Win+E doesn't work

I am using 13.18 (also tried 13.17 and 13.18.1 beta), I set DO can be run via Win+E. When the installer finished for the first time, Win+E can bring up a new DO instance, but after a system restart, it doesn’t work anymore. But if I install DO again, Win+E works again.

I can see dopus.exe and dopusrt.exe are running after a system restart.

My system is Win11 24H2 26100.5074.

Are you using an ARM CPU?

No. I am using an AMD 9955HX CPU.

I have tried the first release version 13.1. The same result: even DO is running, Windows File Explorer will run if I press Win+E.

My settings related to launching DO are as the screenshot.

13.1 or 13.18?

Try turning on Explorer Replacement.

Both. The results are the same.

If I turn on Explore Replacement, everything else works, but Win+E doesn’t work after a system restart.

Check Windows hasn’t turned on any compatibility settings for dopus.exe, as that can break Win-E:

No compatibility settings to dopus.exe. All other methods to launch DO work fine.

As described in my first post: Win+E works fine if I re-install DO, until I restart Windows. I guess the hotkey Win+E is registered by File Explorer after DO registers it.

Something else may be intercepting the hotkey before Opus can see it, with it depending which program started last.

It's unlikely to be File Explorer, since Opus is designed to take over the hotkey from it. But another tool intercepting the hotkey before Opus would stop Opus from being able to see it.

I used Spy++ to try to find which process owns the hotkey.

The owner seems the shell itself, i.e. explorer.exe.

As a workaround, can you make DO register the Win+E hotkey every several seconds until the hotkey is occupied?

Opus doesn't take over the hotkey as such (Windows doesn't let you do that), it intercepts the function that Explorer calls when that hotkey is pressed.

Win+E works if I run the installer and let it finish the installation. Does the installer install the interception code?

No, the main program does.

Another possibility is that when you launch Opus without doing it via the installer, you’re launching it elevated. That will break Win-E. It will say “ADMINiSTRATOR” in the titlebar if that’s happening.

No, it runs on my user account (from Task Manager), no “Administrator” in the title bar.