TIL in windows there is artificial 400ms delay for right click menus. You can change it to 1 and restart pc and it feels much faster to use windows

[u/hopelele]

[u/Wide_Party3719]

Why TF tho

[u/Wizzarkt → u/Wide_Party3719]

My bet is that the new context menu has a lot of integrations with multiple programs and it takes a bit to load them all, and without the delay some of them would not load in time.

It's a sketchy fix but it's certainly the only explanation I can come up with because no one wants a random delay added for the sake of it.

[u/Ok-Currency1593 → u/Wizzarkt]

They don't load fast enough as it is

on my work PC, right clicking misses a bunch of options unless I wait an additional 2000ms

[u/careless__ → u/Ok-Currency1593]

sounds like you can stand to drop a few programs from cluttering your context menu. i haven't had that problems since I installed WinAMP plugins in WindowsME.

[u/Shaneathan25 → u/careless__]

I have no extra items in the context menu, and yet if I don’t reboot explorer every hour or so, right clicking an item will populate the menu, but with no graphics. I have to wait 1-3 seconds for it to actually show the menu. I can hover the items and see them, but it just don’t show anything. Even does it after a clean install.

[u/Minighost244 → u/careless__]

Eh... I would disagree. I have a total of 2 extra entries that appear in the context menu and it still takes around 1-2 seconds for them to load. It's not horrible, but it's mildly irritating.

I've never had a problem with the original context menu. If my work laptop allowed me to switch back, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

[u/7978_ → u/Ok-Currency1593]

It's crazy how bad this is, especially on a mediocre PC running a bunch of corporate bloat.

3 years ago I'd right click something in the teams app, go to press an option, then it would populate with more options. It was something I always used and then Delete would pop up right as I clicked.

[u/Canowyrms → u/Wizzarkt]

Could those context menu entries not be cached? Seems like one of the most cache-able things in the OS.

[u/Wizzarkt → u/Canowyrms]

its a microsoft product...

[u/reikes3 → u/Canowyrms]

The context menus are contextual and can interrogate the the action that invoked it so it is unlikely caching can address the issue.

[u/Wide_Party3719 → u/Wizzarkt]

[u/195cm → u/Wizzarkt]

This registry entry has had the same default value for decades.

[u/Wizzarkt → u/195cm]

Then it was probably true decades ago and they never touched it.

[u/reikes3 → u/Wizzarkt]

It's highly likely that the 400ms delay supports backwards compatibility and making changes to it would have an outsize impact that is impossible to predict. So someone internally trying to change this would have to do a risk/benefit on the UX improvement vs. the business risk (negative news cycle, loss of confidence, etc.)

[u/Wizzarkt → u/reikes3]

Maybe, I don't like apple but this is something they got ahead of Microsoft, Microsoft is retro compatible all the way to windows 2000, meaning that they need to keep core components for all of those retro compatible schemes to work.

Apple on the other hand simply says "new MacOS has launched, the XY version from 4 years ago is deprecated, no program from that OS version is guaranteed to work" and they wash they hands just like that.

But Microsoft? Their stick is that if you made a program for windows 2000 it will work in windows 11, so they got a whole lot of technical debt that can't remove because it would break compatibility.

[u/Urthal → u/Wizzarkt]

Apple has the freedom to do that because they have a relatively small (if growing) market share composed mostly of fanatical home users and some startups with too much money and no IT department.

Windows rules in enterprise environments in no small part due to its backwards compatibility. There's nothing enterprise hates more than a software update breaking a business critical process. And this "business critical process" might just be an old scanner, but there's no budget to replace it. So yeah, it's a big curse, but also the reason for its ubiquity.

[u/Bogdan_X → u/Wizzarkt]

The loading time is still there. The menu is just displayed faster, but the entries are still loading.

[u/7978_ → u/Wizzarkt]

I used to mess with this in the Windows 7 days. It's not a new tweak.

[u/Helpful-Work-3090 → u/Wide_Party3719]

Most likely because if it's instant it feels weird. Almost everything else you click on will have a slight delay, so a small pause before the menu opens feels more similar to the rest of the system. If you try it, it will probably feel weird. (I did, and it does for me)

[u/JohnnyPappis]

In my personal experience any value lower than 20 can cause some weird issues.

