How to Auto-Hide or Disable Command Bar in Windows Vista and 7 Explorer?

Recently an AskVG reader “Nick C” asked following question via e-mail:

Is there a way to hide the ‘organize’ bar in windows 7 explorer?  I can hide everything else, but unlike Vista there isn’t an option to hide that bar.

Its not the first time we received this query. Lots of people want to hide the Command Bar aka Folder Band in Windows Vista and 7 Explorer so that they can get more free space in the Explorer window.

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Today in this tutorial, we’ll tell you how to set the Command Bar auto-hidden in Explorer window. In this way, it’ll only appear when you hover your mouse cursor over it as shown in following screenshot:

Auto-Hidden Command Bar aka Folder Band:

Auto_Hide_Command_Bar_Vista_7.png

To make the Command Bar auto-hidden, you’ll have to edit the “Shellstyle.dll” file which is present in Theme directory.

For example, if you are using default Window Aero theme, you’ll get the “Shellstyle.dll” file in following directory:

%windir%\Resources\Themes\Aero\Shell\NormalColor

NOTE: If you are using Windows Classic theme, you’ll need to edit “Shellstyle.dll” file present in “Windows\System32” folder.

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You just need to follow these simple steps to make Command Bar auto-hidden:

1. Open “Shellstyle.dll” file in Resource Hacker.

2. Now go to “UIFILE -> 1 -> 1033“.

3. Press <Ctrl>+F or click on “View -> Find Text…” option and type following in “Find what” textbox:

<style resid="FolderBandStyle">

4. It’ll go to following line of code:

<style resid="FolderBandStyle">
<Element
background="argb(0, 0, 0, 0)"
/>

5. Now add following code after <style resid=”FolderBandStyle”> line:

<if mousefocused="false" mousewithin="false"><Element padding="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,-28rp)"/></if>

So that it’ll look as following:

<style resid="FolderBandStyle">
<if mousefocused="false" mousewithin="false"><Element padding="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,-28rp)"/></if>
<Element
background="argb(0, 0, 0, 0)"
/>

Enable_Auto_Hide_Commandbar_Vista_7.png

PS: To permanently disable or hide Command Bar, add following code after <style resid=”FolderBandStyle”> line:

<Element padding="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,-28rp)"/>

6. Now click on “Compile Script” button.

7. Now save the file at some other location, for example in D: drive.

8. Rename original “Shellstyle.dll” file to “Shellstyle_backup.dll“.

9. Now copy your new modified “Shellstyle.dll” file to this folder.

10. Restart your system and after restart Windows will start using your new modified file.

PS: This method will work for all 3rd party themes as well. Simply modify the “Shellstyle.dll” file present in custom theme folder.

NOTE: If you want a ready-made modified “shellstyle.dll” file, you can download it using following link and replace the default file in your system with it. You might need to take ownership of default “shellstyle.dll” file before replacing it.

Download Link

Published in: Windows 7, Windows Vista

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. So, I tried this, but Windows won’t let me copy the new file into the folder, nor delete the existing file, nor rename the old file.

  2. Works beautifully only thing is now I have the library menu bar and I cant seem to find a option to turn it off imagebam.com/image/0e8c23290353076

  3. I can take ownership of the modified shellstyle.dll (stored on desktop), take ownership of the original shellstyle.dll (in Windows\System32), and move the modified version from the desktop to Windows\System32. However, if I then open shellstyle.dll in Resource Hacker, it has reverted to the original version, without the edits to FolderBandStyle that I made. What is going on? What can I do about this?

  4. Running windows 7 64bit.

    I want the command bar gone. this tweak does not work for me for some reason.

    I goto system32. I take ownership of he file. I rename it to .bak. I take ownership of the new file (just in case) I copy and paste it into system 32 so I now have 2 files the .bak and the new .dll

    I reboot. No joy. Command bar is still present.

    this is a pristine clean virgin install of win7 on this machine (w500 lenovo)

    Suggestions?

  5. Is it safe to edit shellstyle in 64 bit windows?
    I am using winsows 8/8.1 vs. Its shellstyle(original) is present here:
    C:\windows\resources\themes\Windows 8~8.1\Colors\Windows 8\Shell\NormalColor\

    I mean that I don’t need to edit shellstyle in SysWOW64 & system32 folders?

    Please help

    Thanks in advance

  6. You just saved a lot of precious screen real estate!
    Add Classic Shell and you get a custom toolbar that fits right in the menu bar with panel toggles, views, or whatever buttons you want.

    I used -32 in the script and it’s perfectly gone.
    Also, you do do not have to restart to see your changes; you only have to reload the theme (like switch between themes).

    @Chris Taylor @Andy Yancy, be sure your active theme is the one you are editing the shellstyle.dll of. The one in system32 is just for the classic theme, see article.

  7. I’m on Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I’m trying to edit the classic theme to do this. I’ve edited the 4 different shellstyle.dll files in the system (system32, sysWOW64, amd64, and x86microsoft class). No dice. What else do I need to do?

  8. VG, THANKS!!! I’ve been looking for a way of getting that band out of the way.

    Anyway of adding some sort of delay element to autohide function so that it’s not so twitchy??

    If I wanted to change the band’s color, would you know where I would that?

