Some changes have been made to the appearance on Windows 11. When you click a shortcut or icon, a context menu appears or you can right-click the menu. The purpose of the new context menu is to provide users with fewer choices, which are always useful for you to right-click on an icon or shortcut.

Microsoft's managers have previously stated that Microsoft needs to solve performance problems, that is, the context menus in Windows 10 are too long and disorderly. So this menu has been revised in Windows 11 21H2.

The Windows menu is an important part of the file explorer. The Explorer process contains many operations and commands. When the menu performs useless operations, this will affect performance and cause other different problems. In order to reduce bloated software, common functions such as copy and cut are included in another new command bar designed by Microsoft.

The context menu provides a better experience for users, because the important commands of the context menu are now lined up. The current context menu is more compact and stylish, but the new design has two problems: operation lags/slow performance and lack of commands.

The new context menu in Windows 11 is likely to become a replacement for the old classic menu, but its UI design and Fluent Design transformation may be slow. Fortunately, Microsoft will fix most of the current errors in future versions of Windows 11.

For example, Microsoft is trying another change to improve the file explorer folder navigation performance. Similarly, right-clicking in the file explorer window should not really prompt explorer.exe to crash.

Highlights missing from the Windows 11 menu

The second problem with modern menus is that you want to rely on "show more choices" or advanced menus to execute advanced commands. For example, to refresh the contents of a folder in Explorer, you need to click "Show more choices".

Although the refresh button is still missing, Windows 11 Build 22518 has updated the context menu to provide help with new advanced commands. In response to these inputs, Microsoft has introduced corresponding improvements:

• You can now right-click on font files and .inf files to install them.
• You can now right-click on .cer files to install the certificate.
• You can now access “Map network drive” and “Disconnect network drive” by right-clicking on “This PC” in Explorer.
• The “Disconnect” option is back when you right-click on network drives.

Importantly, the old context menu still exists and Microsoft will not remove any commands at this time. This is because most applications have not been updated to support Windows 11’s new application extension API.

The updated settings menu is currently accessible to analysts in the Dev Channel, and will be available to everyone as a component of the Windows 11 Fall 2022 update.