How to Customize Windows Explorer Toolbar

Question

I am trying to customize (add my own menus to the) Windows Explorer toolbar. From web I came to know that it is possible to that by editing the registry. So I changed the owner of

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{5c4f28b5-f869-4e84-8e60-f11db97c5cc7}\TasksItemsSelected\]

and set permissions as full control to me. Adding keys to the above registry didn’t work for me in Windows 7 and 8 as well.

I installed the tools “ CustomExplorerToolbar.exe" and “ExplorerToolbarEditor.exe” that worked in Windows 7 but not in Windows 8. Also using that tool I can only add existing menus but not create new one.

So I did the technique as described below, I created a shell in commandstore.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\command1]

And called that in,

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{5c4f28b5-f869-4e84-8e60-f11db97c5cc7}\TasksItemsSelected\]
@=”command1”

The above method worked for me in Windows 7, But it is not working in Windows 8. Is there any method to implement that?

Answer 1

The Windows 8 Explorer comes with a ribbon. This ribbon can't be customized. You can try to use OldNewExplorer to disable the ribbon, now the old tweaks should work again.