Which TortoiseGit Icon Overlay Settings Remain Effective When Windows 11 Slots Are Exhausted?

TortoiseGit registers several overlay icon handlers with Windows Explorer so that repository status is visible directly in File Explorer. Because Windows enforces a system-wide cap on shell icon overlay slots, competing applications can consume the available handlers before TortoiseGit receives them. On Windows 11, the underlying shell mechanism differs from earlier versions, so the number of visible TortoiseGit overlays depends on both the TortoiseGit build and the operating system version.

The TortoiseGit Settings dialog provides an Icon Overlays section where Drive Types and Path List entries can restrict which locations are processed. These settings reduce the workload for the handlers that do load, but they do not alter Windows' internal priority order for competing handlers. Registry edits to ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers are unsupported by TortoiseGit and may be overwritten by application updates.

Can drive-type and path restrictions alone preserve TortoiseGit overlay visibility on Windows 11 when other applications occupy the limited slots? Which combinations of local, network, and removable drive settings are most likely to keep the handlers within the active limit? Does the Windows 11 shell change require a different configuration strategy than earlier Windows versions?