Can xplorer2 be a full replacement for Windows Explorer?

Q-Fireball · Post by **Q-Fireball** » 2005 Apr 27, 08:41

So you can delete Windows Explorer from the system? Does xplorer2 depends from Windows Explorer and can xplorer2 be renamed in exploerer.exe?

eyals · Post by **eyals** » 2005 Apr 27, 10:23

I wouldn't...!!!

Explorer is used for more than you think.
Just to make it clearer, open your task manager, and end the proccess explorer.exe (don't worry, it usually comes alive automatically).

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2005 Apr 27, 10:37

Q-Fireball,

eyals is right -- windows explorer is more than a user file manager.
It is required by your systems for basic shell operations.
Even xplorer² needs it -- in fact you can think of x2 as a more powerful substitute for the user interface part of windows explorer.
Deleting windows explorer will render your system unusable.

jacoby · Post by **jacoby** » 2005 Apr 27, 17:18

fgagnon wrote:Deleting windows explorer will render your system unusable.

Not quite true, actually.
Windows will not allow you to delete explorer, especially since for most people its always running. I use litestep, so its not running for me as a shell though.
Just for kicks I tried renaming explorer.exe once (wasnt about to try delteing it until I could see what happened without it), and next time I came back to look, a new explorer.exe file had been created in its place.

So you can feel free to delete it really, but you'll just be wasting your time.

MegaZapFan · Post by **MegaZapFan** » 2005 Apr 27, 17:47

That would be a result of WFP (Windows File Protection). There are ways around this, but that is a topic for another thread.

Explorer.exe encompasses the functionality of your taskbar and other shell behavior, so unless you are able to designate an alternate shell, you would effectively cripple Windows without explorer.exe.