How to restore the legacy context menu in Windows 11

---
title: How to restore the legacy context menu in Windows 11
subtitle: This article discusses how to restore the file/folder context menu in Windows 11.
author: Sumit D - VM
date: July 3, 2024
source: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/restore-old-right-click-context-menu-in-windows-11/a62e797c-eaf3-411b-aeec-e460e6e5a82a
snippet: https://jonlabelle.com/snippets/view/markdown/how-to-restore-the-legacy-context-menu-in-windows-11
notoc: false
---

Starting with Windows 11, the context menu in File Explorer has been refreshed
with a new compact, modern design. However, the new context menu has far fewer
items compared to the legacy context menu.

You can add the registry entry below so that every time you right-click a File
or Folder, it shows the legacy context menu by default.

## Restore the old context menu in Windows 11

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

**Restart File Explorer** for the changes to take effect.

## Restore modern context menus in Windows 11

To undo the change, and revert back to the modern context menu, run the following command:

```cmd
reg.exe delete "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}" /f
```

**Restart File Explorer** for the changes to take effect.