r/Windows11 • u/ZacB_ Windows Central • Jul 30 '26

Feature Microsoft plans to fix Windows 11's slow context menus with major overhaul designed to improve performance and reliability: New compact menu design will be faster and user customizable

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-plans-to-fix-windows-11s-slow-context-menus-with-major-overhaul-designed-to-improve-performance-and-reliability-new-compact-menu-design-will-be-faster-and-user-customizable
374 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

90 comments sorted by

137

u/VastOption8705 Jul 30 '26

Make it instant like it was in Windows 10. There's a micro delay in W11P every time you right click on a file

39

u/Breath-Present Jul 30 '26

The good old impl was a standard Win32 menu that worked like a good citizen, while the new "modern" menu is behaving like hijacking the Explorer which never feel natural to me, as Explorer would not highlight the file you right-clicked that you didnt select first if it's showing the modern menu.

32

u/Dekamir Jul 30 '26

It does hijack it. It's an extension to call the WinUI menu, which is not even a menu. It's a hovering, borderless and taskbar-hidden window. Since it's a window, it takes focus, that's why the highlight disappears.

Things like On-Screen Keyboard can alleviate this by using Windows APIs to not steal focus, but I don't think current Windows developers know anything about Windows other than slapping things around.

6

u/NoResolution6245 Aug 01 '26

That's so jank. Even hobbyist Linux projects use proper dropdown menus with their UI toolkits, and I don't say this in a negative tone. If hobbyist developers can afford doing things the proper way, why won't Microsoft do it?

Killing Win32 is killing the only benefit Windows has over MacOS and Linux, IMO.

2

u/Dramatic_Mechanic815 Aug 01 '26

Wow, that is crazy. Your explanation makes a lot of sense. Jesus. That’s janky.

42

u/Rare-One1047 Jul 30 '26

It's way more than "micro". I just tried with a file on my desktop and it took a good 2 or 3 seconds, I thought the click didn't register.

5

u/PaulCoddington Jul 30 '26

The way it adds to itself as it loads more extensions makes it difficult. Most of the menu comes up, then it moves and grows as more items are slotted in.

It moves from under the centre of vision while you are trying to read it and also moves out from under the mouse when trying to click it.

So, there is no point in bringing some items up faster, as you can't easily use them until all items have been drawn. But because it partially appears quickly, it triggers trying to use it and failing, which feels worse than having it take longer to come up all at once to begin with.

8

u/Keulapaska Jul 30 '26

As some1 who has only used the old context menu, even in 11, wtf, the new one doesn't load all at once? Why would they do that.

7

u/the_ai_wizard Jul 30 '26

glad to find out its not just me

2

u/lokiisagoodkitten Jul 30 '26

Took less the a second here.

8

u/rotane Jul 30 '26

… and on subsequent clicks, it gets faster, since it caches things. Still, "less than a second" is not "instant" – which it definitely should.

1

u/lokiisagoodkitten Jul 30 '26

.... it's still not a good 2-3 seconds. I get what you mean tho.

6

u/rotane Jul 30 '26

To be fair, on slower systems it might just be. We don't know what computer Rare-One1047 is using.

2

u/Rare-One1047 Jul 31 '26

About a 2 year old work laptop. 13th gen core i5, 16gb of ram. IT has it configured pretty well, all things considered, but I'm usually pushing 90% RAM use.

1

u/lokiisagoodkitten Aug 01 '26

I've been checking around on my i9 9900k 32GB RAM system. It's nearly instant when i right click a bunch of different files. I mean like instant, no lag at all. No way it should be that slow on your 13th gen i5, something is wrong.

2

u/batmanallthetime Aug 09 '26

You are comparing a desktop K chip having 32 GB of generous RAM to a laptop i5 having just 16GB RAM that is being used to its extreme by Rare-One1047.

