Remove Explorer toolbar?

[zim]

Hi.

Is there an easy way (setting, registry key, etc.) to remove the default toolbar on Explorer windows (the one with Organize, Share with, Burn, etc.)? It's just in the way since I never use it.

Thanks.

 

[Barman58]

As far as I am aware this is a hard coded item and as it is dynamic and changes dependent on what you are doing is not removeable

 

[sergiogarcia9]

you might wanna see this thread
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/517-menu-bar-turn-off.html#post213573
edit: Not the right menu bar

 

[gumballguy]

It certainly is removable, it is a part of your shell dll file which is basically written in xml and can be edited with a resource editor. There was info (slightly buried) on the net for how to do this in vista.

There's a few things here though..

There's no easy way (that I know of)- I'll tell you what I know, and list the problems afterward. I haven't managed to see this through to completion.

1. Get a resource editor (eg: XN Resource Editor)
2. Open shell32.dll
3. Browse to the UIFILE section
4. It is just text in xml language. Just copy/paste the text for the following:
Copy the text from 11 to 12 (overwrite, not append)
Copy the text from 33 to 42 (overwrite, not append)
5. Save (overwrite the original shell32) and exit.
On Vista I had to give permissions to myself to rename the original shell32.dll (direct overwrite wouldn't work), save the modified shell32.dll to the desktop, then drag and drop the modified shell32.dll into the system32 folder)
6. Logoff and back on.

Now, for the problems:

A. 32 bit and 64 bit. I did this on Vista 32 bit and it worked perfectly. I'm not sure whether I am having problems with architecture changes in Windows 7 or whether it is moving to a 64 bit OS that is doing it (there is a shell32.dll in \system32 and also \SysWOW64). Yet again, there may not be any problem here at all, windows seems to be using the file from the system32 folder.

B. Permissions are a pain. Claiming ownership and granting full access to shell32.dll in \system32 didn't allow me to overwrite it. It did allow me to rename it... but then Win7 wouldn't copy the edited shell32.dll into system32. It also wouldn't let me rename my shell32.bak into shell32.dll, so I got stuck without a file at all. Without one, your OS is dead on reboot. I though it may have been a lack of folder permissions for the \system32 folder, so I tried fixing that but windows would instantly close the security settings dialog, stopping any changes being made. Luckily I dual boot, so I copied the file to my other OS and drag and dropped it in that way.

C. The file size drops from 13.5mb to 12.3mb after editing. Something isn't right there. Not surprisingly, win7 had issues when I tried to boot. Recovering from this wasn't a real issue, I dropped a backup of the original into the folder by booting to my other OS.



It might not be as bad as it all sounds. A change to a working resource editor (Problem C) + linux live cd to copy the file over might do it. That's if the resource editor I was using was the trouble.


Perhaps someone can pick this up where I left off and get it to work? I don't think I can go any further with it. It may also be markedly easier with a 32bit version of Windows 7 (I expect it would be).

 

[zim]

Thanks, gumballguy. I didn't get it to work, but it's rather interesting and helpful information.

Have experimented a bit with this with Windows 7 (x64) in VirtualBox, with no luck. Ended up getting only the window frame on Explorer windows, check the attachment.

Most resource editors failed me, including XN Resource Editor when trying to save the changes. And to actually get shell32.dll back into the system32 folder, I had to boot into XP.

Yet, I'm still obsessed with getting rid of that toolbar.

 

[gumballguy]

What editors have you tried?

Also what on earth do you google for to find alternatives?

Don't forget to post back here if you get it to work. I hate that toolbar too.

 

[moinmoin]

In Vista works fine. I think Windows 7 also.
You need Restorator and a editor (notepad)
C:\Windows\Resources\Theme name\Shell\NormalColor Shellstyle.dll
Open with Restorator and looks for
UIFILE\1.txt
Looks for:
<style resid="FolderBandStyle">
Add to a new line:
<Element padding="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,-32rp)"/>

Can you see in the german deskmodder-Wiki

 

[zim]

gumballguy: RedEdit, Resource Hacker, XN Resource Editor, Resource Tuner and Restorator. I believe Restorator was the only one to successfully edit shell32.dll and shellstyle.dll. But the trial version has a dumb "limitation":
Adds texts ("Patched with Restorator" etc.) to MENU, DIALOG, and VERSION resources upon saving.

