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Classic Explorer not working

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Brian Borg
2009-12-22
2012-10-29
1 2 > >> (Page 1 of 2)
  • Brian Borg

    Brian Borg - 2009-12-22

    I installed Classic Shell but nothing I tried will get me the Classic Explorer
    Toolbar, in either IE 8 or in Windows Explorer. I tried it in the RC version
    of Windows 7 x64.

    I tried the steps in the Help to use Internet Explorer to enable it. But the
    Classic Explorer Bar was not available, even though it is Enabled in "Manage
    Add-ons".

    I found it in the Registry under HKLM\Software\Microsot\Internet
    Explorer\Extensions, and a similar path under Wow6432Node. I tried adding
    values like other extensions have, such as Default Visible, HotIcon, Icon, and
    Button Text. It still did not work, although I now found a Toolbar button
    available for Classic Explorer Bar, under "Customize". Unfortunately, the
    button does nothing.

    I love the Classic Shell's start menu. How can I enable the Classic Explorer
    Bar?

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-22

    You are the first to report such a problem. Unfortunately I don't know how
    Explorer decides which toolbars are available and which not.

    If you open the View\Toolbar menu in Windows Explorer do you see "Classic
    Explorer Bar" or only "Lock the Toolbars"?

    Also, do you get the rest of the Classic Explorer functionality (like if you
    select a folder in the navigation pane and press Alt+Enter do you get the
    properties of the folder)?

    BTW, in my registry the Explorer\{64964764-1101-4bbd-8891-B56B1A53B9B3}
    key only has BandClsid and Clsid. No icons or such because a Windows
    Explorer toolbar doesn't need them.

     
  • yallcome

    yallcome - 2009-12-23

    Yes, the Classic Shell worked for me as well, but the Explorer tweak does not
    show. I'm in Windows 7 64 bit current commercial release.

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-23

    yallcome, can you answer the same questions as above? Do you have a "Toolbars"
    submenu in the "View" menu and what is in it? Do the other features work, like
    Alt+Enter or showing the size in the status bar? Also, are you running as
    standard user and what are the UAC settings?

     
  • yallcome

    yallcome - 2009-12-23

    Righto -- Do NOT have a Toolbars submenu under View -- have only all the
    different size icon options, list, details, tiles and content options. Yes on
    the Alt+Enter on the directory, it works fine. I am running as user with admin
    rights. I don't know about UAC settings, as I've not familiarized myself with
    them in Win 7 64. Thanks!

     
  • yallcome

    yallcome - 2009-12-23

    Just checked UAC -- they are set to default.

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-23

    The UAC settings are in the same place. From the Control Panel go to the User
    Accounts and it is the last option "Change User Account Control settings". Can
    you turn it all the way down, reboot, and see if it works for you?

    This is a long shot, but can you also check the group policy (if you don't
    have the Home version). Run gpedit.msc, go to User Configuration ->
    Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer -> "Allow
    only per user or approved shell extensions". What is the state? Enabled,
    Disabled, or Not configured.

     
  • yallcome

    yallcome - 2009-12-23

    OK, turned UAC down to zero, rebooted. Still no go.
    Checked the group policy as indicated. It is "Not configured."

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-23

    I'm sorry, I don't know what else to try. From the 4 machines I have (Vista,
    Win7, 32-bit, 64-bit) only one had a problem and it was solved by enabling the
    "Classic Explorer Bar" and "ExplorerBHO Class" from Internet Explorer's Tools
    -> Manage Add-ons menu. If that doesn't work for you, I'm at a loss.

    Maybe you have some other application that conflicts with mine. I don't know
    how it can happen but I'm not ruling this out. But the most likely explanation
    is that I did something wrong in my code :). That's one of the reasons I made
    this open source - so people more experienced than me can look at the code and
    tell me how stupid I am and help me fix problems.

     
  • yallcome

    yallcome - 2009-12-23

    hahaha -- I'm sure it'll work out sooner or later. I like the Classic Shell
    for sure. Give it a rest and think. It'll come sooner or later! Thanks so
    much!

     
  • Brian Borg

    Brian Borg - 2009-12-23

    Sorry for the delay. I was expecting "Monitor" to work.

    In Explorer, I only get "Lock Toolbars". UAC is disabled. And AFAIK that
    Policy is Not Configured.

    In IE, I see the Classic Explorer Bar as Enabled under Currently loaded add-
    ons. Yet it is not available as one of the available Toolbars, either under
    the View menu or with right-click.

    I just installed it on another machine, with Windows 7 x64 RTM this time. It
    is exactly the same. I am going to look at Group Policy some more.

     
  • Brian Borg

    Brian Borg - 2009-12-25

    I don't have the toolbar available in Windows Explorer or IE. In Explorer, I
    only see "Lock the toolbars". In IE, only the default four bars plus the
    compatibility button available.

