Windows 11 File Explorer Right-click Menu was changed to include icons

Anonymous
2021-12-06T15:53:47+00:00

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.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-05-22T19:39:48+00:00

    Ron, Thank you Soooo much for this tip. I've been using Win 11 (arm) (inside parallels on a M.1 MacBook) for maybe a year. Silicon Mac introduces un-expected problems of its own, then all of a sudden Win 11 started this screwed-up right click stuff (except at the time I had no idea what caused it.) It stopped my productivity DEAD because I have several productivity items there from over several years and Win versions.

    So, where did it start?? Could have been the PITA Silicon Mac... or something to do with Parallels... I was Soo relieved when I found your tip. I followed it and it worked perfectly. Got lost a couple of times, but figured it out and succeeded.

    Thanks again.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-05-22T15:40:38+00:00

    Whoever decided to make copy and paste, rename etc. a 2 step process should be fired. How stupid is this.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-05-07T11:34:09+00:00

    Completely agree!

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-05-02T23:15:53+00:00

    And ... stuff like this is why I dread every "upgrade" and avoid it as long as I can.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-04-14T11:51:22+00:00

    I agree Stephen. It is so irritating to be made to jump through an extra hurdle in things like copy, paste, rename and create shorcut, all of which I use more frequently than the list of options that are displayed with a right mouse click. At the very least, Microsoft should provide functionality whereby the user can set which options he/she wants displayed in the first dialog following a right mouse click i.e. in a similar manner to the user having the ability to select which columns are displayed in Windows Explorer

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