Windows 11 24H2 Breaks Shell Extensions – Known Issues and Fixes

Updated February 2026

The Windows 11 24H2 update (released late 2024) brought significant changes to the shell subsystem, and it broke compatibility with several popular shell extensions. If your right-click menu, icon overlays, or thumbnail previews stopped working after updating, this guide covers all known issues and their fixes.

What Changed in 24H2

The 24H2 update introduced these shell-related changes:

1. Stricter COM validation — Extensions must properly implement IUnknown::QueryInterface or they are silently rejected
2. New DPI handling — Extensions that assumed 96 DPI may render incorrectly on high-DPI displays
3. Updated context menu pipeline — The timing of QueryContextMenu() calls changed, causing race conditions in some extensions
4. Security hardening — Unsigned extensions generate security warnings in certain scenarios
5. Thumbnail cache format change — The thumbcache_*.db format was updated, invalidating old caches

Known Broken Extensions and Fixes

TortoiseSVN / TortoiseGit — Icon Overlays Disappeared

Symptoms: Green checkmarks and red exclamation marks on folders no longer appear.

Root cause: Windows 11 24H2 re-prioritized the 15 icon overlay slots. OneDrive and Teams overlays now take priority, pushing Tortoise overlays out.

Fix:

1. Open regedit → Navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers
2. Windows sorts overlay keys alphabetically. The first 15 win.
3. Add spaces before Tortoise overlay names to sort them higher:
   • Rename 1TortoiseNormal to 1TortoiseNormal (add 2 spaces)
   • Rename 2TortoiseModified to 2TortoiseModified
4. Restart Explorer.

NVIDIA Context Menu — Missing or Crashes Explorer

Symptoms: Right-clicking the desktop crashes Explorer, or “NVIDIA Control Panel” is missing from context menu.

Root cause: Old NVIDIA shell extension DLLs are incompatible with 24H2’s new COM validation.

Fix:

1. Update NVIDIA drivers to version 560.xx or newer (these include updated shell extensions).
2. If you do not need the context menu entry, disable it in ShellExView.
3. Access NVIDIA Control Panel directly from Start Menu or Settings → System → Display.

Dropbox — Sync Status Icons Incorrect

Symptoms: All files show as “syncing” (blue arrows) even when fully synced.

Root cause: Dropbox’s icon overlay handler depends on an IPC mechanism that changed in 24H2.

Fix:

1. Update Dropbox to version 200.x or newer.
2. If already updated, restart the Dropbox service:

Stop-Process -Name "Dropbox" -Force
Start-Sleep 2
Start-Process "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Dropbox\Dropbox.exe"

Older Antivirus — Context Menu Scan Missing

Symptoms: “Scan with [AV Name]” no longer appears, or Explorer crashes when right-clicking files.

Affected products:

• Norton Internet Security 2023 and older
• McAfee Total Protection pre-2025 builds
• Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2024 (some builds)

Fix: Update to the latest version. All major AV vendors released 24H2-compatible updates in early 2025.

Adobe Creative Cloud — Thumbnails Broken

Symptoms: .psd, .ai, and .indd files show generic icons instead of preview thumbnails.

Root cause: Adobe’s thumbnail DLL was not compatible with the new thumbnail cache format.

Fix:

1. Update Adobe Creative Cloud to the latest version.
2. Clear the thumbnail cache:

Stop-Process -Name explorer -Force
Remove-Item "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_*.db" -Force
Start-Process explorer

7-Zip — Context Menu Items in Wrong Position

Symptoms: 7-Zip menu items appear at the bottom of the classic menu instead of near the top.

Root cause: 24H2 changed the order in which QueryContextMenu() is called. Extensions that relied on a specific insertion point may appear out of order.

Fix:

1. Update to 7-Zip 24.00 or newer (has Windows 11 native context menu support).
2. Alternatively, switch to NanaZip — a fork of 7-Zip designed specifically for Windows 11.

How to Check If Your Extensions Are Compatible

ShellExView Compatibility Check

1. Open ShellExView as Administrator.
2. Look at the Digital Signature column — unsigned extensions are more likely to be incompatible.
3. Check the File Version column — extensions not updated since 2023 are at risk.
4. Look for extensions with a red background — ShellExView marks extensions that failed to load.

PowerShell: Find Outdated Extensions

$cutoff = Get-Date "2024-01-01"
$paths = @("Registry::HKCR\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers")

foreach ($p in $paths) {
    Get-ChildItem $p -EA SilentlyContinue | ForEach-Object {
        $clsid = $_.GetValue("")
        $inproc = "Registry::HKCR\CLSID\$clsid\InprocServer32"
        if (Test-Path $inproc) {
            $dll = (Get-ItemProperty $inproc -EA SilentlyContinue)."(default)"
            if ($dll -and (Test-Path $dll)) {
                $file = Get-Item $dll
                if ($file.LastWriteTime -lt $cutoff) {
                    Write-Host "OUTDATED: $($_.PSChildName) -> $($file.Name) ($(Get-Date $file.LastWriteTime -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd'))" -ForegroundColor Yellow
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

General Troubleshooting Steps for 24H2

If you experience any shell extension issues after updating:

1. Restart Explorer first: taskkill /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer
2. Clear icon cache: Delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_*.db
3. Clear thumbnail cache: Delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_*.db
4. Rebuild icon cache: ie4uinit.exe -show
5. Update all non-Microsoft extensions to their latest versions
6. Disable all, then re-enable one by one if the specific culprit is unclear

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Should I delay the 24H2 update because of extension issues? A: At this point (February 2026), most vendors have released compatible updates. The benefits of 24H2 (security, performance) outweigh the temporary extension issues.

Q: Did Microsoft break extensions intentionally? A: Not intentionally. The changes improved security and performance, but some extensions relied on undocumented behavior that changed.

Q: Will rolling back the update fix my extensions? A: Yes, but it is not recommended long-term. Update your extensions instead.