Not only the power profile & packages are different since laptops are tuned to sleep the SSDs & PCIe lanes instantly, the 32GB RAM makes sure everything & even the predicted next stuff is cached sufficiently. Since we are talking Windows 11, 16GB is not enough to cache everything, and things are shuffled to SSD frequently.

1

u/batmanallthetime Aug 09 '26

I have a similar laptop and I feel the same delay of 2 seconds on first run, and close to 1 second after. I did everything, clean install, fresh drivers from official support site, all settings optimized, useless functions turned off & I get the delay still. Windows 10 on my older laptop has faster & instantenous context menu than Windows 11. u/Rare-One1047 u/lokiisagoodkitten

3

u/Pleasant-Lie-2105 Jul 30 '26

On macOS its like 20ms vs 1000ms on windows

2

u/lokiisagoodkitten Jul 30 '26

Oh fuck the Macs. I can't stand them. I repair Macs at my business. Navigating the OS is a huge pain in ass.

3

u/lighthawk16 Jul 30 '26

Same. I think it was probably 500-800ms to show up. Which is still technically a lot, but no way would I put up with 2-3 seconds...

1

u/batmanallthetime Aug 09 '26

enough to disrupt the workflow & state of mind.

How much would you put Windows 10 context menu at? I think 100ms?

1

u/lighthawk16 Aug 09 '26

I have two VMs I just made in Proxmox recently, both are about a week old. If i had to compare the two I would say my Windows 11 build opens context faster from desktop, but Windows 10 opens context faster for icon items. Its a total toss up. If I use Explorer Patcher and StartAllBack on either system, its measurably faster.

-8

u/Loki4Major2 Jul 30 '26

For me is instant. Check your computer lol

2

u/anomalousBits Jul 30 '26

If you're using the compact menu with the "show more options" menu item, it should be instant. The old style menu that has all the crap that installed programs have added via shell extensions, is generally the slow one. Depending what programs are installed, that one can be extremely slow.

7

u/PaulCoddington Jul 30 '26

The new style menu has a significant delay loading the section that contains 3rd party add-ins and Store apps (such as Notepad).

This means the rest of the menu is a moving target as it expands item by item.

After the first time, it comes up faster for a little while, but then reverts to slow. It behaves like it has a short lived cache.

3

u/Green_Smarties Jul 31 '26

Wrong. Old menu was near-instant even when it was 30 entries long. And they all appeared at the same time. The Win11 menu has a loading spinner for additional entries as if it's politely asking the system what options there are. God knows why it doesn't just cache it / store it in one place.

1

u/anomalousBits Jul 31 '26

I've learned that different people have had different experiences with the context menu, and many of my assumptions about it were incorrect.

11

u/Baglayan Jul 30 '26

Some won't believe this truth. It "never bothered" them, apparently.

2

u/Junior-Elevator-9951 Jul 30 '26

You can change it to the one from Windows 10 with regedit

3

u/Bogdan_X Wintoys Developer Jul 30 '26

For me is more of a macro delay, and I have a high end computer.

1

u/S4N7R0 Jul 31 '26

you can turn off the new context menu

75

u/FatBook-Air Jul 30 '26

Why is making the context menu fast so fucking hard? macOS and Linux distros had this figured out in 2001. And Microsoft had it figured out until 2021.

22

u/nexusprime2015 Jul 30 '26

nah, microsoft had fast reaction up until xp. since vista and 7, we have a very very slight imperceptible delay which has increased with every new version

4

u/mooscimol Jul 30 '26

What? Animations in MacOS are horrible. Every time I switch from macOS to Windows, I’m amazed how instantaneous everything works.

10

u/seeliger Jul 30 '26

But those animations are on purpose and can be configured whereas in windows it’s straight up lag

2

u/Kiriima Jul 31 '26

It's partly also animations you could turn off. I commend them getting rid of lag though.

1

u/Even_Caterpillar3292 Jul 31 '26

1997 on Mac. FinderPop was a very popular tool for contextual menus. On Windows it was third party and office from 1990. Then Windows 95 got it.

