Restore Win10 (and earlier) Ribbon Interface in File Explorer

[britechguy]

I have tried the registry hack where you add:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked]
"{e2bf9676-5f8f-435c-97eb-11607a5bedf7}"=""

to the registry and it's no longer working under Win11 22H2. The "new and improved" UI is not improved as far as blind or visually impaired users are concerned, as almost all of the classic keyboard shortcuts beyond a core few like new folder, cut, copy, paste, and rename, are not there anymore.

My web searching mojo must be off, because the only thing I keep turning up is adding the above noted key to make the classic ribbon interface come back. Anyone know of other methods?

 

[Larry Sabo]

StartAllBack may fix it.

 

[britechguy]

@Larry Sabo

Thanks. This utility is very nice indeed in that you can tweak the UI settings immediately and toggle them even between invocations of things like File Explorer so that you can have one running with the native Win11 UI, another with the Win10 ribbon, and another with the Win7 command bar.

And it covers a lot more territory than this. Easily worth the cost of buying the license(s) if you need or want it.

 

[britechguy]

This also turns out to be very handy if you're supporting Windows 10 users and are using a Windows 11 machine, as it makes going back to the Windows 10 UI look and feel a cinch as well as reversing it.

One of the things I find strangest under Windows 11 is the changes made to the UI of File Explorer, particularly considering the work I do with individuals who are blind or visually impaired. They depend on keyboard shortcuts to do what we with sight do via point and click. Most often when MS changes a UI to the extent that they did with File Explorer, even if "the old ribbon" is not visible, all of the old keyboard shortcuts remain available anyway. Not in this case, as many of them are MIA under the new UI.

StartAllBack allows for making your File Explorer UI default to the Windows 10 ribbon either constantly, or on demand. The fact that you can get to its Properties either by right-clicking on the Start button or by hitting WinKey + X or via the Control Panel is very handy as well.

[I refuse to "go back" to anything that's of the Windows 7 era, even though it's supported by this software.]