DOES NOT WORK!
It USED TO, but not anymore. After having over an hour of my time wasted by a useless help person online, all he told me to do was "leave feedback"
STOP *******$@## WITH STUFF THAT DOESNT NEED IT!
[ARTICLE] Restore old Right-click Context menu in Windows 11
![](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(214.4, 21%, 30%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ES%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Sumit
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Reputation points
Volunteer Moderator
Starting with Windows 11, the context menu in File Explorer is refreshed, offering a compact design based on modern principles. However, the refreshed context menu shows fewer items compared to the Legacy Context menu. This article discusses how to restore the Legacy Context menu in Windows 11, which shows up by default.
Recycle bin modern context menu
You can display the Legacy Right-Click Context menu by clicking "Show more options" at the end of the list or pressing Shift+F10. If you want it to be the default, you need to add a registry entry below so that every time you right-click a File or Folder, it shows the Legacy Context menu by default.
Restore the old Context Menu in Windows 11
- Right-click the Start button and choose Windows Terminal.
- Copy the command from below, paste it into the Windows Terminal Window, and press Enter.
reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve
- Restart File Explorer or your computer for the changes to take effect. You would see the Legacy Right Click Context menu by default.
Command in Windows Terminal to Restore old context menu
The Registry change masks the new COM object that executes the compact menus with the "Show more options" entry. Once you get this performed, Explorer reverts to the Legacy context menu.
Restore Modern Context menus in Windows 11
To undo this change, in a Terminal Window, execute this command:
reg.exe delete "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}" /f
Restart the File Explorer or Computer for the changes to take effect.
These steps can help you to enable the old context menu in Windows 11.
Also read:
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Apps
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Nikolaus Nowak 5 Reputation points2025-08-14T10:35:04.17+00:00 That helped! The "modern" context menu felt so unnecessarily complicated and annoying.
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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(144, 37%, 23%)' 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)
Amresh 0 Reputation points2025-08-18T06:08:03.3066667+00:00 Thanks! It worked.
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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(236.8, 4%, 32%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EMG%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Marcin Górski 20 Reputation points2025-08-19T12:43:35.6033333+00:00 Thanks @Sumit
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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(246.4, 11%, 33%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EJ%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Jim 10 Reputation points2025-08-27T19:55:04.8266667+00:00 -
![](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(99.2, 65%, 19%)' 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)
Allan 0 Reputation points2025-08-29T10:10:12.3033333+00:00 You also need to do this:
:: Restart Windows Explorer. (Applies the above settings without needing a reboot) taskkill /f /im explorer.exe start explorer.exe
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Dmo 10 Reputation points2025-08-20T10:58:54.6733333+00:00 Tx mate, busy doing some more tweaks since Windows 11 is becoming a navigational disaster. They had a perfect product and every version I'm losing my affection to windows completely. Do you maybe know how i remove every single piece of unasked AI integration in windows 11?
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Mabi 0 Reputation points2025-08-28T07:53:28.2133333+00:00 I totally agree - this Windows 11 is a total disaster, and so annoying. Copy/paste doesn't work properly anymore! SOMETIMES no reaction on Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, especially if you want to copy/paste lots of files from/into SEVERAL different source and destination folders...
Besides there comes an annoying popup every time I do right-click on a any file. -
Jim 10 Reputation points
2025-08-28T17:19:48.32+00:00 I had to restore the old Notepad from the old Windows Versions
https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/restore-old-classic-notepad-windows/Use method 2. It worked for me.
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