How to Restore Old File Explorer in Windows 11

In this article I will show you how to restore the old File Explorer Ribbon in Windows 11 using 2 methods. The first method is the easiest one and the second is the manual way of doing the first method.

1. Restore Old File Explorer with Winaero Tweaker

Download Winaero Tweaker

After you download the software, the installation process is very simple. Open Winaero Tweaker from the Desktop Icon and on User Account Control click on Yes.

In the program, you need to click on Enable Ribbon from the Windows 11 section and check Enable the Ribbon UI in File Explorer.

After that, just click on the Restart Explorer button from the bottom.

After you enable this option, you will restore the classic Ribbon user interface in the Windows 11 File Explorer.

This option has a side effect. It also disables the “Share” command in File Explorer that invokes the modern sharing command and dialog with Store apps. Don’t disable this feature if you rely on this way of sharing data.

To restore the default ribbon in Windows 11 simply uncheck the selected option and then click on Restart Explorer to see the results again.

2. Restore Old File Explorer using the Registry Editor

Click on the Search Box and type there regedit. Right click on Registry Editor and then click on Run as administrator. On User Account Control click on Yes.

In Regedit navigate to this location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions

Right click on Shell Extensions and then click on New and Key. Name the key, Blocked.

In this new key, right click on an empty space and then New and click on String Value.

Name the String Value with the following name:

{e2bf9676-5f8f-435c-97eb-11607a5bedf7}

After this, all you need to do is to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

To restore the default Ribbon just delete the String Value that you created in the Registry Editor.

For a more in depth explanation, you can watch the video below from the youtube channel.