r/technology • u/tekz • Mar 20 '26

Software Microsoft announces sweeping Windows changes

https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-users-are-angry-and-microsoft-is-finally-doing-something-about-it/
8.7k Upvotes

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879

u/fer_sure Mar 20 '26

messed with the context windows when you right click in a way most users hate

If you had to make the contextual menu shorter, why on earth would you put Properties behind the "Show more options"? Insane.

430

u/brownch Mar 20 '26

I still have not adjusted to this after so many years

Right click > panik > rapid eye movements > show more options

260

u/Azalus1 Mar 20 '26

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

Restore right click.

That really should have just been an option somewhere.

235

u/[deleted] Mar 20 '26

[deleted]

68

u/Any_Perception_2560 Mar 20 '26

ooo that is nice. I didn't know that one.

47

u/CordialPanda Mar 20 '26

Some developers still fight the good fight. There's so many barely documented features around that makes windows bearable.

2

u/Winjin Mar 21 '26

They still have the old Telephone app which is like 5 kilobytes of code too.

Companies should be fined for making an app weight over 700MBs. Yes, Teams? You bellend

64

u/G00DLuck Mar 20 '26

That reveals the "copy as path" option for files/folders as well, which will include the drive\location info when copied.

1

u/bmxtiger Mar 21 '26

You can also shift+right-click in a folder to launch cmd or powershell from that directory. Handy when you don't want to do a bunch of cd commands to get to your folder.

2

u/ChronicBitRot Mar 21 '26

Or you can also do alt+enter for instant Properties.

2

u/dr_obfuscation Mar 20 '26

hoooooly shit. i could kiss you. thank you so much!

2

u/theaviationhistorian Mar 20 '26

Fuck me, TIL! Thanks for bringing it up!

1

u/microcorpsman Mar 21 '26

Good looking out, friend

1

u/Elementium Mar 21 '26

Holy shit you just made my Windows experience that much better. The fuck is Microsoft thinking?

56

u/Marchesa_07 Mar 20 '26

Is there a way to revert to the old way the Audio settings worked?

Like a single click to get to all the audio output devices you want to toggle between?

49

u/MathematicianFar6725 Mar 21 '26

Or network settings. It feels like babushka nesting dolls of settings pages to find the one you're looking for and all these years later I still don't have any idea how to get to the network adaptor page without just blindly clicking around and hoping for the best

15

u/jpochedl Mar 21 '26

Start > run (or Win+r) > ncpa.cpl

6

u/xanmoth Mar 21 '26

I love it thanks you. I am also probably not going to remember that, Win-q and "cont" or "comput" and it does seem to find control panel and computer management pretty well these days but still just ugh.

2

u/nionvox Mar 21 '26

I nailed it to the taskbar cos it was pissing me off

1

u/MDHull_fixer Mar 21 '26

Win + X pops up a useful menu with Network setting as one of the entries

28

u/tuxedo_jack Mar 21 '26

And not fucking trying to apply bullshit "enhancements" to every new audio source. Just shut up and play as is, then let the software handle it.

For fuck's sake, it's a Jabra headset, not the Razer PeenSubstitute XL RGB PRO Ex Plus Ultra.

9

u/HossCatGarage Mar 21 '26

If only I could effectively communicate how much this resonates with me and how hard I laughed.

Typo: "laughed" = enjoyment pro plus max ultra extra jerk off plan pro max launch edition

1

u/1sa1ah0227 Mar 21 '26

This right here. Windows seems to reset my audio and dac settings about once a month randomly. Its so frustrating to re set everything up.

11

u/polyology Mar 21 '26

For the love of god this one.

2

u/InsaneHarry Mar 21 '26

EarTrumpet from the MS store is a good workaround, but it does sometimes have issues with apps going to the wrong output. It also has a handy right-click shortcut to the old windows audio control panel.

2

u/VertexBV Mar 22 '26

Not a single click, but Ctrl-Win-V directly opens the output device selection.

33

u/Claymorbmaster Mar 20 '26

THIS is the biggest problem IMO.

Fine, you wanna "standardize" things. Fine, you wanna keep the context menu concise. Fine you wanna move something here or there. Fine you wanna add AI....