    In Internet Explorer I have the two add-ons:

    Name Classic Explorer Bar
    Publisher (Not verified) IvoSoft
    Status Enabled
    File date Sunday, December 13, 2009, 12:54 PM
    Version 0.9.6.0

    Name ExplorerBHO Class
    Publisher (Not verified) IvoSoft
    Status Enabled
    File date Sunday, December 13, 2009, 12:54 PM
    Version 0.9.6.0

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-25

    Right. Everything seems to be in order. The add-ons are properly recognized
    and enabled. If Alt+Enter and the status bar feature work for you, that also
    means the DLL is loaded properly.

    The only problem seems to be that Explorer refuses to show the toolbar. I
    can't think of any reason this would happen, but then again I'm no expert.
    Sorry.

     
  • Brian Borg

    Brian Borg - 2009-12-25

    But Alt+Enter and the status bar do not work. I assume you mean Alt+Enter in
    the left, folder pane of Windows Explorer to bring up the properties page.

    The wonderful Classic Start Menu, however, works fine.

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-25

    My mistake, it was yallcome that said Alt+Enter works for him. Can you verify
    if the DLL is loaded? You can use Process Explorer from sysinternals to see if
    ClassicExplorer32.dll or ClassicExplorer64.dll is loaded in the Explorer
    process.

    Another way to check is if you can't delete the DLL from the Program
    Files\ClassicShell folder. You will fail if it is in use. Although there may
    be other reasons why you can't delete it - like UAC or something like that.

    If we establish that the DLL is not loaded we can narrow down the problem.

    BTW, read the rest of this thread. There are some more things you can check,
    like UAC or group policies that disable shell extensions.

    Also BTW, it is normal that the toolbar doesn't show in IE. This is on
    purpose.

     
  • Brian Borg

    Brian Borg - 2009-12-25

    I see ClassicStartMenu.exe and ClassicStartMenuDLL.dll loaded, but nothing
    starting with ClassicExplorer.

    I did read the whole thread. I have UAC disabled by Group Policy, and no
    Policy disabling extensions (that I can see).

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-25

    OK, one last thing to try before I'm out of ideas:

    Open a command prompt and go to the installation folder (usually C:\Program
    Files\ClassicShell). Type these 2 commands "regsvr32 ClassicExplorer32.dll"
    and "regsvr32 ClassicExplorer64.dll" (on 32-bit Windows you only need the
    first command). Log off, then back on and see if that fixes the problem.

    If this doesn't work, then there is something preventing the DLL from loading.
    Without access to your system I can't do more to help. If you have Visual
    Studio you can compile the sources and try to debug Explorer.exe yourself.

     
  • jeff-h

    jeff-h - 2009-12-28

    The Status bar isn't adding up the files when nothing is selected in the
    bottom of the window like xp does whe using your Classic Shell addon for
    windows 7. It just shows the total number of items and thats it.
    Thank you.

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-28

    @jeff-h: It is supposed to. Can you try few things for me?

    • Check if you see the free disk space
    • Select all items (Ctrl+A) - does it show the total size?
    • Deselect all items - does it show the total size? IF not, does it show 0 bytes or blank?
    • Silly question - are you sure you are looking at the status bar and not the Details pane?
     
  • Brian Borg

    Brian Borg - 2009-12-29

    Thanks, Ivo.

    I had already tried registering all the dll's on the first installation. Only
    the ClassicExplorer*.dll's registered, as per your instructions. I will also
    try it on the second machine.

    I (re)registered them on the RTM installation. But it does not seem to have
    done anything.

    By the way, these "machines" are actually virtual machines, running under
    Microsoft Hyper-V, on Windows 2008 Server R2. Is there any chance that this is
    the cause of my problems?

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-29

    I am running Vista and Win7 inside Virtual PC 2007 with no problem.

    Maybe the problem is that you have a server OS. I don't have one to test
    myself. I would expect a server OS to have even tighter security and more
    things disabled by default.

     
  • Brian Borg

    Brian Borg - 2009-12-29

    Server 2008 R2 is just providing virtualization. The virtual machines them
    selves are Windows 7 x64, both RTM and RC. I also just tried it on a Vista x64
    virtual machine. Works the same. Still no toolbar available.

    I am thinking maybe it is something about Internet Explorer 8.0. It always
    seems to try resetting my security to higher levels.

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-29

    Oh, I see. I'm also using IE8 and have no problems. But my virtual machines
    are 32-bit. And I'm using Virtual PC instead of Hyper-V.

    I don't know what else to try remotely. My psychic debugging skills only go so
    far :)

     
  • NovaIT

    NovaIT - 2009-12-30

    Hi,

    Classic Explorer works for two of my Windows 7 machines (32-bit). However, I
    am having the same problem that I cannot get Classic Explorer bar on Windows
    2008 R2.

    64-bit issus? or Windows 2008 R2 compatibility issues?

    Thanks in advance for any help.

     
  • Ivo Beltchev

    Ivo Beltchev - 2009-12-30

    I am developing this on 64-bit machine. It works for me for 64-bit Vista and
    Win7. Must be some server-specific problem. I don't have a server OS to test.
    Is there somewhere I can download a 32-bit version of Server 2008 R2 so I can
    try it for 30 days in a virtual machine?

     
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