WindhawkWindows 11 File Explorer Styler
Customize the File Explorer with themes contributed by others or create your own.
Also check out the Windows 11 Taskbar Styler, Windows 11 Start Menu Styler and Windows 11 Notification Center Styler mods.
Note: This mod requires Windhawk v1.6 or newer.
Themes
Themes are collections of styles. The following themes are integrated into the mod and can be selected in the settings:
More themes can be found in the Themes section of The Windows 11 file explorer styling guide. Contributions of new themes are welcome!
Advanced styling
Aside from themes, the settings have two sections: control styles and resource variables. Control styles allow to override styles, such as size and color, for the target elements. Resource variables allow to override predefined variables. For a more detailed explanation and examples, refer to the sections below.
The UWPSpy tool can be used to inspect the
file explorer control elements in real time, and experiment with various styles.
To target file explorer with UWPSpy, select the explorer.exe process and the
WinUI 3 target framework.
For a collection of commonly requested file explorer styling customizations, check out The Windows 11 file explorer styling guide.
Control styles
Each entry has a target control and a list of styles.
The target control is written as Class or Class#Name, i.e. the target
control class name (the tag name in XAML resource files), such as
FileExplorerExtensions.NavigationBarControl or Rectangle, optionally
followed by # and the target control's name (x:Name attribute in XAML
resource files). The target control can also include:
- Child control index, for example:
Class#Name[2]will only match the relevant control that's also the second child among all of its parent's child controls. - Control properties, for example:
Class#Name[Property1=Value1][Property2=Value2]. - Parent controls, separated by
>, for example:ParentClass#ParentName > Class#Name. - Visual state group name, for example:
Class#Name@VisualStateGroupName. It can be specified for the target control or for a parent control, but can be specified only once per target. The visual state group can be used in styles as specified below.
Note: The target is evaluated only once. If, for example, the index or the properties of a control change, the target conditions aren't evaluated again.
Each style is written as Style=Value, for example: Height=5. The := syntax
can be used to use XAML syntax, for example: Fill:=<SolidColorBrush Color="Red"/>. Specifying an empty value with the XAML syntax will clear the
property value, for example: Fill:=. In addition, a visual state can be
specified as following: Style@VisualState=Value, in which case the style will
only apply when the visual state group specified in the target matches the
specified visual state.
For the XAML syntax, in addition to the built-in taskbar objects, the mod
provides a built-in blur brush via the WindhawkBlur object, which supports the
BlurAmount, TintColor, and TintOpacity properties. For example:
Fill:=<WindhawkBlur BlurAmount="10" TintColor="#80FF00FF"/>. Theme resources
are also supported, for example: Fill:=<WindhawkBlur BlurAmount="18" TintColor="{ThemeResource SystemAccentColorDark1}" TintOpacity="0.5"/>.
Targets and styles starting with two slashes (//) are ignored. This can be
useful for temporarily disabling a target or style.
Resource variables
Some variables, such as size and padding for various controls, colors, and brushes, are defined as resource variables. You can override existing resources or define new theme-aware resources.
Overriding existing resources
Use key=value to override an existing resource.
Defining theme-aware resources
Use Key@Dark=value and Key@Light=value to define new resources with
different values for dark and light themes. These can then be referenced in
styles using {ThemeResource key}.
For example, to define a custom accent color that automatically adjusts based on the system theme:
AutoAccent@Dark={ThemeResource SystemAccentColorDark1}
AutoAccent@Light={ThemeResource SystemAccentColorLight2}
Then use it in a style:
Background:=<SolidColorBrush Color="{ThemeResource AutoAccent}" />
The value will automatically update when the system accent color changes.
XAML diagnostics consumer handling
This mod uses XAML diagnostics to inspect and customize the File Explorer. However, there can only be one XAML diagnostics consumer at a time. If another program (such as ExplorerBlurMica) tries to use XAML diagnostics while this mod is running, there will be a conflict.
The XAML diagnostics consumer handling setting controls how this mod handles such conflicts:
- Alert: When another program tries to use XAML diagnostics, a message box will appear asking whether to block it. This allows you to decide on a case-by-case basis.
- Block: Automatically block other programs from using XAML diagnostics. This ensures this mod works correctly, but might break the other program.
- Allow: Allow other programs to use XAML diagnostics. This might break this mod's styling, but allows the other program to work.
Implementation notes
The VisualTreeWatcher implementation is based on the ExplorerTAP code from the TranslucentTB project.
The WindhawkBlur brush object implementation is based on
XamlBlurBrush
from the TranslucentTB project.