How to enable classic context menus in Windows 11

Disable 'Show more options' button in context menu

By Kamil AnwarUpdated on October 31, 2024

Kamil is a certified Systems Analyst

The Windows 11 update introduced a streamlined right-click menu, hiding many familiar options under “Show more options.” This change reduces visible commands and slows down workflows for those accustomed to the classic menu from earlier Windows versions.

The minimalist design, while aiming for consistency, makes common commands like “Copy” and “Properties” harder to access, frustrating many users. As more people experience Windows 11, reactions vary—some feel nostalgic, while others are upset about these UI choices.

The new design also omits familiar options like “Refresh” and “New” on the desktop. Fortunately, the classic menu can be restored with a simple registry edit or pre-made registry files.

1. Disable ‘Show More Options’ from Registry Editor Using CMD

Changing the Registry Editor lets you directly adjust Windows settings, like the right-click menu. By tweaking registry values, you can turn off “Show More Options” to immediately return to the classic menu. It’s wise to back up the registry first so you can restore it if necessary.

If you don’t want to use commands, download the bat files, then run them as an administrator to enable or disable the old classic context menu.

Press the Windows key and type Command Prompt and run it as Administrator.
Opening Command Prompt
Enter this command and press Enter.
```
reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve
```
Adding a Registry Key to enable the old classic menu via command prompt
Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager.
Opening Task Manager from the taskbar
In Task Manager, right-click Windows Explorer and click Restart.
Restarting Windows Explorer
After that, right-click the desktop to see the old menu.
If you want the Show More Options back, restore the registry backup or run this command to delete the registry entry:
```
reg.exe delete "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}" /f
```
Enabling Show More Options context menu
Restart Windows Explorer.

2. Disable ‘Show More Options’ Using WinAero Tweaker

WinAero Tweaker is a useful tool for Windows that helps you bring back the old right-click menu. It turns off the “Show More Options” feature, letting you see all the commands right away when you right-click, which makes it easier to navigate files.

Download WinAero Tweaker.
Downloading WinAero Tweaker
Install it following the instructions.
Open it and select Classic Context Menus.
Select Enable classic full context menus.
Click Restart Explorer to activate the old menu.
Enabling the old classic context menu on Windows 11
To revert, uncheck Enable classic full context menus and restart Explorer.

Comments

LagunaJim Jul 10, 2021

They may have killed this with the “Cumulative Update” released a day or two ago. I can’t get the above reg edits to work ;(

Muhammad Zubyan Author Jul 10, 2021

Yes, We are aware of that. They disabled these keys after Cumulative Update for Windows 11 (10.0.22000.65) (KB5004745). We will update the article as soon as we find new options. Thank you for letting us know!

LagunaJim Jul 12, 2021

Thank you for your reply! I love Windows, and have been an IT tech for 40 years [starting with Basic on a teletype terminal 🙂 ]. This particular feature is horrible for experienced users – I have customized the context menu for my own needs, and now they’ve mucked around 😉

choekstr Jul 14, 2021

The increasingly “horrible for experienced users” has been an effect ever since win98. It just keeps getting harder and hard to do simple things, with increasingly more clicks away, and anymore we are pushed to just type what you want to do instead of being able to navigate appropriately.At some point they should just get rid of icons and just a single search bar

Muhammad Zubyan Author Jul 15, 2021

Correct, definitely agree with you on this one.

SSGD Dec 3, 2021

You said it! I believe the problem you describe is the result a couple of factors:
1) Job security for the programmers. They have to make a show of working on the OS to “improve” it, otherwise, why would Microsoft keep them employed. “Hey, look at John. There he is coding away. Good work, John!”
2) The programmer’s conceits that they can “improve” on what has worked well for users for years. A lot of those “improvements” tend to aggravate Windows users and efficiency is often sacrificed for appearance sake. Then there’s there’s the turn-over problem. As developers/programmers leave the company and replacements are hired, we wind up with an OS that has a pretty veneer but at heart is slowly becoming a soup sandwich. Heck, we’ve already had a few of those (looking at you Windows ME).
3) Microsoft seems to have no real idea what it is Windows users want in their OS. It’s like they look at user comments but fail to take those comments seriously. Perhaps it’s another area of conceit that “we know better than the users regarding what they want”.

