win11 - taskbar and folder preview how-to?

[prathapml]

So Windows 11 has not been... the best. But I've adjusted to the changes, to the point where only two real issues remain.

 

1.  Taskbar replacement completely (not tweak)
Application windows are now grouped in the taskbar. Yes, it feels like pre-win95 days. But that behaviour won't change.
So is there a 3rd party taskbar replacement, to show open windows? (just like there is a 3rd party app for Start Menu.)

 

2.  File Manager folder thumbnail previews
Movies/photos/PDFs/etc within a folder aren't visible as a preview anymore, when browsing through a folder of folders.
I hoped it would get fixed before release, but again, this looks like a permanent change as well.
Is there any way to go back to the old folder previews?
Or any 3rd party file manager app, which works just like Windows Explorer of win10 days? (light-enough, reliable, uncluttered, has folder previews in 256x256 icon size)

Every file manager i tried so far, has depended on Windows Explorer itself, to show file and folder previews. So when win11 removed this feature, the same got reflected in 3rd party file managers as well.

[prathapml]

On 9/24/2021 at 5:54 AM, prathapml said:

1.  Taskbar replacement completely (not tweak)
Application windows are now grouped in the taskbar. Yes, it feels like pre-win95 days. But that behaviour won't change.
So is there a 3rd party taskbar replacement, to show open windows? (just like there is a 3rd party app for Start Menu.)

 

I'm glad to note that a beta build of StartIsBack solves the first problem that i had mentioned.
See this screenshot!

So now the only annoying thing left is folder previews.

[prathapml]

Update: The folder preview issue was partly solved by MS itself.
Since a few months, the betas of what is set to become win11 22h2 have brought back that feature.
Though the previews are still awful, at least it is better than none at all.