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

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).

Yeah. The more options click is where everything is for me as well specifically because my right click is so out of control. I use those functions more than the others so it's a bit of a hassle. As I said previously, I like the location much better. I haven't noticed them jumping around on my installation but perhaps that's fixed in the next release because I'm running developer's edition fast-track. The extra click expands the old menu which is identical to a second machine I have still running Win10.

As I said previously, they dropped the ball on this and could have implemented it better but I DO like it. They should have started work on this back in the win7 or 8 days and it would be refined by now.

My point was that overall it's a positive direction. The previous solution puts them where you just described, all the way down at the bottom where you have to scroll If you have a long menu. I prefer them to be at the top and I've tried numerous ways over the years to get them there and been unable to do so. As it's been delivered, it's not complete. Changes will continue and soon you won't need the extra click to get to the remainder of the menu and your copy and paste should stay in same spot. Icons in place of words is not a new thing. I'm just excited to see them actually working on it because I'm so tired of constantly having to scroll down for simple copy and paste. Granted I have tried to force myself to use hot keys more frequently over the years but for some reason I can't seem to do that unless I'm repeatedly doing it with several items in a short period of time. Suddenly it dawns on me to use ctrl+x, c, and v which is better than any context menu. Lol I don't know why As I bought my first machine in 1996. You would think that everything was hot keys for me.

Come to think of it, maybe that's exactly what they were thinking is that more of us use hotkeys than we really do.

I think it's hilarious that you mention them making change for the sole purpose of keeping developers busy. Over the years I've posted at least a dozen rants about that exact thing. So it's good to know I'm not the only one who realizes this. 😁 I just don't think this is one of them. Instead I think it's the early stages of solving something I've been griping about for at least 15 years. So I don't want to do anything to discourage those types of things.

What disturbs me more is how they totally removed the ability to customize the start bar The way that I've had mine set up for about 20 years. It's a double stack bar with a quick launch panel on the left. I often have too many apps running simultaneously to deal with pinned apps. Since they first did away with it I've been able to restore quicklaunch manually I creating a new toolbar and pointing it to a folder via the command line. Now they've removed that ability as well as the ability to double stack the start bar. For that reason alone I've rolled back to Windows 10. If there's any example of making change for no reason than to keep developers busy, there it is.

Yes in this case a picture is not worth a thousand words. I imagine Microsoft programmers are struggling to find relevance in order to keep their jobs.

I guess it depends on who the "programmers" are. I've always had a mental picture of Microsoft that actually pushes the programmers, the people who actually write and test the code, towards the bottom of the pack. To me it always seems like the problem Microsoft has had involves leadership who really know very little about the details and how they ultimately impact people. Then you have All the development teams which would be the programmers at the bottom Just doing what they're told. Meanwhile the bulk of the organization is middle managers who attempt to interpret the goals of the organization from the top and then communicate that with the people at the bottom and their only concerned is The short-term work necessary to get promoted. So they muddy everything up for everyone else. And then the Peter Principle takes hold as each person that's actually good at their job is eligible for promotion until they're eventually promoted to their own level of incompetence.

One things for sure. Bill was smart to get out when he did. Lol

Yes, I didn't even notice the icons at first and was annoyed it was now taking an extra click on the "Show More Options" to find it. Just another stupid move by Microsoft.