Bad Dog Jul 29, 2021

I would just wait till the official release is out because when you find the trick it will be gone with all the insider pirate versions floating around the net… this trick was good but until they actually release W11 I would sit back and wait and us power users will again have to tweak windows for productivity and not for the woke mob who have to have things handed to them in the form of icons. GPE is your friend and any serious users know its better than regedit. Everyone knows RegEdit is for the HOME version users…. Much easier with GPE, I am still looking for the fix, let you know if I find it in GPE

OgnitorenKs Aug 3, 2021

After updates this method doesn’t work. Were you able to find a solution about this?

Muhammad Zubyan Author Aug 3, 2021

As of now, there aren’t any updated solutions on this specific issue but we will update you as soon as we find new tweaks.

Anne Aug 9, 2021

As others have mentioned, this trick no longer works.
I have to use the most current version of Windows because of Docker integration,
but use the context menu all day long while workingSo this really is a serious PITA for me.

mat9v Aug 11, 2021

Well, it works for me on 22000.120
Old Explorer style works with old ribbon and old right click menus.
The only problem for me is that start menu also reverted to W10 version.
Clock and all icons (network connections and the like) also disappeared.
It may have to do something with using regedit tip from here: https://windowsreport.com/w…

Bob Stein Aug 11, 2021

left-click, Shift-F10 is another way to bring up the classic context menu. Wonder if I can customize an extra button on a gaming mouse to do that…

chandrizzle Sep 27, 2021

I’ve done something very similar to this. I’m already using AHK, so I’ve added in a line that when I hold a specified key and right-click (and only when Explorer is active), it sends Shift+F10.It’s a very Mac-like feeling holding down a modifier key while clicking, so anyone used to an old Mac with only one mouse button will get that nostalgia.

Benni K. Sep 1, 2022

would be interesting and nice to get the exact script/settings for that

chandrizzle Sep 2, 2022

Sure thing. No special settings required. This example uses CTRL as the keyboard modifier with your right click – just make sure your file(s) are selected first. Add the following to your existing script and you’re good to go:if (WinActive(“ahk_exe Explorer.exe”))
^RButton::Send +{F10}
Return

Mohegan13 Sep 12, 2021

For those of you with the “menu” button on the keyboard (usually between Alt Gr and ctrl) this also works for the old context menu.I honestly don’t know why MS as so hard on the new context menu, it’s awful from a productivity stand point. Visually I like Windows11. But from a productivity stand point, the right click menu and the start menu are both massive back steps IMO.

Aaron Jun 2, 2022

Honestly I love the new start menu. It works just like the quick launch, making it easy to keep things clean and organized. I do agree I don’t like having to go through a two-step process to do basic things with the context menu. Seems counter-intuitive for something that was designed to make things quicker.

Ezzy Black Oct 4, 2021

Not only does not work, causes file explorer to crash on each right-click. (10-4-21)

Muhammad Zubyan Author Oct 5, 2021

That’s really unfortunate it seems like Microsoft has patched this trick. We will update you once we find new methods.

Ezzy Black Oct 5, 2021

Found a working one for right-click.
https://www.tomshardware.co…

Muhammad Zubyan Author Oct 6, 2021

Thank you so much for your input we will update our article shortly.

weweeeewee Oct 12, 2021

this new context menu is buggy as hell, try pasting something into the search box. the UI skin app they’ve used still needs some development. also watch what happens when youre entering a wifi key and the on screen keyboard pops up and you close it. microsoft’s devs must be underpaid these days. more and more windows is starting to look and behave like kylin ubuntu.

