shellmods v1.0.2

Windows 11, x86-64. Built from 0d6bda8e9cda4f2406b42f9d3607da10904b7157 by GitHub Actions.

Before it will do anything

Unzip, then run symgen.exe once:

.\symgen.exe

The mods hook functions Microsoft does not export, found by mangled
name in each module's PDB. Those addresses are specific to your exact
Windows build, so they cannot be shipped -- symgen resolves them
against your machine and records a fingerprint of each binary it read.
Then:

.\shellmods.exe --once    # or --install to start with Windows

The leading .\ matters in PowerShell, which does not search the
current directory for executables. In cmd.exe it is harmless.

symgen.exe needs msdia140.dll, which comes with any Visual
Studio 2015 or newer, including the free Build Tools. It is found
automatically. If you have no Visual Studio installed, copy that DLL
next to symgen.exe or pass --msdia <path>. No Microsoft
binaries are redistributed in this archive.

After a Windows update

Symbol offsets go stale when Windows replaces the shell binaries. The
mods detect this by fingerprint and refuse to hook rather than use
a wrong address -- so they go quiet rather than breaking Explorer.
Re-run symgen.exe and restart Explorer.

Turning it off

.\shellmods.exe --disable unhooks everything within a second, with
no Explorer restart. Holding Shift at startup and safe mode also work.

Note

These binaries are unsigned, so SmartScreen will warn on first run.
The mods are GPL-3.0 work by m417z / Ramen Software; see NOTICE.md.
Corresponding source is this repository at tag v1.0.2.