MidnightInAurora

Windows Update pulled down the Cumulative Update today on both Server 2025 and IOT Ent LTSC to 26100.863 - no SAB issues seen. Nice. Don't you love it when software just works?

The release version of 24H2 Server 2025 is out; 26100.1 and SAB works (for us) without any issues. Windows Updates takes 2025 to 26100.560 and after installing the latest cumulative update, it's sitting at 26100.712. Of course, there's no watermark and MAS KMS38 is your friend. It will activate until 2038 which should give users more than enough time for testing. Jim

Our 26100.1 ISO came from a trusted U.S. source. It is a digital license, but we don't like to cheat (too much anyway).

Back when we upgraded from Win 7 to 10, we installed Win 10 Pro and ran it for testing. Pro was loaded with games and I looked at switching us to a Linux distro. I found an ISO of LTSB 2015 and tried that. It was great. LTSC has no games, uninstallable Edge and either 5 (LTSC) or 10 (IOT LTSC) years of support and most importantly for us, feature updates when we want them, not when MS wants them. For us, it's perfect. Yes, we activate 26100 with mas hwid. Towards the end of the year, they'll be online key sellers with $5 MS keys for Win 11 IOT LTSC and we'll get those. Jim

Downloaded and installed the 24H2 Cumulative Update for 26100.712 (KB5037850) on our Iot Ent LTSC installs. No problems with SAB. Purchased license 3-pack on the 20th. I would urge everyone to buy at least one license and support Tihiy. Jim

Looks like the blocks of StartAllBack.com and StartIsBack.com have been removed from both Firefox and Chrome. Nice. Jim

Chrome is blocking SAB if either Enhanced or Standard safe browsing is selected. Jim

I also get it on Floorp (a Firefox fork). Clicking on Details brings up this Google page - https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=https:%2F%2Fwww.startallback.com%2F Jim Also happening on StartIsBack.com - https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=https:%2F%2Fstartisback.com%2F

Also works fine on Server 2025 26212.5000 Although I did get a popup saying SAB was not made for this version and to click Enable at your own risk. I clicked Enable and our house is still here. No issues. Jim

Yes! Windows 2000 Professional. Jim

Yeah, we have 24H2 Iot Ent LTSC 26100.268 on 3 workstations for testing and I agree that it's the only thing fit to use. Same was true on Win 10 and LTSC on it. We still run Open Shell Classic Explorer, but only for the network share icon. Maybe someday SAB will have that option in the Explorer section. Hint - hint. Jim

A little research later - I get the same colors also, with a few findings. I get the same colors if I turn off Custom Start Menu Coloring. I had it on. I get different colors if Custom Start Menu Coloring is on and set to 100% opacity and either Clear or Blur is selected. 100% opacity and Acrylic seems to work fine. Jim

I've made the not too difficult decision to drop Open Shell for the start menu and use SAB. Is there a way to get the start menu flyout menus the same color as the basic start menu? Have I just missed a setting somewhere? Jim

Yeah, Neowin called them out on it too, although I don't agree with their plugging Start11 - https://www.neowin.net/news/latest-explorerpatcher-update-removes-old-windows-10-taskbar-in-windows-11-24h2/ Jim

SAB. When we tested upgrading SAB 3.7.8 to 3.7.9, the SAB taskbar was turned off when the upgrade finished. The upgrade takes about 1 second and when explorer restarted, the regular Win 11 taskbar was present. We just went and ran StartAllBackCfg.exe manually and turned on the taskbar. It used the previous settings from 3.7.8 and we had the SAB taskbar back. We don't consider anything in the upgrade process an issue or problem. For us, SAB works 100%. Jim

My upgrade over .8 finished with the task bar off. Maybe it's a LTSC thing. I've never run anything other than Ent LTSC or IOT Ent LTSC, so I don't know what Home/Pro does. Jim

3.7.9 works fine on 24H2 IOT Ent LTSC 26100 with the 26100.2 cumulative update. Early adopters of .9 should remember that the SAB task bar is turned off at install. Just go to Program Files/StartAllBack and run StartAllBackCfg.exe manually to turn it on. Jim

I think I'm missing something. What release or build is missing the ability to customize the taskbar using SAB? I've tested 24H2 IOT Ent and IOT Ent LTSC, both at 26100.1 and 24H2 Server 2025 at 26085 and both work fine with SAB. What build are you expecting trouble with? I think if MS was going to do something drastic with Explorer, they would have done it long before 26100. Granted, my taskbar is very simplistic but it's done by SAB. Image attached of my tb on IOT Ent LTSC 26100. Any insight you can lend on the upcoming disappearance of the ability to customize the taskbar would be appreciated. Jim

Yeah, the EP Github response. I read his reply to you and thought "who appointed you Keeper of the Previews?" He might be under a little pressure. Anyway, we have our solutions with Open Shell and SAB and all is right with the world. So much so, that we're moving both 24H2 Iot Ent LTSC 26100 and Server 2025 26085 to a production workstation and production web server for some real-world testing. Jim

Twit? Jeez that was funny. Maybe pyrates had a little to much coffee this morning. Anyway, I do like the SAB start menu over Open Shell but we can't do without the power options on the start menu when RDPing into a system. On the remote system, we have Open Shell configured to give the Lock/Restart/Shutdown options. SAB doesn't have the equivalent feature. We can do Alt-F4 on the remote system for the power panel, but no. No one liked Start11 when we did a demo, and EP and Open Shell have broken Taskbar functionality and corresponding bad attitudes. SAB is the only product that lets me push the Taskbar to ground and have my way with it. Well done. Jim

Thanks for those explanations. Between open shell for the start menu/share icon and ol'Sab controlling the task bar, things are working perfectly for my very simple needs. Jim

I was a little surprised that Open Shell wasn't flagged. The filename is just as descriptive as SAB's is - OpenShellSetup_4_4_191. Maybe MS is flagging apps from certain countries that have recently fallen into disfavor? Jim

I've been testing IOT Ent LTSC 26100.1 and SAB works fine for me. Just chop off everything preceeding the version number and Jane's your uncle. Every time I write "SAB" I think of a character named ol'Sab in the anime series The Magnificent Kotobuki. Very odd. Rumor has it that 26100.1 and one cumulative update will be the public release of 24H2 for everything but Server 2025. Jim, Aurora, CO USA

I've been testing SAB with Win 11 IOT Ent 24H2 and have a few issues I would like to put out there for consideration. 1. Under Explorer, could we have the Open-Shell Explorer-type option of placing an icon on Network Shared folders and drives? I had to install Open-Shell Explorer just to get that back. 2. Under Start Menu, could we have the Open-Shell Menu-type option for Show Shutdown during remote sessions and customizing the shutdown menu items? 3. Search Programs and Files seems to omit quite a few items. For example, searching for REG returns 12 programs and 4 control panel items under Open-Shell, but only 6 total under SAB. SAB omitted the result I wanted which was regedit.exe. 4. Could we have a plain white Win 11 start button? Thanks. Jim, Aurora CO USA