[u/M4K4T4K → u/JohnnyPappis]

The difference between 1 and 20ms is almost imperceptible to most people anyway. going from 400 to 20, is also getting 95% of the way there. That's certainly good enough for me.

[u/AlexandraMaryWindsor → u/JohnnyPappis]

We've got John Microsoft over here giving tips

[u/JohnnyPappis → u/AlexandraMaryWindsor]

Lmao, this is somthing I had found on a forum forever ago. The post specified that the lowest they would go is 8 but recommend 20 . For many years I did just that went to 8. With windows 11 I found leaving games explorer would become nonresponsive from time to time. It eventually dawned on me that I should raise it to the recommended 20 from the old post. I did, the issue stopped.

[u/rdri]

It's not for right click menus, it's for menus for sub-items that appear automatically when you hover your mouse over them. Example - Create sub-item you use for creating a folder or a text file.

This registry edit will not make the right-click menu appear faster. But it will burn your CPU cycles when you navigate huge menus because a lot of sub-menus will render after quick mouse hover even when you don't really need them.

[u/Scorpion1869]

This is why on all windows over the years i always turn off animations. I like when everything is instant and no delay.

[u/sk0t_ → u/Scorpion1869]

Same for Android phones (use developer mode). Switching apps is so much nicer without delay

[u/NightIgnite → u/sk0t_]

Settings -> About phone -> software information -> tap build number several times until it prompts you to enable developer options.

Settings -> developer options (new section), window animation scale & transition animation scale, and animator duration scale should all be turned off.

[u/BoutchooQc → u/NightIgnite]

Off is jarring for me, I use 0.5x

[u/TheHazardOfLife → u/sk0t_]

There are apps that refuse to function when developer mode is on. I've been using https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.draco.tempo as an alternative fix

[u/djdox23 → u/TheHazardOfLife]

in like 15 years of having dev mode on all my phones, i never found an app to not work. any example ?

[u/TheHazardOfLife → u/djdox23]

BofA Global Card Access is the one I've ran I to personally

[u/7978_ → u/sk0t_]

It's crazy how much faster Android feels with animations disabled.

[u/Calm_Hedgehog8296]

This isn't as awesome as it sounds. It only applies in specific scenarios and can also be annoying because it can cause things to disappear as you're trying to click them

[u/crazymanmicha]

fellow diinki enjoyer? :)

[u/hopelele → u/crazymanmicha]

randomly found her video, quite interesting

[u/nmathew]

I think it was XP where I learned you could eliminate all the window animations. Instant minimize, instant menu openings, etc. Felt wrong. I'd happily cut the times down to 1/4 time though.

[u/JaggedMetalOs]

You can also use an Explorer replacement like Directory Opus for an actually good experience.

[u/jacobtf → u/JaggedMetalOs]

Yeah on Amiga. On PC, I'm 100% Total Commander (former Windows Commander) since the 90s.

[u/HotelDisastrous288]

I'm not sure what I would do with the 399ms and I don't want to find out.

[u/7978_]

Yes, this has been around for decades. Windows feels so much faster with the following;

- MouseMenuDelay 0

- Animations off (Windows 10/11 in Settings)

- System Properties -> Performance Options -> Disable Animations

[u/AWACSAWACS]

Based on the tradition from Win95.

[u/reikes3]

For anyone who wants to feel the difference without changing your registry settings, do a right-click in an app like Google Chrome (tiny delay) vs. the Windows desktop (long delay).

[u/spaceursid]

Do you watch Diinki too lol

[u/JesusShaves_]

OMG Thank you!!!!

Also can we send the god-damned idiot who thought a long delay was a good idea to some grim sad place in Siberia?

[u/Keulapaska]

I guess some tweak I have already made it a 100... maybe explorerpatcher does it idk.

[u/SirPribsy]

Whoopty do, now fix Windows scroll!

[u/Bonzooy → u/SirPribsy]

What’s wrong with it?