Custom User Interface
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Policy overview

Key metadata and intent for this policy.

User
Category
System
Supported on
At least Windows 2000

Supported OS tags: Windows10, Windows10RT, Windows11, Windows2000, Windows7, Windows8, Windows81, WindowsRT, WindowsRT81, WindowsServer2003, WindowsServer2008, WindowsServer2012, WindowsServer2012R2, WindowsServer2016, WindowsVista, WindowsXP

Specifies an alternate user interface. The Explorer program (%windir%\explorer.exe) creates the familiar Windows interface, but you can use this setting to specify an alternate interface. If you enable this setting, the system starts the interface you specify instead of Explorer.exe. To use this setting, copy your interface program to a network share or to your system drive. Then, enable this setting, and type the name of the interface program, including the file name extension, in the Shell name text box. If the interface program file is not located in a folder specified in the Path environment variable for your system, enter the fully qualified path to the file. If you disable this setting or do not configure it, the setting is ignored and the system displays the Explorer interface. Tip: To find the folders indicated by the Path environment variable, click System Properties in Control Panel, click the Advanced tab, click the Environment Variables button, and then, in the System variables box, click Path.

Internal name
CustomShell
Policy ID
c62da9fd6a9a
Elements
1

Registry values

How enabled and disabled states update the registry.

No explicit registry values are set for enabled or disabled states.

Policy elements

Inputs and configuration options exposed by this policy.

ScopeElementTypeRegistry mappingConstraints & behaviorCopy
User
Interface file name (for example, Explorer.exe)
ID CustomShellInst
text
Path
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Value name
Shell
Type
REG_SZ
None
Interface file name (for example, Explorer.exe)
User · Type text
Registry mapping
Path
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Value name
Shell
Type
REG_SZ
DetailsNone