What happened to WinXShell? (not an issue)

[comdlg32]

I have seen newer versions of WinXShell on Win10XPE, but it looks nothing like the version (shellpart) i compiled. Did the project get closed source? Did the project get stalled/discontinued?

[pog5]

I agree! This project should be updated or archived.

[slorelee]

I have seen newer versions of WinXShell on Win10XPE, but it looks nothing like the version (shellpart) i compiled.

The one in Win10XPE is rewrite with DuiLib + Lua to create the UI elements(UI_Settings, UI_WIFI, etc).
Those parts is seperated with PExplorer, They are single UI components, can run with Windows Explorer.exe, or other shells.
You can't use UWP UIs in Windows PE, so They be developped.
(That part has nothing with this project.)

The origin shell part(startmenu, taskbar, notifyarea, clock) is no much change.
(added 10+ lines to call SetWindowTheme() for taskbar button style, make it be good on Windows 11.)

[slorelee]

Did the project get stalled/discontinued?

I shared the codes for the one who want to create their own shell on Windows, and hope some others can
improve/contribute on the project, but it is sad.
This project has been created in six years ago, but no any issue, and pullrequest,
except this one now(6 year later).

The shellpart branch is stable, still can be built and run on Windows 11, Windows Server 2022.

The new one --- WinXShell.exe use other libraries, lots of them are not open source,
It is another different project.

[illsk1lls]

Are you going to be updating WinXShell for the latest version of windows? It hangs on XPE when booting, the flyout and LUA tests work but taskbar and startmenu take like 10min to eventually load. Hope all is well. ;) Both projects are amazing!

[slorelee]

Are you going to be updating WinXShell for the latest version of windows? It hangs on XPE when booting, the flyout and LUA tests work but taskbar and startmenu take like 10min to eventually load. Hope all is well. ;) Both projects are amazing!

The released WinXShell works fine on the latest version of Windows (Windows 11 23h2, or 25xxx preivew version).

I don't know which version you used, the lastest version add a docs description for the lua functions.

https://www.lanzoux.com/b011xhbsh Password: shell

The new beta version is WinXShell_RC5.1.2_beta2.
WinXShell_RC5.1.2_beta2.zip

[ZerG-MOS]

Is it possible to add support for the CornerRadius parameter to applications for WINPe in XML?

[slorelee]

This seems to be the one you compiled, very nice but it keeps giving a Duilib error, any idea how to fix? Thanks in advance.

https://www.lanzoux.com/b011xhbsh Password: shell

The new beta version is WinXShell_RC5.1.4_beta4.
Did this one worked without duilib error?

Please rename the WinXShell_.exe to WinXShell.exe, WinXShellC_.exe to WinXShellC.exe.
WinXShell_RC5.1.4_beta4.zip

[slorelee]

Is it possible to add support for the CornerRadius parameter to applications for WINPe in XML?

WinXShell_RC5.1.4_beta4 support CornerRadius in Windows 11 PE.

[LiteWinOS]

@slorelee

Off topic

Is it possible to reduce CPU usage of explorer.exe / winxshell.exe ?
to Windows 8 levels in Windows 10

from my tests after tweaks

Windows 8 is around 1% on 12700k in hyper-v
windows 10 2015 1.7%
Server 2022 / Win11 2.5%

Im wondering if there something that can make it even down more

ty

[illsk1lls]

Are you going to be updating WinXShell for the latest version of windows? It hangs on XPE when booting, the flyout and LUA tests work but taskbar and startmenu take like 10min to eventually load. Hope all is well. ;) Both projects are amazing!

The released WinXShell works fine on the latest version of Windows (Windows 11 23h2, or 25xxx preivew version).

@slorelee , Hope all has been well.

I am tinkering with the idea of making a simple rescue directly from the host OS, without using a windows ISO. I made a simple CMD script to find the WinRE volume in a machine and burn it to a bootable USB with powershell cmds. It is not standard WinPE and WinXShell takes ~5min to load. But once it does it works as expected. Same issue with 24h2 as 23h2.

Flexlauncher loads immediately so I'm using that for now. But I would love to get WinXShell working with this. I have a few other ideas, like baking it into the System RE volume etc

https://github.com/illsk1lls/RescueMaker <== This creates flat bootable USB

If I create a USB with that script and change the following:

1.) Extract WinXShell to USB:\Windows

2.) USB:\Windows\System32\winpeshl.ini ==> [LaunchApp] AppPath=%SystemDrive%\Windows\Startup.cmd

3.) Then create USB:\Windows\Startup.cmd ==> %~dp0winxshell.exe -winpe

This takes 5 min to load taskbar etc

[DavidXanatos]

Did the project get stalled/discontinued?

I shared the codes for the one who want to create their own shell on Windows, and hope some others can improve/contribute on the project, but it is sad. This project has been created in six years ago, but no any issue, and pullrequest, except this one now(6 year later).

The shellpart branch is stable, still can be built and run on Windows 11, Windows Server 2022.

The new one --- WinXShell.exe use other libraries, lots of them are not open source, It is another different project.

This repository is very confusing hiding the source in a branch is not the expected practice.
I find the project really exciting is the WinXShell the right one to start with?

PS: also building instructions are missing, I see there are 2 3rd party libs needed:
$(ProjectDir)vendor\lua;
D:\Dev\duilib\duilib
any paricular version or is any good enough

PPS: Also the DUI sub fodler is missing could you please provide a build able version of the sources

[slorelee]

This repository is very confusing hiding the source in a branch is not the expected practice.

The old PExplorer is not a good name, and it will be commited as new WinXShell project, so just use the old repository with a branch until it ready.

[slorelee]

PS: also building instructions are missing, I see there are 2 3rd party libs needed:

The lua can be found in http://www.lua.org. the branch remove the dependence of duilib,
it should be complie with the DUI and duilib.
maybe there leave some wrong configure in it(it should build with empty folders of duilib, DUI),
I will checkout the repository into a clean folderto try.

[slorelee]

It is not standard WinPE and WinXShell takes ~5min to load.

It startup immediately in old Windows 10 WinRE. The new Windows RE make something changed,
I used to make a fresh Windows PE with WimBuilder2, and it also startup immediately, maybe copy one or some xxx.dll(s)
from the Sysytem32 could fix it. I will take some time to see where it be blocked for the 5min.

[slorelee]

Is it possible to reduce CPU usage of explorer.exe / winxshell.exe ?

remove some timer like fresh the taskbar button, the clock time, maybe the CPU usage will be down.
Or get rid of the DWM in a lower cost for the UI.