My creativity when it comes to searching is very limitted, so it's mostly the obvious terms, like "resource editor", "resource hacker" and so on. I'm still looking for the ultimate resource editor, preferably open-source.

moinmoin: Well, I wanted to literally get rid of it. But if that's the only way, I'll get over it. But I still couldn't get it to work. Ended up getting only the window frame again (as in the screenshot in my previous post).

And this whole permission/security mess is pissing me off. At one point both my System32 and SysWOW64 folders was missing their shell32.dll, yet Windows 7 booted fine and Explorer worked fine. But I couldn't put a new shell32.dll in either of the folders, so had to get over on XP again to fix it. I assume Windows 7 used one of its backup files directly - which is kind of confusing, how can I be certain Windows 7 is using my modified DLLs instead of some backup DLLs?

Anyways, I'll guess my next step is to experiment a bit with those files in Hex Workshop (which is pretty awesome, but it's a 1 month evaluation version).

Thank God for virtual machines, without it I would've given up or gone insane.

 

[gumballguy]

Well, I tried it too. "Resourcer" is open source, perhaps that helps.
Anolis - Release: Resourcer 0.8.9 Beta

I didn't manage to get it to work. I tried editing the C:\Windows\Resources\Theme name\Shell\NormalColor Shellstyle.dll.

It first didn't look like it had saved. I booted to XP to overwrite the file and XP wouldn't even let me overwrite the file on the win7 partition! I've never seen something like that before... baffling. Maybe I have gone out of my mind. I went back to win7 and it did seem to have saved the changes, they were there when I opened the file in restorator at least. However, nothing actally happened. No difference in the GUI whatsoever.

Colour me confused. I'm not used to things I can't troubleshoot :/

 

[moinmoin]

Overwrite is not good.
You must patched your uxtheme.dll
Rename the shellstyle.dll in shellstyle.dll.bak, then copy the new shellstyle.dll in your folder.

 

[zim]

Holy cow! I did it. It's finally gone.

I actually extracted everything under UIFILE in shell32.dll with Resourcer, then I let Notepad++ search through all files for "FolderBand", which it would find in UIFILE 12, 27, 28, 32 and 46. Then I opened shell32.dll in XN Resource Editor under XP (VirtualBox) - for some reason it worked fine saving the changes in XP - and commented out the FolderBand parts in the relevant UIFILE files. Lastly, since I don't have any other OS besides W7 installed directly on this computer, I booted Ubuntu directly from a DVD, which allowed me to copy the modified shell32.dll into the System32 folder again.

My modified DLL (from W7 Ultimate x64) can be downloaded here, if desired.

Good luck! Keep me posted.

 

[gumballguy]

I haven't got to trying it yet, just so busy, but will certainly let you know. This is great to hear.

 

[Japa]

Nice I modified my shell32.dll x86 the same way and it works, but I have one question.
How can I now enable/disable the navigation, details and preview panes?

 

[zim]

Sorry, I don't know how or if it's possible without the toolbar. The navigation pane would be handy sometimes, but otherwise I don't use any panes, I like to keep it simple.

By the way, some programs with Open/Save File dialogs still has that toolbar, like Notepad++ and Firefox. What does these programs do different from those without the toolbar (e.g. Notepad and Opera)?

I'm considering looking into Shell programming (I have programming experience, but not with the Windows Shell) to maybe make a solution which lets you toggle that toolbar. But I don't have so much motivation or time, so I don't know if I'll get anywhere with that.

 

[gumballguy]

Hi

I gave up caring about this and got used to having the toolbar there. Only just now have I tried removing it again.

I have now removed it on my win7 64 release candidate. I have a retail version handy but won't be testing it on that (my retail win7 is just sitting there until I build my new pc, which is quite a long way off).