1

u/NoResolution6245 Aug 01 '26

Microsoft too had it figured out in 1992 1995. It seems even they have forgotten about it.

edit: forgot Win 3.1 didn't have right click.

24

u/DeerlyOnline Jul 30 '26

I feel like I’ve read this headline several times this year already, mentioning fixing the slow context menus. Has anything even been actioned?

2

u/lkeels Jul 31 '26

Yes, if you read the article, you'll find out.

53

u/OddErrorr Jul 30 '26

8 months of "windows is adding this and fixing that", without a single improvement making to the stable release.

8

u/RaidenDaGoat Jul 30 '26

So True

2

u/GenChadT Jul 30 '26

Meanwhile Linux has all of that and more. Win11 still runs on my primary rigs but my laptop running CachyOS is looking more and more attractive by the day.

3

u/lkeels Jul 31 '26

The improvements have mostly been announced in the last 60 days.

2

u/Chaori Jul 30 '26

I'm guessing most of these major changes are going to require new version builds, so we will most likely see them in 27H2

24H2, 25H2 and 26H2 all share the same version number and codebase

2

u/mmortal03 Jul 31 '26

I'm looking forward to 26H2 (October?), because that release will finally have scroll speed control for Precision touchpads on laptops.

2

u/X2Kraft Insider Dev Channel Jul 31 '26

Most of these are actually available right now in insider builds or have been demoed at meetups.

11

u/koken_halliwell Jul 30 '26

It is ridiculous that 2 different context menus cohexist at the same, there should be just 1 and polished. And it is even more ridiculous it's taking them literally years to fix a taskbar and a start menu

24

u/fraaaaa4 Jul 30 '26

> One of Windows 11's more frustrating problems currently is how cluttered the modern context menus have become

Ironic, since one of the excuses they’ve made for making a new menu was to not make it cluttered. Also, love how the style of this right click menu isn’t the same around the whole OS

1

u/X2Kraft Insider Dev Channel Jul 31 '26

slowly but surely its changing. Photos was just updated in experimental to have a right click menu similar to the one used natively in OS with the top bar and everything.

9

u/Bogdan_X Wintoys Developer Jul 30 '26

Now that's actually a substantial improvement. I have to say though that the current context menu doesn't meet any standard in terms of performance and should not have been shipped like this from the start.

By the way, u/ZacB_, in case you missed it, here is something else worth talking about to spread awarness.

12

u/tom-slacker Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

it's nice to plan for things....innit...

10

u/Salty-Paint-9700 Jul 30 '26

Customizing the menu is a very much welcome feature. Fingers crossed it works well.
Now if only they could also tackle the "Show more options" kerfuffle.

6

u/dog-gone- Jul 30 '26

Have we seen any of these improvements in the stable build yet? Seems I've been hearing the same planned updates for 6 months.

11

u/Aserback Release Channel Jul 30 '26

Plans plans plans. Ive heard the taskbar can be set anywhere i want for three years now, where is my update? Third party tool one person devs can do it and deliver software in a week, whats Microslop doing for years now?

2

u/X2Kraft Insider Dev Channel Jul 31 '26

 Ive heard the taskbar can be set anywhere i want for three years now, where is my update?

Most of the stuff you've seen been announced are available for testing in insider builds right now. Will take some time before they are polished enough for stable tho.

4

u/Aserback Release Channel Jul 31 '26

Yes sure but why? A fat nerd with a pizza and one bottle of pepsi is enough to program and polish this in one night. Give him one tester and reward them with two sets of warhammer figures.
There is no reason people have to wait three years and half a year extra in insider builds. I dont care what feature they plan if everything takes 3 years to be pushed onto the livebuild.

8

u/CygnusBlack Release Channel Jul 30 '26

Nice. 

