I went ahead and took the easy way by downloading the binary (explorer.exe) instead of downloading and compiling the source code myself. Then I renamed Windows explorer, and copied and pasted ReactOS explorer. Windows started giving me error messages about how an integral part of the system was changed and that I need to insert Windows XP SP2 CD and repair the system, I ignored it, other than the error message nothing changed. I had to restart Windows for ReactOS explorer to take over and BOOM everything changed!
The changes were:
- The start menu was replace by a more similar to Windows 9x start menu.
- Multiple desktops
- Icons look changed
- Windows explorer was replaced by a hierarchal and more 1337 explorer.
Obviously some features are still missing, ReactOS explorer is still incomplete, among the missing features I've noticed:
- Backward and forward buttons don't work
- Language options don't show on the taskbar
- No taskbar and Startmenu setting
- Keyboard shortcuts like CTRL+X, and SHIFT+DELETE don't work
This is, as I understand, a one man's work, and other than the few missing features, it works perfectly and very very stable, didn't crash on me once, since I've started using it.
The best bit however it shows you how some 'essential' Windows components aren't essential at all, just like how Microsoft is forcing IE on everyone by bundling it and calling it an essential component of Windows, no it isn't and neither is Windows explorer!
2 comments:
I wonder which version of Ros Explorer you actually used. There are two of them. One, actually being used in our system right now is an older version.
There is also a newer replacement, in the base/shell/explorer-new directory of our source tree. It is way more complete and should also work on Windows quite nice. We still cannot use it in ROS atm, as we lack important functionality in Win32/GDI.
The one I am using was downloaded from:
http://www.sky.franken.de/explorer/download.html
This is the direct download link:
http://www.sky.franken.de/explorer/ros-explorer.zip
I'm not aware of any newer versions, if you don't mind can you provide me with a direct link to it.
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