Here is a DIY summary for everyone, as I didn't think the thread read very clearly:

Get XN resource editor (must be run on a 98/2k/XP system, not Vista/Win7 compatible)
Copy the shell32.dll from system32 in your windows 7 installation to the PC that will run XN resource editor
Open shell32.dll in XN resource editor
Browse to UIFILE\12
Look for the word FolderBand
Look for the first <Element> written above the first occurrence of FolderBand
Look for the first </Element> written below the last occurrence of FolderBand
Delete everything between (and including) the <Element> and </Element>. There is no need to leave blank lines in their place, they can be deleted too.
Repeat in UIFILE\27
Repeat in UIFILE\28
Repeat in UIFILE\32
Repeat in UIFILE\46
Save the file (not export, just save).
Verify the file you saved has actually saved (check the file modified date). It didn't work my first time but that was probably operator error.
Boot off a linux cd and overwrite this file into System32 on your Windows 7 installation drive (I overwrote the file in SysWow64 as well*. I put the exact same modified shell32.dll into both folders). CANNOT be done via booting into XP on a dual booted system.
Don't replace the 12.5mb shell32.dll that you may find somewhere else. (Well, I didn't need to)
Delete the two shell32.dll files in Windows\winsxs so that windows won't restore these as backups.*

* Indicates whilst I did this and it worked, it may not have been necessary.
In particular, deleting from winsxs may be a bad idea, just in case windows ever needs to roll back to the old files (my understanding is that the files here are not a form of file protection, they are only used when newer files aren't working correctly).

There was no need to mess with permissions in win7. Trying to do so simply didn't work.

Side notes:
Zim, I didn't know what you meant by 'comment out'. I understand the concept, I didn't know if the punctuation for it was an apostrophe, percent sign, etc etc. So I simply removed the "element" code entirely, which worked. Perhaps you can provide info on what you did.

Also, the above file link is dead. I haven't (and won't) be including a replacement file. Reason for this is that the file may not work with different service packs or updates etc. Apart from the pest of needing an xp system and a live linux cd, the process is actually quite easy to do.

Thanks all!

 

[Lee]

Thanks to all who have posted here. This has been an interesting read. Maybe one of you folks could get a hold of Brink to see about setting up a tutorial for this little project you have been working on. I am sure there are others here on the forums who would like this information.

Again thanks for the information and great read.

Lee

 

[gumballguy]

Funny you should say that, I'm suddenly having a few issues with my win 7 RC.

My method needs someone to play with it, something I won't be doing (win7 64 RC is on my laptop, which I've just sold. I wont be building a machine with win7 for a long time for financial reasons).

Things to try: try only replacing the shell32.dll in sytem32, not in syswow64 as well. Check that the original shell32.dll's in both locations are actually the same file via CRC (remember that I copied my modified shell32.dll into both locations without checking first that the files were supposed to be identical). Try not deleting stuff in winsxs. Try not using the release candidate.

Hopefully someone can update this thread with a better solution, and perhaps try their hand at doing a writeup. Sorry, but I soon won't have a computer capable of running win7, so I'm bowing out here.

 

[ShopBunny]

Here's a much easier way to remove that folderband in explorer :

2shared - download Shellstyle Replacement.rar

Just follow the provided instructions, and you'll be done in under two minutes.

 

[ShopBunny]

B. Permissions are a pain. Claiming ownership and granting full access to shell32.dll in \system32 didn't allow me to overwrite it. It did allow me to rename it... but then Win7 wouldn't copy the edited shell32.dll into system32. It also wouldn't let me rename my shell32.bak into shell32.dll, so I got stuck without a file at all. Without one, your OS is dead on reboot. I though it may have been a lack of folder permissions for the \system32 folder, so I tried fixing that but windows would instantly close the security settings dialog, stopping any changes being made. Luckily I dual boot, so I copied the file to my other OS and drag and dropped it in that way.

As for this issue you had, you could try this regtweak to add the take ownership to the context menu :

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html

View attachment InstallTakeOwnership.rar


Also, it's best to completely disable UAC if you want to take ownership and rename systemfiles. Otherwise UAC keeps f**ng things up...

This has ALWAYS worked for me, for any systemfile...

 

[zebus]

Thanks for all the helpful information in this thread, was able to do this trick for myself as well.

Does anyone know if its maybe possible to take this even further and remove the address bar as well?


*edit*
Don't know hardly anything about this but just for the heck of it tried messing around with explorerframe.dll since thats where I figured the values for it would be, but I was only successful at getting the search bar nonfunction.. not gone.