Question about the width of the start menu

[Hottihotte]

Is there a way to make the wide empty area narrower when no apps are pinned and it automatically widens when you pin apps, like in Windows 10?

[bbmaster123]

Not automatically no. Unfortunately the windows 11 start menu isn't currently user resizable at all, although there is a visual state in there called ResizeEnabled so maybe with another future mod. We can style visual states with the start menu styler mod, but not set them directly.

The best we can do right now is create (I have an older Windows10 minimal somewhere in my vm) a variant, with appslist only, and the menu manually made narrower. Then you would have to swap between theme variants whenever you need to. not exactly ideal

[Hottihotte]

Not automatically no. Unfortunately the windows 11 start menu isn't currently user resizable at all, although there is a visual state in there called ResizeEnabled so maybe with another future mod. We can style visual states with the start menu styler mod, but not set them directly.

The best we can do right now is create (I have an older Windows10 minimal somewhere in my vm) a variant, with appslist only, and the menu manually made narrower. Then you would have to swap between theme variants whenever you need to. not exactly ideal

Thanks for the answer. It works with ExplorerPatcher, hence my question. But since I'm now focusing on Windhawk, I want to leave out the EP entirely. The reason is that I don't want to run two tools and the EP is already declared "undesirable" in Defender.

I would be happy if that were possible and changing the design (when you pin apps) wouldn't be a problem.

[bbmaster123]

Yea it does work with EP like you say, you could even use windhawk to style the real w10 menu from EP, even on 24h2, just the targets are a bit different.

I'm personally keeping EP on my main system, I just love the weather widget on the w10 taskbar too much! haha

Agreed, but that likely wont be possible as long as the apps list and pinned list are are 2 separate view modes by default, unlike the windows 10 start menu

[Hottihotte]

However, ExplorerPatcher is not compatible with many Windhawk mods. At least not if you use the Windows 10 taskbar style (ExplorerPatcher) because only that brings the old taskbar back in Windows 11 24h2. For example https://windhawk.net/mods/taskbar-grouping Causes a separate button to be created on the taskbar for each new window. For example, notice the two separate buttons for Notepad on the screenshot What ExplorerPatcher cannot do but the mod is simply not compatible. So I wanted to switch completely to Windhawk.

[bbmaster123]

because you have 2 notepads open? if you set not to group, then it wont group, I don't understand the incompatibility? Besides, EP does work with windhawk and the styler mods, just the windows 10 taskbar cant be styled. EP with windows 11 taskbar works fine, win10/win11 start menu works fine, etc

here's a quick example with win10 start and win11 taskbar on 24h2

Anyway let me know if there's something I can help you with in regards to styling, cheers!

[Hottihotte]

It's only indirectly about the two notepads, but it's the best example. I know that you can set "do not group" in Windows, but that only makes the individual notepads visible. One of the things this mod does is that you can move the two notepads separately in the taskbar. Normally, in Windows, this only works as a "whole block, they're all stuck together" because it's one and the same application. And since this mod is incompatible with the EP in the taskbar style "Windows 10 ExplorerPatcher", the EP is of no use to me.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/151a9e18-700f-4f3d-aab2-00afa604f230

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4cd3be29-fc89-4e79-81e7-3a96faca0a60

[m417z]

@Hottihotte the mod works with ExplorerPatcher, you just need to make sure to enable the relevant option ("Customize the old taskbar on Windows 11") in the settings.

[Hottihotte]

@Hottihotte the mod works with ExplorerPatcher, you just need to make sure to enable the relevant option ("Customize the old taskbar on Windows 11") in the settings. Unfortunately it doesn't work or I'm doing something wrong

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/92bc78f3-786a-4bac-9b19-0ee26202b6e9

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/516075b5-8352-4d85-8d1f-156bda0449da

The two settings work, but the taskbar style "Windows 11 Standard" and "Windows 10" is no longer supported by EP and with the taskbar style "Windows 10 ExplorerPatcher" the whole thing looks like this, please pay attention to the folders in the taskbar.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f77c0195-6199-4306-90bf-4801ac2921e1

It is no longer possible to move different files of the same application separately.

[m417z]

It's supposed to work, make sure your ExplorerPatcher version is newer than 66.6 and that you enabled the option for the old taskbar in the mod's settings. If it still doesn't work, create a new issue here and attach debug logs: https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk-mods/issues

[bbmaster123]

This makes sense. in 24H2, Microsoft removed the code for the Win10 taskbar, so now the options are Win11 taskbar, or amr's rebuilt win10 taskbar. I'd bet since its not the exact same taskbar code, it might need to be hooked or processed differently in the grouping mod.

[m417z]

Yes, I worked with the ExplorerPatcher maintainer to add support for some of the mods, see: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/wiki/ExplorerPatcher's-taskbar-implementation#windhawk-mods-support

[Hottihotte]

Yes, I worked with the ExplorerPatcher maintainer to add support for some of the mods, see: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/wiki/ExplorerPatcher's-taskbar-implementation#windhawk-mods-support

I have to apologize. I overlooked in the description of the mod that I have to activate the option "Customize the old taskbar on Windows 11" in the mod's settings Now it works perfectly