In Windows 11, Microsoft is modernizing the right-click context menus of Universal Windows Applications (UWP) and Win32 desktop applications. As part of the update, Microsoft also improved related file operations, and introduced new scene support for Windows applications, and covered unpackaged Win32 applications.
Unlike the feature updates that Windows 10 regularly ushered in, the Windows 11 operating system has ushered in many changes. If you have already installed the preview version, you may have seen the new right-click menu as shown above.
However, the current context menu is still in its early stages and lacks some of the options in the classic context menu. For older applications, Microsoft will note show more options in the last line of the context menu. After clicking, you will find that it opens the original main menu of the Windows 10/8/7 era. Of course, it still introduces rounded design elements on the UI level.
In addition to improving usability, Microsoft also promised to bring a better performance experience to Windows 11 context menus. Since Windows XP, the classic right-click menu has undergone a long period of unsupervised development, and many commands rely on File Explorer (Explorer.exe) to implement. So now, Microsoft is finally determined to not allow users to customize context menus and prevent applications from adding new options to the menu.
However, in order to take care of Windows 10 and older software, Windows 11 still hopes to load the classic context menu in a way that does not affect performance and reliability. This means that applications that use the old API can still continue to work normally on the Windows 11 operating system platform. As shown in the figure above, Windows 11 has placed commonly used cut, copy, paste, delete, and rename commands at the top of the modern menu.
At the same time, the company plans to group the Open and Open Method options to reduce the sense of confusion at the UI level. For those users who can’t help the frequent right-click refresh desktop/folder content, this option has not completely disappeared (the keyboard F5 function key is not affected).
Finally, Windows 11 improves the built-in sharing dialogs of applications such as Microsoft Edge. After the updated interface, you can easily find related applications or settings in the nearby shared area. For example, after you use the right-click application and link it to multiple Outlook or Gmail accounts, you can now easily find the first one of your contacts and send an email to yourself.
Previously, this sharing dialog was unique to Microsoft first-party and UWP applications. But in Windows 11, Microsoft has become more open and covers unpackaged Win32 applications. In addition, if the Microsoft Edge Progressive Web Application (PWA) you are using also uses the Web Share Target API, you can also enjoy this benefit.
