Disable or Hide Windows 7 FolderBand (AKA Organize Bar)

Modify your ShellStyle.dll file found under:

C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Aero\Shell\NormalColor

1	C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Aero\Shell\NormalColor

to Auto-Hide or disable completely this FolderBand (which I call the Organize bar). This forum outlines the steps needed to perform this change.

Download and install Restorator 2007
Open “C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Aero\Shell\NormalColor\ShellStyle.dll” with Restorator.exe
Expand UIFILE and click on “1”
Change the mode to Edit mode [F6]
CTRL+F to find “FolderBand”
Locate the line that reads:
<style resid="FolderBandStyle">
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<style resid="FolderBandStyle">
To disable or remove the bar, add this below the line above:
<Element padding="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,-32rp)"/>
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<Element padding="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,-32rp)"/>
To auto-hide the bar, add this instead*:
<if mousefocused="false" mousewithin="false"> <Element padding="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,-28rp)"/> </if>
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<if mousefocused="false" mousewithin="false">
<Element padding="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,-28rp)"/>
</if>
Save the DLL file.
You may have to take ownership of the NormalColor folder and/or ShellStyle.dll file to add Full Control permissions for your local account.
Kill explorer and start it back up
<a href="http://christopherlaw.com/2009/11/sudo-for-windows-7-via-start/" target="_self">sudo</a> cmd tskill explorer explorer
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<a href="http://christopherlaw.com/2009/11/sudo-for-windows-7-via-start/" target="_self">sudo</a> cmd
tskill explorer
explorer
FolderBand Organize bar should be gone or hidden.

If this is too much work, I’ve attached the DLLs to disable and auto-hide the FolderBand. So you don’t have to compile the modified DLL yourself! Just extract and rename the files, kill explorer and start it back up.

<a href="http://christopherlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/shellstyle_autoHide1.zip">Download shellstyle_autoHide</a>
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<a href="http://christopherlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/shellstyle_autoHide1.zip">Download shellstyle_autoHide</a>
<a href="http://christopherlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/shellstyle_disable.zip">Download shellstyle_disable</a>
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<a href="http://christopherlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/shellstyle_disable.zip">Download shellstyle_disable</a>

*I’ve found strange things happen when you choose to auto-hide the bar. When you hover over that small area at the top of the window, and if your mouse isn’t hovering over one of the valid icons/menus of that bar, the bar will open and close itself over and over, causing the screen to jump. I just “disable” the bar.

4 comments

mark says:
February 14, 2010 at 2:08 PM
Hey, thanks for the tip!
Actually, sometimes I do find this bar useful, but what really annoys my about it is its colour – it really burns my eyes! I would like to change it into gray… would you know how to do it?
Thanks again
1. Christopher Law says:
  February 15, 2010 at 12:05 PM
  Never looked into it. I would say you will have to modify the FolderBandStyle’s TemplateBackground for a gray gradient or something.
Dellman says:
March 17, 2010 at 7:44 AM
Hello Christorpher!
Thank you for the awesome guide and the modified shellfile, it works perfectly well and I finally got rid of that damn toolbar!
On a side node, I had to do some research to find out how to delete/change the original file because it is protected, so you have to “take over” the file first.
Thanks alot and have a nice day!
dev says:
September 9, 2013 at 9:58 PM
gone as far as -35, the thing still pops up every time my mouse gets close to where it was.

4 comments

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