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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Who did this and why do they do it (see picture below)? The File Explorer right-click menu has had the options: Cut, Copy, Paste, Rename, Delete listed (as words) in this menu FOREVER and now some genius decided that after all these years, Windows users are too dumb to read. The words were replaced with icons. THIS IS SO ANNOYING. THE MUSCLE MEMORY IN MY HANDS IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO RETRAIN AFTER YEARS OF THE MENU BEING THE SAME WAY. Now I have to stop and think about something that I've done instinctively for years. I can get to the ORIGINAL right-click menu by selecting "Show More Options," shown in the photo below, but WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO, THAT'S AN EXTRA STEP? If I am intelligent enough to boot up a computer, then certainly I can read the words: Cut, Copy, Paste, Rename and Delete. I don't need you to create icons to represent those functions. IF IT'S NOT BROKEN THEN DON'T TRY TO FIX IT. STOP DUMBING DOWN THE SOFTWARE AND MAKING THINGS HARDER PLEASE.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
I just bought a new laptop for work and was excited about testing Windows 11. The infantile decision by pretentious condescending gimps put an end to that ASAP. If it ain't broke don't fix it!! You can find something else to have your nephew who just gradutated from programming to screw up. Maybe something that you have to deal with?? Fingers crossed
To get old options back
open command prompt with administrative rights and enter below command..
reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve
To get new options as it is
open command prompt with administrative rights and enter below command..
reg.exe delete "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}" /f
Thats all folks
For designers out there reading this: when making major UI changes to popular tools, or those used by users for decades, always include an option to retain the traditional tools or actually require an opt-in to the new at first open. "Hey, we're trying something new, looks like this, if you want to stick with what ya know CLICK HERE. You can always change your choice later in: settings - look & feel."
UI is not rocket science. I do not understand how so many developers can screw it up so badly, so often.
Unfortunately, it is no more or less predictable than the old context menu. it can appear top, bottom, left or right. Given that I do not add applications continually to my laptop, the location of the words in the old context menus were consistently in the same place. Now many of the things that I want in the context menu are in the "Show more options" - a massive scroll to the bottom and an additional mouse click - you really want to talk about lost productivity? I am pretty sure that anyone who has used a computer for more than week is familiar with the words "cut copy paste" - not sure that they had to resort to pictures so that we could all understand the concept. The pictures in themselves are not at all intuitive so you have to mouse over them to see what they are, and so far as I have been able to ascertain, their location is also context sensitive - so not always in the same place. I realize that this is a discussion with no winner - MS will do what it wants and continue to make changes for the sake of making changes so that their developers can feel like they should keep their jobs (don't even get me started on the new location of the nav bar in Outlook).
Not a good change for Microsoft. Thank goodness for Ron Collins reply below, the link steps you through the registry change to restore the right click context menu. Let's buy a Tom Collins for Ron Collins please!