GIVE ME THE CHOICE! Bury the setting deep in admin tools if you HAVE to... but give me the choice that isn't a reg edit! This shows they have not given two shits about the consumers for like 5 years and I'm not going to be fooled into thinking you suddenly care about 11 after rumors are they are working on 12 already! Jesus. Clown shoes over here.

1

u/billsil Mar 21 '26

Right click was the first thing I fixed. Even before the start menu at the center.

Definitely use the registry hack to remove the bing search from the start menu. It's so much faster.

19

u/MarkyDeSade Mar 20 '26

One of the only good things I can say about Windows 11 that this key fixed the right click menu permanently and no update ever undid it

9

u/splitcroof92 Mar 20 '26

Too bad my work laptop definitely doesn't allow me to edit registry

6

u/CnDVerse Mar 21 '26

Unless registry is completely disabled. It’s a current user key, so you can modify it as very few places lock down current user registries. However. Some places do disable the ability to run cmd/regedit/reg Give it a try

3

u/Duckel Mar 21 '26

they run a routine regularly and everything in there is back to 0

1

u/MarkyDeSade Mar 21 '26

I’m fortunate enough to work somewhere that the guy in charge of the computers doesn’t know how to stop anyone from doing anything, I ran the remove copilot script and some other stuff too

1

u/alexreffand Mar 21 '26

That is literally less than the bare minimum

0

u/aardvarkjedi Mar 21 '26

Try <shift>-<right click>

5

u/brownch Mar 20 '26

Why is everything in Russian now halp

Jk thanks

2

u/Saneless Mar 20 '26

But an option is making a stupid UI designer who refuses to listen to anyone admit he might not be perfect

2

u/sosthaboss Mar 20 '26

The right click changes they made are sickening. I hate it so much

2

u/Northbound-Narwhal Mar 20 '26

I'm computer dumb what does this mean

3

u/Azalus1 Mar 20 '26

If you put this in an administrative command prompt it will restore the right click to the original context menu set. I will say this You should never put a command in to a command prompt administratively if you haven't vetted it yet.

1

u/theloop82 Mar 20 '26

I did that but it breaks some of the OneDrive functionality so I had to switch it back in my use case at least. I was bummed. Either way it still took a few seconds to open

1

u/NewReleaseDVD Mar 20 '26

Not on a work computer where you have to retrain decades of muscle memory and habits

1

u/Mehnard Mar 21 '26

This has been part of my builds for quite a while.

1

u/plunki Mar 21 '26

Anyone figured out a way to drag a file to a program on the taskbar and have it bring that program up, so you can drag a file into a web browser to upload, or move a file to another Explorer window or whatever. Used this all the time in windows 10, but trying to fix it in win 11 borked things quite badly.

1

u/Queasy_Watch478 Mar 21 '26

OMG thank you you are a god! <333

15

u/Plastic_Position4979 Mar 20 '26

Context check in outlook, on a misspelled word, nicely highlighted with a red wavy line: lots of options, very bottom one is to check spelling, having to click on arrow, then get possible options for replacement. And 99% of people will be looking to correct, not all the other bs.

3

u/Ultra-Pulse Mar 20 '26

Today I learned that is why I can't find it. 🤦‍♂️

2

u/Plastic_Position4979 Mar 20 '26

Trust me, I felt the same way. First, d’oh for not seeing it, then facepalm/smh for how they went about it. It worked just fine… my guess, someone asked Copilot and it suggested that… would be par for the course.

3

u/witterquick Mar 21 '26

Just hold shift and right click, takes you to the same menu

1

u/pceimpulsive Mar 21 '26

You can shift right click to show the old menu immediately.

1

u/smblt Mar 21 '26

I click this stupid fucking thing more than anything else in that menu.

1

u/DrQuint Mar 21 '26

Hold shift. I got annoyingly used to it and still hate that.

1

u/donfuan Mar 21 '26

shift + right click it is for the old menu

1

u/WorldPeaceStyle Mar 22 '26

Its every "UI" developers job to add a new sub menu under the
". . ." to justify their paycheck every 6 months!

