Microsoft is moving the Windows 10 Task Bar out of Explorer.exe

brambedkar59

Level 29
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Apr 16, 2017
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The latest Insider build of Windows 10 201H2 includes a new component, Taskbar.dll which appears to be a functional replacement for the code in Explorer.exe. Taskbar.dll is not in use yet, but appears functional, except for a somewhat broken search bar.

Moving the code for the taskbar out of Explorer.exe should allow Microsoft to make more rapid changes to the component, and also has reliability benefits, as crashes in either component should not affect the other.
Although explorer is still a process and it loads the taskbar library, so if explorer goes down - everything loaded by it also will (including taskbar). So pretty much no benefit to end user AFAIK

 

TairikuOkami

Level 36
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May 13, 2017
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About time, when explorer crashed, the whole desktop crashed. I use those tweaks, but a separate taskbar will be much better.
Code:
rem 0 - All of the components of Windows Explorer run a single process / 1 - All instances of Windows Explorer run in one process and the Desktop and Taskbar run in a separate process
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer" /v "DesktopProcess" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

rem 1 - Launch folder windows in a separate process
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" /v "SeparateProcess" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
 

brambedkar59

Level 29
Thread author
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Apr 16, 2017
1,886
About time, when explorer crashed, the whole desktop crashed. I use those tweaks, but a separate taskbar will be much better.
Code:
rem 0 - All of the components of Windows Explorer run a single process / 1 - All instances of Windows Explorer run in one process and the Desktop and Taskbar run in a separate process
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer" /v "DesktopProcess" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

rem 1 - Launch folder windows in a separate process
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" /v "SeparateProcess" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

But taskbar.dll will still use the same process aka explorer.exe. Currently don't see any benefit to end user here, maybe in the future.

 

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