Solved Move the address bar below the menu bar in Windows Explorer

[Anixx]

By the way, what be u think about this parameter?

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell\NavBar

?

 

[Anixx]

Also may be this thread is relevant: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/160853-windows-explorer-address-bar-disappearing.html

 

[Butters]

Well I actually never noticed that registry setting, even though I have been messing around in that part of the registry quite a bit lately. It's definitely related to the address bar, as it updates every time I resize the search box. However, I can't seem to hide (or even resize) the entire address bar by doing anything to that registry value. So it's probably safe to say that's not it.

The IE6 thing didn't seem to work at all, even in compatibility mode.

I have done plenty of research about people's address bars disappearing, and the only problem with that is I can never find enough information to reverse the process. Generally threads like that just end with the user either doing /sfc scannow, or a re-installation of Windows. If I could find out which file is responsible for creating the address bar, I would at least have a place to start. But I can literally find nothing.

As I said earlier, I would much rather do this in the native Explorer instead of a third-party shell.

I'll keep looking wherever I can, but I haven't been making a whole lot of progress on this, and I honestly feel rather stuck. So again, any information about a system DLL to modify would be huge.

 

[Butters]

Well I still get the feeling it is somewhere in ExplorerFrame.dll. When that file is removed, Windows Explorer completely breaks, and is unable to even start up. But, I've noticed that open/save dialogs still work (like in Task Manager), and there is no address bar to be found in those dialogs.

However, it seems that this is not as simple as just opening up Resource Hacker and deleting a resource (like how you can delete the ribbon UI resource in Windows 8 to disable Explorer's ribbon), as literally nothing in ExplorerFrame.dll that shows up in Resource Hacker actually styles the address bar. This means that it is more than likely compiled code in ExplorerFrame.dll, and the only hope of changing that code would be with hex editing. The only other exclamation I can think of is that it is styled in another file and ExplorerFrame.dll just implements it. That seems like it would be less likely though.

So I guess it's time to start looking into some hex editing for ExplorerFrame.dll

EDIT:
Alright, I'm finally making some progress. I've found some information about the address bar in ExplorerFrame.dll, so hopefully I can figure out the sizing.

 

[Anixx]

What happens if to delete HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{056440FD-8568-48e7-A632-72157243B55B}

or remove the reference to explorerframe.dll from here HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{056440FD-8568-48e7-A632-72157243B55B}\InProcServer32

 

[Anixx]

Also consider this: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{ECD4FC4D-521C-11D0-B792-00A0C90312E1}

 

[Butters]

Also consider this: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{ECD4FC4D-521C-11D0-B792-00A0C90312E1}

Nice find. I'll definitely look into that.

I'm having some trouble with modding ExplorerFrame.dll. Like I said, I did find some information about the address bar in it, so that's definitely the file to we'd need to modify. It will require some hex editing, but I'm having some trouble figuring out what exactly to modify.

I'll do some messing with that registry key in the meantime.

 

[Anixx]

There are registry keys to make a COM object invisible, but I was unsuccessful so far:

MiscStatus (COM)

OLEMISC enumeration (COM)

 

[Butters]

I found a few other registry keys related to the address bar in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface. Look in the {22C440DF-4720-4B3A-A472-0CCB6E6CDD97} key. I tried backing that up and deleting it, but no success. I've never really messed with COM objects before, but I'll keep looking.

EDIT:
Well I tried deleting everything in the registry relating to the address bar/rebar, and now I don't have an address bar in open/save dialogs. I'm still getting it in explorer though.

 

[Anixx]

Did u try to delete 056440FD-8568-48e7-A632-72157243B55B ?

 

[Anixx]

{22C440DF-4720-4B3A-A472-0CCB6E6CDD97} seems to be unrelated, totally. I saw it but dismissed.

 

[Anixx]

See also here:

How to Hide the Stupid Search Button on the Windows 10 Taskbar

The command

Control, Hide, , Search, ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd

Allsows to hide the search bar.

 

[Anixx]

Also consider this:

How do I repair a missing Windows Explorer Address bar? - Super User

I tried to delete browseui.dll, but this did not affect anything.

 

[Anixx]

Consider also the breadcrumb bar: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{575AC8C5-22DB-0D0D-EB85-F182B97F805A}

Address EditBox: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{a542e116-8088-4146-a352-b0d06e7f6af6}

Explorer Travel Band: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{C4EC38BD-4E9E-4b5e-935A-D1BFF237D980}

 

[Butters]

I found all of those except for Explorer Travel Band. I'll check it out and let you know what happens.

I also tried to delete browseui.dll with the same results you described. I think that might just be for Windows Vista.

I've done a little bit of messing around with AutoHotkey, so I might mess with that too.

I think 'Explorer Navigation Bar' has to do with the Navigation Pane that's displayed on the left side of explorer windows by default.

 

[Butters]

Alright, so deleting the ExplorerTravelBand key didn't work. I'm going to look into the AutoHotKey method.

 

[Anixx]

May be relevant:

https://social.technet.microsoft.co.../windows-explorer-navigation-bar-goes-missing

 

[Anixx]

Also consider this:

TitleBar:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{62D878F4-5BE4-4662-AE6C-C9977575709A}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{F5B39B0B-1480-11D3-8549-00C04FAC67D7}

 

[Anixx]

{7BA4C742-9E81-11CF-99D3-00AA004AE837} BrowserBand
{EFA24E64-B078-11D0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E} ExplorerBand

 

[Butters]

So sorry I haven't been updating as much on here, I have a lot of real life stuff to do.

Anyway, I've done a little more research/messing around, and the address bar is internally called ReBarWindow32. I used a program called Zero Dump to find this out, and I also found out that 'Travel Band' is actually the back/forward buttons. But still, changing the 'Travel Band' registry keys doesn't seem to do anything.


So far, no changes I've made to the registry have made a difference to the address bar outside of some open/save dialogs. It would be nice to find it somewhere in the registry, but so far nothing has worked. So I'll keep looking into other solutions as well as registry tweaks.