Windows 11's right-click menu has become a monster: Microsoft finally promises to let you put it away

“Open”, “Open with”, “Ask Copilot”, “Send to my phone”, “Edit with Paint […] with Notepad […] with Photos”. If you've ever opened the File Explorer context menu on Windows 11, this litany of options should be familiar to you. Simply right-clicking on a file allows you to choose between a plethora of actions, so much so that it can become intimidating.

Aware of the problem, Microsoft is currently working on a feature allowing you to personalize the content of this pop-up window, notes Windows Latest.

A monster evolving without supervision for 20 years

In response to a question about Excellent news for anyone who has already found their way in what has become one of the most chaotic software bricks of Windows.

By Microsoft's own admission in 2021, “the menu is particularly long and has been enriched over the years, evolving without any supervision, for 20 years”. If the latest versions of the system have indeed attempted to intelligently reorganize the different options, the relative slowness of opening the menu on Windows 11 has made its use more painful than before.

If no concrete information on how this customization tool works has been given, nor any firm release date for that matter, at least knowing that Microsoft is aware of the problem and is seeking to resolve it is already a step in the right direction.

This is not the first time that Microsoft has tackled the subject. In December 2025, the publisher already started letting users hide AI Actions from the right-click menu. The customization mentioned by Marcus Ash is therefore part of a series of small adjustments rather than a redesign announced all at once.

An additional solution in the meantime

In the meantime, if the Windows context menu is already seriously annoying you and you don't want to wait for Microsoft to deliver its in-house tool to solve the problem, you can turn to Nilesoft Shell, which allows you to adjust a whole bunch of options related to the context menu.

To go further

Windows 11: how to recover the right-click context menu of Windows 10?

The application requires a little learning, but there are plenty of tutorials on the Internet to help you understand how it works a little more clearly. Otherwise, wait wisely until Windows decides to give you a little more control over your operating system.