Upgrading win10 to 11. Will this play nice with openshell?

[Eletian]

Like far too many others, I have to upgrade to win 11. I've refused for years as I want my taskbar to the side and keep openshell (openshell appear to be uninterested in adding it as a feature). I know openshell will survive the upgrade but before I go down this upgrade route, will there be compatibility problems if I do the upgrade, keep openshell and then install this? ie is it possible to just use the taskbar move feature in explorer patcher or do I need to choose one or the other?
No offence but I've been using openshell since i was forced to move from win7 and you know what it's like when you're stuck in your ways...
thanks :)

[pyrates999]

Open shell is for replacing the start menu. It doesn't do anything with the taskbar, except replace the start menu button.

I would uninstall open shell. Then upgrade to windows 11 24h2. Then when done, install open shell again.

[Eletian]

Thanks for the info. however, do you know if there are compatibility problems between openshell and explorer patcher, considering the only reason I want to install EP is to be able to move the taskbar?

[pyrates999]

Shouldn't be.

[RoxyBasicNeedBot]

Yes, it will play nice, and you're actually in the best possible position to make it work perfectly.

Here’s the breakdown of what to expect when you upgrade.

1. General Compatibility

Yes, Open-Shell is fully compatible with Windows 11. Many people install it specifically to replace the new Windows 11 Start menu with a more traditional layout.

2. The Upgrade Process

When you upgrade from Windows 10, Open-Shell should remain installed and functional. However, as with any major OS upgrade and third-party UI tools, there's a small chance it may need to be reconfigured.

Best Practice:

• Make sure you have the latest version of Open-Shell installed before you begin the Windows 11 upgrade.
• If it acts strangely after the upgrade, simply reinstalling the latest version over the top will likely fix it.

3. The "Gotcha": The Taskbar

This is the most important part, and it's where your experience with Explorer Patcher is a huge advantage.

• Open-Shell's Problem: Open-Shell was designed to work with the Windows 10 (and earlier) taskbar. The new, rewritten Windows 11 taskbar is very restrictive and breaks many of Open-Shell's features, especially those related to taskbar customization and button placement.
• Your Solution (Explorer Patcher): Tools like Explorer Patcher or StartAllBack fix this problem. By using Explorer Patcher to restore the classic Windows 10 taskbar, you are giving Open-Shell the exact environment it was designed to run in.

Recent versions of Open-Shell have even added specific "ExplorerPatcher compatibility" to make this combination smoother.

In summary: You are already using the perfect setup. The combination of Explorer Patcher (to provide the classic taskbar) and Open-Shell (to provide the classic Start menu) is the most popular and stable way to get a traditional Windows experience on Windows 11. You should not run into major issues.

[Jamesstevens-3rd]

I haven’t done an upgrade in many years but lots of people do and have no problems, I have explorer-patcher and open-shell on 24H2 after waiting for my windows 10 to stop receiving updates.

my main bit of advise to anyone is if you have something you want to keep and its on your C: partition copy it to a separate hard drive, thing like your profile folder, not that you will copy it back but it will contain your browser profiles, wallpapers and much more.