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
    2022-12-10T16:55:48+00:00

    I don't even have the icons. I have to scroll to the "other options". It worked perfectly for years, until I got tired of the ENDLESS SPAM asking me to upgrade every time I logged in or rebooted. Finally I just decided to take a chance and upgraded. No change in performance, but a lot of annoying time wasted finding how to turn off my computer since they changed the location and optics of the Start button. And now tasks that used to be easy are made harder by moving the MOST COMMON TOOLS used in Explorer to a sub sub menu. ****@!

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-12-09T12:47:21+00:00

    I found this on Microsoft's site. Worked like a charm, I'm back to the 'Ugly' but useful context menu: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/restore-legacy-right-click-menu-for-file-explorer/a62e797c-eaf3-411b-aeec-e460e6e5a82a Don't forget to restart Windows Explorer in Task Manager...

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-11-11T16:11:52+00:00

    Really don't understand why Microsoft make such stupid and annoying changes. At least give the option to switch back to the old settings!!!!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-10-22T15:09:53+00:00

    amen brother, this is driving me crazy, that shouldn't be happing .... the guy who thought of that should stop working in the software industry

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-10-19T04:26:36+00:00

    The new context menu is extremely slow. Even on my 64-cores ThreadRipper, it takes 1-2 seconds to show, performing much worse than Windows 98 on Pentium II.

    The new explorer design looks like a mockup in DeviantArt many years ago.

    It breaks the muscle memory and lacks text labels. The Copy/Paste/Rename icons are hard to understand for new users.

    Furthermore, the menu lacks the access key feature, the underlined letters or letters in parentheses in non-Latin languages, which had existed from Windows 2.0. The access keys allow you quickly select the menu item by press the letter. Additionally, the setting “Underline Access Keys When Available” in Settings doesn't affect the menu, because it doesn't have them. Just stupid.

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