When I wrote about using Windows 11 for a month as part of the ongoing OSNews fundraiser (keep donating to get me to do the same for macOS!), one of the things I mentioned was that “the modern desktop context menu has its own classic Win32 context menu”. This is, in fact, a long-standing complaint I’ve repeatedly used as the perfect example of just how chaotic and low-quality Windows has become. Thankfully, and naturally I fully attribute this to my repeated complaints (*), Microsoft has been working on a brand new, faster, configurable context menu, and Neowin actually reviewed it.
If you ask me, this revamped context menu addresses just about the biggest problem users had with the one in Windows 11, and that is the need to click through more buttons than necessary to do simple things like renaming a file or opening its properties. That problem is now basically gone.
I have no issues with the new design. It looks modern, it feels more consistent with the rest of Windows, and even though all the new sections can still make it look a little busy, you now have the option to make it as simple or as button-packed as you want. That should cover most use cases and preferences well. I’d even say that when the new context menu becomes available to everyone, my guide on how to bring back the classic context menu might become obsolete.
↫ Ivan Jenic at Neowin
The biggest reason I’m linking to this is not because I care about whatever monster of a context menu Windows users are having to deal with. No, I’m only linking to this because I never in my life imagined I’d be linking to a review of a context menu. I mean, at least it’s not the chess application icon. That would be embarrassing.
I get a perverse sense of joy out of this.
You can be as cynical as you like, and I’ll admit, this is Microsoft we’re talking about, so it’s not entirely unjustified, but: I am actually excited about this and all of the other steps they are currently taking to polish Windows and address many of Windows 11’s long-standing criticisms. It seems like they are having a bit of a Snow Leopard moment, and I wholeheartedly endorse that.
Moochman,
Windows Explorer context menus have been a major usability issue, as the “extensions” are OLE controls. Basically for many times at right click, the shell has to open up several different programs, let them probe the file and return the items.
Right click on an .EXE? It might be a self-extracting archive. So WinRAR naturally checks if the MZ extension records have a compressed payload. Of course if you have WinZIP, it might also want to do the same. 7-Zip? PeaZip? You knew it.
While this makes sense from functionality standpoint, it is a mess from usability angle.
I’m not sure how they will handle it “this time” in Windows 11. But it would eventually, in 5-10 years will need a reset (the previous reset was abandoning 32-bit shell extensions in the 64-bit shell)
Well, you are right.
But in the world of multi-core, multi-GB RAM, multi GB/s storage machines, nothing justifies all the complexity you are describing not to happen virtually instantly.
And heck, the original one still looks way better. Give us a easy way to customize it (like disable unwanted crap) and let’s stop reinventing the wheel please.
Shiunbird,
Yes, I actually liked old functionality, but bloat was real.
Instead of all these if Microsoft offered two things it would be an automated solution with “free” upgrade path
1 – A high level “shell extension manager”. Could hide somewhere “advanced” if needed
2 – Automated monitoring and management of existing ones
(Making this up, I like WinZIP)
I’m afraid any rewrite would still be slower than the original because it is Microsoft we are talking about. =(
100% agree. And it seems like they are addressing both of these issues – the OLE extensions are configurable and the performance should be way better.
Cynicism aside, this is a complicated technical problem made worse by years is mismanagement in Windows.
Who was laid off at Microsoft because of this ?
FWIW, Sinofsky was fired for heading Windows 8, which is really when everything went downhill.
One out of how many should have been fired ? That was Windows 8, but who is responsible for the Windows 11 fiasco ?