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Disable the new context menu in Windows 11 to get the old one back

Windows

Published on April 23 2022 by TechKeep

Here's how to easily disable or re-enable the new Windows 11 context menu, also known as the "right-click" menu. This will make it so you don't have to manually click the entry to show more options - the context menu will behave just like it did in Windows 10.

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(Photo credit - Microsoft)

For some people, it's way more convenient to not have an extra layer to click through in order to quickly access something within the context menu. Fortunately, it's possible to revert it, at least for now. Here's how.

 

Disable the new context menu

This is a pretty straightforward process.

  1. Open up the "Run" dialog using Win+R (pressing the Windows key and the R key at the same time).
  2. Copy and paste the following into the text field:
  3. reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve
  4. Confirm the dialog (or press Enter).
  5. Either reboot your computer, or restart "explorer.exe" using the task manager.

 

Re-enable the new context menu

If you previously have disabled the new context menu and wish to re-enable it, the process is just as easy.

  1. Open up the "Run" dialog using Win+R (pressing the Windows key and the R key at the same time).
  2. Copy and paste the following into the text field:
  3. reg.exe delete "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}" /f
  4. Confirm the dialog (or press Enter).
  5. Either reboot your computer, or restart "explorer.exe" using the task manager.

Last edited on April 23 2022