Taskbar problems on Windows 11 (dexpot)

[tfft]

Greetings, I’ve been a long-term Open-Shell user and have really enjoyed and appreciated the application – well done ! With that said, I was recently was forced to move to Windows-11 and lost a much beloved functionality related to another application (Dexpot) due to some changes or shortcomings within Windows-11’s taskbar functionality. Dexport (and its “taskbar pager”, see attached images below) is a, free for personal use, virtual desktop application that worked perfectly well under Windows-10 but does not under Windows-11 and yes the application is NOT being actively maintained. I’m here cause I’m certain Open-Shell can fix this issue cause if I use StartAllBack (which I’m not a fan of) instead of Open-Shell everything works perfectly fine in both Windows-10 and 11 (I can provide whatever details/config/setup needed for Dexpot if needed). So why does it work with StartAllBack and not Open-Shell (4.4.195). Is there anything specific that StartAllBack is doing to the taskbar that Open-Shell is not ? Can the developers look into this as it seems like a symptom of something larger in that Open-Shell is unable to revert taskbar’s older (windows 7/10) functionality.

Appreciate your time and attention.

[balkaster-del]

I'm a year late, but this is still open and no one has responded.

Microsoft, with the debuts of 10 and 11, pretty much exterminated the third-party shell community and certainly didn't do third-party virtual window managers any favors. Despite your claim, Dexpot does not work "perfectly well" on Windows 10, and no third-party VWM does. These bugs are widely reported.

1) Ghost windows generated by Windows core apps that aren't actually running appear on the home desktop on launching Dexpot.
The culprits are Calculator, which will have two ghost windows open on the first desktop on launching Dexpot, and the top level Windows Settings dialog (also two ghost windows), and something labeled "Microsoft Text Input Application". The Calculator and Settings windows can be closed with a bit of fiddling, but Microsoft Text Input Application cannot be closed and is persistent. During your session, Calculator and Settings will pop new ghost windows without you having launched either app. It makes Dexpot's Window Catalog, Full-Screen Preview, and pager interfaces somewhat useless because they are littered with windows for apps that aren't actually running.

2) Dexpot was last updated before pinning apps to the Taskbar was a thing, and Dexpot doesn't handle it well. It suppresses jumplists from apps pinned to the Taskbar (but not apps pinned to the Start Menu, so maybe that's a workaround).

If you can handle these two annoyances, all the rest of Dexpot's functionality is still usable. You just have to do without jumplists and interact with Dexpot's virtual desktops through tray buttons, mouse gestures and keyboard shortcuts.

That said, it's not clear what specific functionality issue you are having (you only say that you've lost Dexpot functionality when using Open-Shell but not with StartAllBack; your screenshots show a pager interface for Dexpot with four desktops, but don't demonstrate what problem you are having). If it's like the issues I mentioned above, it's because Dexpot does not run well in Windows 10 and 11. I don't know why it should be different with different Start Menu replacements, or what the Open-Shell devs can do about a compatibility issue with abandoned software.