingering issues after performing the above (e.g. Alt+Tab not working), however this is not what this issue was created for
• I guess not everyone is happy spending 5 minutes to resolve the issue themselves and would prefer that valinet fully fix this problem explicitly with an updated version

To recap / going forward...

• People can read this page and find the steps to resolve the stability issue (un-changed)
• I will leave it valinet to CLOSE the issue, when this is fixed directly in EP
• On balance, I thought the '✅ Fixed` tag did more good (by helping people desperate to get EP working again) than harm (by introducing potential confusion) however as several people have commented and seem to feel quite strongly about the semantics of whether an issue is 'fixed' or 'resolved' or 'there is a workaround' I have amended the issue title to try and better clarify.

Hope that clarifies / explains and is acceptable to all.

Tried this today but the constant crashing persists. :(

Has the developer perhaps bailed on this project? It seems strange a few weeks have passed and there's been no update or even an explanation provided with regards to the status of the situation. He owes us absolutely nothing of course, I just find it peculiar that it doesn't seem to have been discussed at all.

He's still working on it.

[tbcam88]

He's still working on it.

News of the most welcome variety.

Meantime, are you aware if there's anyway to block the KB5029263 update? I uninstalled and postponed it for as long as possible when this issue first reared its ugly head but unfortunately enough time has now passed that Windows Update is forcing it upon me.

Living life with the standard W11 taskbar is a rather galling state of affairs. :)

[pyrates999]

You can set your main internet connection to be metered. I've heard that stops updates from downloading: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/metered-internet-connections-faq-8a8cf4c0-b8b1-1de4-825d-24714e851659

[art-programmer-007]

Oh, sorry guys, I have not noticed, that this topic related to ExplorerPatcher issues. I have googled many hours, many days in different attempts to find any solution regarding qtranslate and KB5029263. I'm also don't like W11 taskbar, but I have found another solution (program), that returned many things like in W7/W10, and I have been using it for many months.
About KB5029263 - today I have found a temporary solution. At first, I restored image of my C drive, made a few days ago, but unfortunately, after restoring Windows just started to install KB5029263 again, so I have found a way to postpone it at least at a month- I installed all updates, after it - forced the windows to postpone all updates at 4 weeks, and after it - delete KB5029263 again. I restarted windows several times, and seems it will be ok till 19.10.2023

[tbcam88]

I have found another solution (program), that returned many things like in W7/W10, and I have been using it for many months.

Would you care to share the name? An alternative would be ideal just now while we await the repair of ExplorerPatcher.

[dcadint]

Having same issue after updates were run on my system after intune, edge and other updates were run. If I switch explorer patch back to windows 11 from 10 then the ctrl, alt, windows and tab buttons start operating normally.

[art-programmer-007]

I have found another solution (program), that returned many things like in W7/W10, and I have been using it for many months.

Would you care to share the name? An alternative would be ideal just now while we await the repair of ExplorerPatcher.

StartAllBack

[clonsberry]

• Some users reported minor lingering issues after performing the above (e.g. Alt+Tab not working), however this is not what this issue was created for

Thanks for pointing this out. I found this issue by searching for a solution to the Alt+Tab problem and several of those point back here.

[k4rst]

1. Uninstall EP
2. Remove these registry keys (you can save the below as a .reg file if you prefer)...

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ExplorerPatcher]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ExplorerPatcher]

    3. Reboot
    4. Reinstall EP (the latest / same version you that was installed previously will work)

Kept crashing all the time but this fixed it for me, thanks!

[Amrsatrio]

Please install the newly released EP build. The new version should never do irrecoverable crashes like these anymore. There should be no more major issues on 22621 builds up to 22621.2359.

[l0oo]

Oh, sorry guys, I have not noticed, that this topic related to ExplorerPatcher issues. I have googled many hours, many days in different attempts to find any solution regarding qtranslate and KB5029263.

Hello!
Have you found any better fix for Qtranslate?

[JohnLBevan]

@l0oo I don't think it's been looked into; this comment suggested some steps to see if the issue could be resolved via workaround & suggested that failing that a new issue be raised... I can't see any other issues mentioning Qtranslate, so you may need to raise one to have this looked into.