When Microsoft released Windows 11, it became clear quickly that the company’s attempt to fix the often convoluted Explorer context menu backfired. Microsoft’s answer was to introduce a two-tier context menu. The new one, displayed when users right-clicked and the second one, which users could access by holding down Shift or selecting the option to display it after the initial right-click.
The first contained common actions, like copying or format, the second all the entries from third-party apps that had not switched to the new system yet.
Microsoft revealed plans to launch another redesign of the context menu days ago on the official Windows blog. There, the company admitted that the current solution had performance and reliability issues.
The redesign addresses these and gives users more control over what they see and what they don’t require.
For that purpose, Microsoft is introducing new customization options in the Settings app for the context menu. You can enable or disable some of the options displayed there, including which apps are allowed to display entries on the main level and not in a submenu.
The shared screenshot shows the options that are in testing right now. You can display or hide
- Send to
- Create shortcut
- Copy as path
- Rotate image
- The apps that appear directly.
Additional options let users disable the icon-powered actions at the top (cut, copy, paste, rename, share, delete) in favor of inline options, keep cloud options separate, display properties at the bottom of the menu or display the legacy context menu right away.
Some actions can’t be configured at the time, including setting an image as the wallpaper, adding a file to the favorites, or AI actions.
It remains to be seen whether this new attempt at improving the File Explorer context menu is a successful one, or whether it is going to fail as badly as the initial redesign when Windows 11 launched.