DarkwarrioR Oct 14, 2021

I hate what they did with the taskbar on windows 11 they removed so many features(in fact the only thing you can do now, is align it all back to left, the way it should be, can’t make icons smaller, can’t have title text, can’t move or resize the bar,..),but I do actually like this redesigned menu better. Don’t get me wrong I take care of my context menu (on 10, 7, xp,..) so it isn’t a mess, but the fact it has bar with icons on top for basic functionality such as delete, rename, copy and each other item also has an icon. I also like the fact they got rid of some stupid functions that nobody needs or users, such as already mentioned refresh on desktop and share on every folder, so I don’t have to get rid of it. Btw if you use an option a few times from the show more options menu, it gets added to the new redesigned menu, so yeah I really like it, The reason why I am here is because i was searching google for a way to bring the windows 11 context menu to windows 10.. unfortunately all results are for the other way around 🙁

fero Oct 15, 2021

You can right-click on windows logo on taskbar to see old menu

spence Oct 14, 2021

Awesome shortcut editing the registry via the command line. It was missing a directory to make it work for me though. Should’ve been
reg add HKCUSoftwareClassesCLSID{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}InprocServer32 /ve /d “” /f
Was missing the CLSID directory

Mio Naganohara Oct 23, 2021

AWESOME! finally works for 22000.282. THANKS!

Bob Stein Oct 14, 2021

Winaero Tweaker worked great for me.

Maxim Mazurok Oct 25, 2021

After doing cmd command no need to restart computer, just restart explorer from task manager.

Fuzzee Lowgeek Jan 5, 2022

Very useful, some things they did with Windows 11 just make no sense to me. They did some nice work on the UI, but some decisions I just can’t comprehend.

Carlos Jan 25, 2022

i did this and it dint work

Muhammad Zubyan Author Jan 26, 2022

Try method “Disable the ‘Show More Options’ using Third-Party Program” it will definitely work for you.

Carlos Jun 14, 2022

sorry am late and thank you

Roy G Biv Jan 31, 2022

The CMD version worked for me but the options in file explorer didn’t. Thanks for a nice workaround!Any chance there’s a command prompt workaround (a possible link to it on your site?) for ‘ungrouping taskbar icons’? Eg if I have 3 word docs open, I’d like to see 3 word icons in the task bar, not 1 grouped icon, like Win 10 has (Win 10 lets you turn it on and off. Win 11 seems to have gotten rid of the option and stayed with Grouped as default). I know there’s a work around called DXGI The Patcher but I’d rather not go that route.

Muhammad Zubyan Author Feb 2, 2022

Try using the program called “WinAero Tweaker” we have in our 3rd method.

Roy G Biv Feb 3, 2022

Thanks Zubyan. I was hoping for a regestry tweak like this tweak because when my clients call me to say “how do I ungroup these ruddy icons???”, which there will be many once they start using Win11, I don’t want to go the route of having them install 3rd party s/ware.But thanks for your time. Apparently M/soft know about it and are meant to fix it in an update but who knows when/if that will be??

ManitC Feb 24, 2022

when the start menu sucked, there was a third party alternative, now explorer sucks. Looking for a third party alternative. MS needs to get it together.

The Reaper Mar 3, 2022

I just wanted to change 1 thing. The copy/paste option is one of the most important options on a computer and should be easy to access without having to change things in the registry or revert all kinds of things back to an older version. And don’t tell me I’m “confused” I know where it is, and its STUPID that they put it there. I just want to copy/paste into a folder or a shortcut on my desktop and yes that having to scroll and extra click and scroll is not confusing, it’s annoying and unnecessary !

Nicolas Durand Mar 12, 2022

Thank you for this.
The registry key below worked after restart on Windows 11 as of March 2022 (without updates…).reg add HKCUSoftwareClassesCLSID{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}InprocServer32 /ve /d “” /f

Jovan Jun 26, 2022

Peter Berglund Sep 7, 2022

Works for me, thanks! It was tedious to have to click on the “Show more options” all the time.

1. Disable ‘Show More Options’ from Registry Editor Using CMD

2. Disable ‘Show More Options’ Using WinAero Tweaker

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