Here are screenshots:
Auto-Hidden Folder Band:
After Hovering Mouse over Folder Band:
To make the "Folder Band" Auto-hide in Windows Explorer, you'll have to edit the "Shellstyle.dll" file which you can get in your currently used theme folder. For example, if you are using default Window Vista theme, then you'll get the "Shellstyle.dll" file in following directory:
%windir%\Resources\Themes\Aero\Shell\NormalColor
So here is a step-by-step tutorial:
1. First open the "Shellstyle.dll" file in Resource Hacker.
2. Goto "UIFILE -> 1 -> 1033".
3. Press <Ctrl>+F or click on "View -> Find Text...".
4. Now type "<style resid="FolderBandStyle">" (without quotes) in "Find what" textbox.
5. It'll let you go to following line:
<style resid="FolderBandStyle">
<Element
background="argb(0, 0, 0, 0)"
/>
Now press <Enter> after "<style resid="FolderBandStyle">" line and add following line:
<if mousefocused="false" mousewithin="false"><Element
padding="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,-28rp)"/></if>
So now it'll look like following:
<style resid="FolderBandStyle">
<if mousefocused="false" mousewithin="false"><Element
padding="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,-28rp)"/></if>
<Element
background="argb(0, 0, 0, 0)"
/>
6. Thats it. Now click on "Compile Script" button and then save the file.
7. Log off or restart to see the changes.
Now Folder band will be auto-hidden and whenever you'll hove the mouse over it, it'll appear.
Credits goes to U.K.Intel...


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Shane said:
Nice, thanks
Ronald said:
Great idea!
except, it doesn't work for me..
when I try it, it doesnt show any of the details pane/preview pane/ navigation pane anymore (nor the folder band, which is actually a good thing)
so actually it hides a bit too much for my likes..
also on mouseover where the folder band should be, it doesn't reappear, and when browsing, i cant go further than 2 random folders, because then explorer.exe needs to restart.
I am using a unofficial VS and modified browseui.dll, maybe that has something to do with it..
Do you have any ideas how to solve this?
thanks in advance, Ronald
VG said:
^^ You must be editing something else otherwise it'll definitely work. Make sure you are editing the write code cause its very risky.
Ronald said:
thanks for your quick response, and i guess i was doing something wrong.. don't know exactly what, but ive replaced the complete shellstyle.dll with one from a theme that did autohide, and now its working
results are great, so thanks!
Daniel said:
Doesn't work for me, either. Same problem as Ronald: details pane and navigation pane are also gone and don't appear on hovering.
And explorer.exe crashes. Also appearance settings don't work anymore. What did I wrong? Has the line break to be there?
VG said:
^^ Can you try the code again? I have made a minor change in the code.
Daniel said:
I tried it today three times!
I have SP1 installed and uxtheme.dll patched...can one of this can be the problem?
VG said:
^^ Nope. I'm using this hack and its working absolutely fine in SP1. I have made a minor change in the code after your post, so can you please try it one more time and let me know whether it works or not?
Daniel said:
I love you
...it works....GREAT! Thank you. No this silly thing is gone!
VG said:
I'm really glad it worked for you.