CoreImage - Windows 11 right-click menu


Introduction

Microsoft redesigned the right-click menu (sometimes called the context menu) for Windows 11 in an effort to simplify it.  As you can see in the screenshots below, commands such as cut, copy, and paste are no longer words; they have become icons at the top of the menu.  Various commands have been reordered and others have been hidden.  These are examples of the simplification Microsoft has attempted.

Microsoft provides more information here.  The following is an excerpt.

As useful as the Windows 10 context menu is, there are aspects of its design we [Microsoft] sought to improve in Windows 11.

  • The most common commands – cut, copy, paste, delete, and rename – are far from the mouse pointer, touch point, or pen.
  • The menu is exceptionally long. It has grown in an unregulated environment for 20 years, since Windows XP was introduced.
  • It includes commands which are rarely used.
  • Commands that should be grouped together – such as Open and Open with – are sometimes far apart.
  • Commands added by apps have no common organizational schema.
  • Commands added by apps are not attributable to the app itself.

 

 

Instructions

 

Windows 10

Windows 11

 

To reveal the old Windows context menu when using the new Windows 11 one, click Show more options.  Alternatively, you can hold the shift key down as you right-click; this will also show the old Windows context menu.