  9. Hey VG, never heard back from you with regards to my previous question. Is it because there isn’t a way of controlling the speed of the autohide? Thanks again, for the tutorial, man. It’s gone a long way to delamify Windows Explorer and increase my understanding of theme modding.

  10. Very good I became c.zy looking how! But the problem is that every time you poke the mouse comes and goes. This served with a desktop theme especially. For the default theme is better to use the Command Bar Tweaker Windows 7.
    For other topics in the line

    To thereby so that:

    So hide it forever! Works with zune theme.

  11. If you disable ribbon and use oldnewexplorer (for theming purposes), you get the folder band. Before to disable ENSURE you have a true toolbar (classic explorer, for example) working.
    However, patching (AND backupping) the shellstyle of the default aero theme can hide/disable the folder bar again. Thanks 😀

  12. Sadly, it stopped to work in build 10586 (Win10).
    Or probably, the uxtheme bypass doesn’t hook the correct resources yet. (Not very sure about that)

  13. Uxtheme [patcher] was updated for Win10 TH2 so this wonderful trick still works on the last release 😉

  14. This works like a CHARM! You’re the best. I’m emulating W7 Reg on forked Debian 8, and I detest the stupid bar. I was trying everything short of building the registry back from the ground up, but I found this, and it worked great – never would have thought to go into resource hacker to fix this. A+.

  15. Excellent trick here to free up some real estate in the Win7 file Explorer. That big fat bar has always bugged me, glad to be free of it now. Thanks so much for posting this very useful tweak.

    One little tip that might help, I found the mouse rather twitchy in calling up the folder band so I switched to keyboard focus. It took me a lot of Google foo to dig this up, but it works. Just use the line as follows instead of the one specified;

    This variant provides a way to tab into the folder band so it doesn’t inadvertently pop up when mousing around in explorer. It’s a bit cumbersome since multiple tab presses are required, but it provides access in the rare case it might be needed while keeping the band solidly out of sight.

  16. For some reason the line would not post, so just replace “mouse” with “key” in the line to be added and it will work off the tab key instead of the mouse pointer..

  17. Hello, I have a slightly different problem. I have both Win7 and Win10 and mostly use Win7 for this topic. I have a large amount of text files which are song lyrics and chord charts etc, Yep, you guessed it, I am a musician, and I use my computer during online concert shows. So anyway, I have all of my songs in a particular folder. When I open this folder I have to reposition it on the desktop, turn off the navigation bar, and turn on the preview pane (then close and reopen explorer to resize the preview pane to an acceptable width). Then when I am finished, I have to reverse this procedure to use my explorer window as normal (at least to me). Is there an easier way to do all of this with a BAT or VBS file, or some 3rd party program? Please, oh please give me some good news VG! Thank you so much!

  18. ^^ I can advise you to go through following topic:

    https://www.askvg.com/how-to-fix-annoying-folder-view-type-problem-in-windows-vista/

    Before applying your changes to songs folder, take backup of following key:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

    After making changes to the folder again take a backup of above mentioned key.

    If everything works as expected, you can use both exported keys to quickly change folder view settings.

  19. hello VG
    im using win 10 1903. i disabled “Ribbon” and “Command bar” in windows explorer and just kept “Menu bar”.but the menu bar didnt apear in save/open dialogs.is there a way to enable “Menu bar” in save/open dialogs?

  20. just tried to drop command-bar/folder-band in win10 1903 pro x64 (10.0.18362.418), but editing shellstyle.dll doesn’t lead to success. It seems that explorer (10.0.18362.387) doesn’t load this dll at all (dependency-call out of process explorer does not show it). Even removing it from disk does not lead to any errors (and it’s not put back from secure-space by system.

    then tried to zero out CanonicalName as described at https://www.askvg.com/how-to-customize-rename-remove-or-hide-command-bar-buttons-in-windows-7-explorer/, but this doesn’t change anything, too…

    does anyone have additional tips, how to get rid of the ribbon _and_ the folder-band/command-bar?

  21. Hi! VG, will this thing still work on win10 1903 version? I use OldNewExplorer to remove ribbons and replaced it with a command bar, but unfortunately I still can’t get rid of the command bar in my file explorer. Also I tried editing the OldNewExplorer dll but still can’t get it right.
    I really appreciate if you have a solution for this.
    thanks in advance!

  22. For info, it this hack still works in Windows 10 20H2 using Oldnewexplorer dll (32 & 64 bit). Then, you must reinstall the dll. Then select other theme flat/creamy depends on where you edit it.

  23. I was not being able to do this no matter what.
    I did everything right, restarted explorer, or the computer entirely, and when I opened an explorer window, it would lag thinking.

    Previously, I was copying text from this site, into the dll.
    At the end, with zero hope, I downloaded the pre-made file, and copied the line from there to the dll. It worked.

    So idk if copying the text from this site carries some hidden character, but yeah.

    Some other things I did, in case it helps someone:
    – Follow to the letter the “save in desktop, then move to folder”
    – Change both aero and classic dll
    – Didn’t need to restore whole computer when it worked, just finished and opened explorer from the taskmgr
    – Keep the spaces between each line. You notice that each line has double “enter” between themselves, respect that.

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