Using basic theme without killing DWM

Thank you a lot, I will try so on a vm when I can given that I use the classic theme for now. I would need to exclude the apps that do not work well with basic and classic theme like Discord and some more.


By the way, do you know by chance why context menus in the desktop and some other areas have reverted to metro again? I finally found a fix for several problems that I experienced with anixx's guide, (I described it better on his thread) but for some reason even though I fixed file explorer, the context menus have reverted to themed mode again apart from some other minor things like the desktop icons. It is the last holdout from the ugly win10 ui, in spite of having worked well when I first fixed it. Interestingly when classic theme worked better for me (almost perfectly) is when I switched the main shell from explorer to cmd so I could launch explorer from there, thus launching classic theme perfectly. The main problem with that is that for some reason it does not work with the console logon.

Thank you for the information, so it seems that things are still looking good for the basic theme if this script can fix Oldnewexplorer's glass on navigation bar enabler. However I have just remembered that some ugly buttons still remain on the navigation bar: the up, refresh and search buttons which ironically have remained windows 7-like on classic theme. Do you know by chance how to fix those?


Sorry for mixing things up, what I meant were just regular themed context menus on the Desktop; I probably was not thinking much when I wrote "metro" ones. As for your idea about making a batch script that combines everything is certainly excellent, very promising: I in fact attempted something similar when I experienced a themed explorer, although just a task with a batch file that killed and started explorer. It did not do anything though, as the task was separate from the classic theme tasks, so it likely started before the classic ones.

How could I create a batch file that combines everything, though? I just know how to restart explorer, start programs and nothing much. For example, in the batch file I would not know exactly if for byspel write "start C:\Classic\ClassicThemeTray.exe /enable" or "start C:\Classic\ClassicThemeTray.exe c/ enable". I presume the batch file would look something like this, as I need to first start classic theme, then restart explorer, then start retrobar and lastly start openshell:

start c:\classic\classicthemetray.exe /enable

taskkill /im explorer.exe /f

start explorer.exe

start C:\Users\Admin\Documents\Programes\RetroBar\RetroBar.exe

start C:\Program Files\Open-Shell\StartMenu.exe

exit

I have not included above userinit or applicationframehost, as by restarting explorer I would say they would not be needed.

I switched to using DWM on but with BasicThemer5 and the WindHawk mod that I mentioned in a previous post. It is basically DWM off but with working metro dialogs (many of which are non-replaceable currently), v-sync, and "fancy" aero snap dialogs. However, the navigation bar can be fixed (without OldNewExplorer and including explorer.exe in the WindHawk mod if DWM is on) by using a special visual style. The visual style that is attached here is one that works and looks like Windows 7, however, I could not find the original source of where I got this theme (though I vaguely remember it is from deviantart and is not the one from sagorpirbd, as that one does not work).

In the configuration of ihatemetro, explorer.exe is already included, because the @include * line means that all the processes are included, except those which are explicitly excluded.

Normally, including a process twice isn't supposed to block anything. On the other hand, it is possible that another installed mod is incompatible with this one. What other Windhawks mods are installed ?

I use the shrink address bar mod as well as the "disable immersive menus" mod and the "No immersive taskbar context menu" mod and all of them work with the mentioned DwmExtendFrame mod with no conflicts.

Definitely some conflicting third-party application. This script works flawlessly on 21H1, which is almost the same, and would be less broken than Windows 11. What programs do you have installed on your test install (including customization programs).

Also, send the process list in task manager right after login into Windows by going to the "Details" tab in task manager (or show processes for all users if you are using the classic task manager). I might be able to find which application to exclude, as by not including all programs (except excluded ones), any future program that you install that may have something like an Extended Glass Titlebar will need to be added to the script and recompiled, which is tedious.

It could either be PresentMon or any of the Nvidia/Gigabyte programs. Any system processes should work with this mod, and winlogon, wininit, etc. will not conflict with this mod. It is 99% third party applications that begin on startup that are causing the problem.