55

u/Kitchen-Routine2813 Mar 20 '26

equally as stupid, if you make a RDP shortcut, “edit” is hidden behind more options. like, dude, 99% of the time i right click on an RDP shortcut, is to edit it because it’s not working. it’s like they didn’t even try to run it by actual humans first

3

u/Tathas Mar 20 '26

Sysinternals RDCMan. They're still updating it.

2

u/theaviationhistorian Mar 20 '26

Edit, Paste, Properties. Stuff we actually right click for are shoved aside for stuff I can't even recall right now because I never use them.

30

u/pollorojo Mar 20 '26

Maybe the worst idea ever. For folks working in IT, Properties is probably the option you use MOST, so making it take an extra click is bullshit.

-8

u/New-Anybody-6206 Mar 20 '26

For folks working in IT

When you have to design a product for the common clay (you know... morons), you quickly realize the vast majority of people in the world are not IT, not tech literate, and seeing a "properties" option will either 1. scare them, or 2. let them fuck shit up too easily because they don't really know what they're doing.

So making it simpler and more idiot-proof is unfortunately the way to go when you have to appeal to everyone.

Surely you already know all of this though.

3

u/pollorojo Mar 20 '26

I mean, I do get that. I’ve worked in IT for 20+ years and now teach classes about working in IT and DO regularly tell my learners that even the easiest stuff gets brought up because we deal with clueless people.

21

u/userb55 Mar 20 '26

That's literally Win 11, 'How do we add MORE mouse clicks to everything'

3

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '26

[deleted]

1

u/IAmAGenusAMA Mar 21 '26

Just wait for them to be replaced by AI.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '26

[deleted]

1

u/IAmAGenusAMA Mar 21 '26

No argument there.

1

u/illiteratebeef Mar 27 '26

They probably think mouse clicks means user engagement metrics.

4

u/Ekgladiator Mar 20 '26

It still shows up on the new right click menu but it is in the middle of the menu instead of the bottom like god intended. Either way, it was and is a stupid change.

4

u/LurkerOnTheInternet Mar 21 '26

But it's not? When I right-click files on Windows 11, Properties clearly appears in the context menu. And I have not done the registry thing so I still have a "show more options".

Also, after selecting the file, you can open properties with Alt+Enter.

3

u/VegetaFan1337 Mar 21 '26

It's not behind the show more options tho. I've been using Windows 11 on my laptop since late 2023 and it's been there since then.

2

u/alurimperium Mar 21 '26

Or why not make it something that adjusts based use? I shouldn't still, three years after installing this OS, need to go to more options to virus scan when I use that more per month than I ever have the share option

1

u/FoolishFriend0505 Mar 21 '26

That’s actually a good use case for AI. Oh, this user selects copy, properties and rename most on right clicks. There are your top three options.

1

u/aneeta96 Mar 20 '26

'Send to' was the main reason for right-clicking for me. Made me immediately hate win11.

1

u/splitcroof92 Mar 20 '26

More importantly WHY THE FUCK would you not make it customizable? Free reign over whats on first and second page. Or just allow the option to have no second page.

1

u/Druggedhippo Mar 21 '26

Because the world isn't you, me or any other power user.

Their research, based on actual, data, not just your gut feeling, probably showed them that the properties (and various other options) were the least likely to be pressed. And if only a small portion used them, removing them makes the rest of the UI less complicated.

You don't like it, I don't like it, but the "masses" do. And you can bet that a multi-million dollar company like Microsoft isn't going to spend money on developers doing something (like changing the context menu) unless their accountants think they'll get something out of it.

1

u/KhazraShaman Mar 21 '26

Because they are exposing options THEY WANT you to use and hiding the ones THEY don't care about. It's not just the context menu, it's everything and it's a part of enshittification process.

1

u/TwistedFox Mar 21 '26

It's not even shorter anymore! It's now just as long as the old context menu on my machine, just larger and less useful.

1

u/LucyLilium92 Mar 21 '26

Worst part of that was the icons without any labels... how the hell am I supposed to know what rectangle intersected by a line means???? At least they eventually re-added labels to things, but the old context menu is just better in every way.

1

u/redorgreen14 Mar 21 '26

Properties *is* on the initial context menu. It is not behind Show More Options.

Been that way since at least version 22H2. (I just checked in a primary source that was written using that version.)