If you are talking about the file explorer tabs feature under windows 11. They are not skinnable.

In fact i talk about the whole file explorer. He looks terrible )=. Glass its between nearly everything on the top half. Looks realy terrible. All i wanna have is an Windows 7 theme.

Most Windows 10 skins are not compatible on Windows 11. Hopefully, more artists will update their work for things such as the new file explorer. As of right now the Stardock preloaded themes currently are some of the best skins for Windows 11.

There are a few cheats you could use such as using explorerpatcher to use a Windows 10 style ribbon or windows 7 command bar on Windows 11.

Really though, we are just waiting on the bugs in beta to be ironed out a bit more and having a few more artists get on board with Windows 11. Hopefully both happen soon.

PhoenixRising1 is correct. In order to get an almost exact file explorer look, you will need to use a program such as explorerpatcher in order to remove the windows 11 command bar/tabs bar. As of windows 11 that section was rewritten in xaml and not native to the windows theme engine. Because of that, we are unable skin it. Best case is to use that program talked about to disable it and replace it with either the windows 10 ribbon or 7 command bar. But keep in mind that these mods may not work in future versions of windows 11. Microsoft has been slowly removing bit by bit. We wont know how much longer we will be able to make these types of changes.

Here is the windows 11 file explorer with that mod working. The thing with this mod is we are unable to hide the caption icon/text in file explorer. The theme will also be using acrylic rather than blur. in windowblinds.

Thanks, you two. SimplexDesigns yourone looks gorgeous . I just download this program (explorerpatcher) and wanna know what bells and whistles i need to activate.

^^ Works now.

Took my eye of the Ball for a while there, Phoenix, is that the official line about "Most Win 10 Skins Are Not Compatible With Win 11"  The last thing i read was they should all work and sure that came from Brad Sams in another topic.

If that is true and as i do own Loads of Premium Master Skins, that may not work on Win 11, This could actually be a Deciding Factor about a decision i was pondering, Not willing to buy another Skin and my Back Stock will no longer work unless updated. Gutted as i have spent a lot of money building a collection that is now dead and useless, and seeing as i have almost left Win 10 Behind for ever, not willing to go backwards.

The new tabs feature along with the toolbar as of now in windows 11 is not skinnable. It will be semi transparent and out of place on mist styles. Something we cant really deal with. Only way around it is using explorer patcher to get rid of that feature. Here it is on my XP theme and another theme I tested with from the gallery.

Other than that the dark mode feature added to WB11 will destroy any themes its enabled on unless they have support for that mode. If a theme does not supply dark mode features, it will darken everything for that mode and destroy the entire look of said themes. You would need to turn that feature off manually in advanced settings so that it will not do so.

Other than that, all themes will apply fine and work as in tended on windows 11 minus some new stuff they also added to WB11 that does not affect the current themes.

The truth is that all the skins were looking great on Windows 11 all the way until Microsoft decided to roll out explorer tabs. This feature came after the 22h2 update as their moment 1 update.

For the older skins I do have 2 solutions

1. simply turn off explorer tabs and keep running the command bar 11

https://www.neowin.net/guides/how-to-disable-tabs-in-file-explorer-in-windows-11/

2. Use explorer patcher and run ribbons or command bar 7

I agree and really hope a lot of artists will update their work for Windows 11. Since we are in a transitional time where skinning is changing I am not buying any new skins unless they support both explorer tabs and the new start 10 / 11 menu style. I already had my fun with Windows 10 but I do not want to go back to it either.

SimplexDesigns

reply 9

The new tabs feature along with the toolbar as of now in windows 11 is not skinnable. It will be semi transparent and out of place on mist styles. Something we cant really deal with. Only way around it is using explorer patcher to get rid of that feature. Here it is on my XP theme and another theme I tested with from the gallery.

Reduced 67%

Original 1235 x 220

 

Other than that the dark mode feature added to WB11 will destroy any themes its enabled on unless they have support for that mode. If a theme does not supply dark mode features, it will darken everything for that mode and destroy the entire look of said themes. You would need to turn that feature off manually in advanced settings so that it will not do so.



 

Other than that, all themes will apply fine and work as in tended on windows 11 minus some new stuff they also added to WB11 that does not affect the current themes.

The darken on your subline text app is because you told it to request a dark theme.  WB gave it exactly what was asked of it.  Without WB the titlebar would also look different in that mode.  The issue is some apps ask for a dark theme and then work on a reasonable assumption that the colours are dark and so can use white text.  If the app is set to use a light mode theme (which seems to leave the background dark anyway in that app suggesting the option only controls what it tells the OS it wants) then WB wouldn't darken anything.

Users also tend to complain if they have an app in dark mode and then buttons, menus etc are blindingly bright as they asked for dark mode.

Obviously not a problem if the skin is already dark hence the change in beta 2 to only enable it if the skin isn't dark already and also up the contrast of darkened parts and offer user control over this.

With regards to the tabs, it very much depends on the skin.  If a skin used the glass sections of per pixel frames then it would probably look reasonable.  This is because there are frames for normal and frames for when the skin uses glass which is whats under those tabs.  So the skin doesn't need a line between the caption and the rest of the glass.  Skins like corporate included with WB show this and look great.

The skins with issues with the tabbed explorer probably also had issues with Internet Explorer, FireFox and Google Chrome as they too overlap tabs with the titlebar

There is possibly the option in the future to have different frames in use for those windows with tabs.  Obviously wouldn't help old skins, but new skins could if they wish have a different look for those particular windows to take into account the tabs will exist.

We understand that WB11 added that dark mode feature. However As quite a few people have pointed out. It should not be enabled by default. Do you guys not realize how many themes you have in the wincustomize gallery. Thousands. Many will never get updates to support this new feature of Windowblinds. Hence why many people have asked for the feature to not be enabled by default. There are just way to many skins that will not apply right when its enabled by default. There are gonna be a ton of people commenting or creating forum post then WB11 is fully out asking why their themes look broken or not right. Its going to cause a huge headache with support. I don't want to have to deal with having to say the same thing over and over again to new people. That should not be enabled till way more themes actually support the feature down the road and not right off the bat. Themes work perfectly fine under 11 when its not on. A simple fix you guys should do is make a box that pops up on the first time you apply a theme with windowblinds, it should ask if you would like to enable automatic dark mode support with a yes or no option. If a user selects no, it can let them know that it can be enabled in the advanced settings. This would solve this issue I have and possibly many others have.

As for the tabs frames, it would be nice if you guys could possibly add them having their own frame mode. Would help blend the tabs in better. Its just hard to do that with many themes that do not use any color that the tabs introduce to the theme.

Thankyou for getting back to this topic Mate. My choice i was pondering, is getting easier and easier. I really do not think all of our MasterSkinners will update Win 10 WBs to work with Win 11, not sure how much work it would take per WB, but my back catalogue would keep them busy for a long while, and considering the work would be speculative (They have no idea if such work would bear fruit in the future unlike a new release which always gains popularity).

It seems my options are

Keep messing with WB 11 until each older skin looks right.

Stick with Themes and The Competitors Program which needs No Messing About to allow the customisation i need.

Thanks Phoenix, your a star mate.