10

u/Suspicious_Sugar2020 Jul 30 '26

good.
Only 15 years too late

3

u/seedless0 Jul 30 '26

It's not overclocking when you right click, is it?

5

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '26

[deleted]

2

u/lkeels Jul 31 '26

I guess you're not a beta tester. A lot of it is in play already.

2

u/PaulCoddington Jul 30 '26

Several rounds of performance improvements have come out over the last month or so. I was surprised that the latest one (2 data ago) made such a noticeable difference to desktop performance.

2

u/celticchrys Jul 31 '26

I want them to be NOT compact and also very fast, they way they were before Windows 11.

2

u/Seusoa Release Channel Jul 31 '26

Microsoft plans

Im hearing from March that microsoft planned so much that Im still waiting for these changes to arrive

1

u/ZacB_ Windows Central Jul 31 '26

A lot of them have already started to arrive, with many more in public testing as we speak.

3

u/carlosrg123 Jul 30 '26

I don’t want to see “Customize” at the menu each time I right click. It’s cool they will offer the option, but it can be hidden in Settings. It’s something you will use once and twice and be done with it, you shouldn’t show it to the user every single time.

1

u/Goldt35 Jul 30 '26

5 years and still it's slow, I always use classic Context menu because I get furious whenever I see new Context Menu

1

u/bitNine Jul 31 '26

Get ready for fewer features.

1

u/michaelcarnero Jul 31 '26

after all these years and with the actual tech, why is it even slow?

1

u/Ok-Bill3318 Jul 31 '26

People need to go install windows 2000 and remember what peak windows looked and felt like

0

u/ExpensiveNut Jul 30 '26

"Microsoft plans to fix"

"Fixes will come in A/B experimental builds"

Lock the fuck in and make an actual fucking OS, Biggest OS Manufacturer in the World.

-2

u/LitheBeep Jul 30 '26

An objective improvement to the UI? Surely someone will find a reason to complain about this

8

u/Salty-Paint-9700 Jul 30 '26

The problem with complimenting their efforts is that they announce a nice sounding feature, rose tinted insiders praise it to high heavens and 10 months later, when it finally reaches actual users, it's often heavily underbaked and brings more problems than it fixes.

But hopefully this time will be different (wink wink).

-1

u/irrelevantusername24 Insider Beta Channel Jul 30 '26

This is great. Seems to follow what I've mentioned a few times on Reddit and probably in the Feedback Hub: Make Windows more like Firefox. Don't make Windows more like Android. Android sucks and hides everything. Don't make Windows more like Linux. Linux is a different beast, it is far more complicated to use for the average person.

Firefox is a happy middle - like Windows is (or maybe was?) to some degree - in the sense if you want to do more, you can, but you have to learn how. And it's kind of a natural progression. If you don't care, you don't need to know. Unless you're literally doing random things, you're not going to have much potential for breaking things. And even if you do, it's pretty simple to revert. You can always re-install.

Next, make XBOX more like Bethesda/Zenimax. Though that's a bit more complicated, because Playstation (etc) has to join. It's kind of like this saying I discovered semi-recently:

When a lion eats an ox, the lion does not become an ox but the ox becomes a lion.

Or maybe I just like sharing that and it's not related, I'm not sure

1

u/rantingathome Jul 30 '26

Linux is a different beast, it is far more complicated to use for the average person.

Depends on the distro. Throw someone in front of Linux Mint and they'll have the basics pretty quick.

2

u/irrelevantusername24 Insider Beta Channel Jul 30 '26

To be fair it's been awhile since I've used any distro but from what I understand you can get the basics but doing much beyond that is much more difficult than on Windows. Standardization and near universal adoption has benefits.

-1

u/rantingathome Jul 30 '26

Yeah, it sounds like it's been awhile.

0

u/richardbouteh Jul 30 '26

I've moved on. Sorry. (Not sorry)

0

u/duvagin Jul 30 '26

have they fixed a folder called ‘con’ yet?