How to Restore the Right-Click Context Menu in Windows 11

I Want My (Full) Right Click!

One of the most annoying ongoing habits of Microsoft is to continually dumb-down Windows (and their software). They had a real move at one point (long ago) to make every function available with keyboard commands. Now they are reversing that and making it more and more difficult to figure out how to do many things with key strokes. Or they are adding additional keystrokes, so something that use to be a simple two- or three-key combo is now a series of three to five keystrokes.

My current frustration is their continuing move to make the right mouse click essentially useless. This post will show you how to fix this. 

Note: This is not a "permanent" fix because you'll need to re-apply it about once per year. From time to time, Microsoft releases an update or upgrade that eliminates this important productivity function.

My bias is: I use computers and office software for productivity. Primarily, I am writing. But I also might be doing a bit of graphics, a bit of scripting. I do a lot of moving data/text from one place to another. And I do a fair amount of moving and working with data.

In all of that, I use the right mouse click (the context sensitive menu) a lot. Ultimately, no matter what program you're using, copying data to a flat text file (e.g., Notepad) and then copying from there and pasting in the final location is a powerful tool. It removes formatting. It eliminates hidden text and executable code. And once you are in the habit of doing this a lot, it is very fast.

Until Microsoft changes things to make you less productive.

You may use the right mouse click for other reasons. If you use it a lot, you have probably noticed - and been frustrated by the fact that there's fewer and fewer useful options all the time. Here's how to restore the full menu. (Actually, this process stops the dumb-down command and reveals the full menu.)

Restore old Right-click Context menu in Windows 11

While logged into Windows 11, the context menu in the File Explorer shows fewer items compared to the Legacy Context menu. Depending on your Windows update version, you may be able to access the longer context menu by clicking Show More Options at the end of the list or pressing Shift+F10. 

To always have access to the full context menu, you will need to add a registry entry. Here how:

• Right-click the Start button and choose Windows Terminal
• Copy the command from below, paste it into Windows Terminal Window, and press enter

reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve

• Restart your computer 

Technobabble for those who understand: The registry change masks the new COM object that executes the compact menus with the "Show more options" entry. Once you create this registry entry, you should have the full context menu. 

Now: Either bookmark this post, or copy the text into a TXT file and save in a place where you can find it. Someday, a Microsoft update will mess up the right-click option again.

I welcome your feedback, tips, and tricks. How do you stay productive?

:-)