How to Enable Old Right-Click Menu by Default on Windows 11

Windows 11 has a shorter right-click menu and hides the full classic menu behind Show more options. If you use the old menu all the time, you can make it the default again with a small registry change. In this post (and the video above), I show you three ways to do it, and how to undo it.

Tip: If you need the classic menu only once in a while, you don’t have to change anything: click Show more options at the bottom of the menu, or press Shift + F10 on the selected item.

Method 1: Use My Ready-Made Registry Files

This is the easiest way. The ZIP file contains:

• Enable Old Right Click Menu.reg: turns on the classic menu.
• Disable Old Right Click Menu.reg: brings back the Windows 11 menu.
• W11ClassicMenu.exe: the free “Win11 Classic Context Menu” tool from Sordum, which does the same with one click.

1. Download the ZIP file and extract it.
2. Double-click Enable Old Right Click Menu.reg.
3. Click Yes in the User Account Control and Registry Editor warnings, then OK.
4. Restart your PC.

Method 2: Use One Command

1. Open the Start menu, type cmd and open Command Prompt.
2. Paste this command and press Enter:

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

3. Restart your PC. If you don’t want to restart, you can restart File Explorer instead with this command:

   taskkill /f /im explorer.exe & start explorer.exe

Method 3: Change the Registry Manually

1. Open Registry Editor. The easiest way is to press Windows + R, type regedit and press Enter.
2. Click Yes if User Account Control asks for permission.
3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\CLSID\
4. Create a new key called {86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2} under CLSID. To create a key, right-click CLSID (or the empty right pane), select New > Key and type the name.
5. Under {86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}, create another new key called InprocServer32.
6. Select InprocServer32, double-click the (Default) value in the right pane, leave Value data empty and click OK. The data changes from “(value not set)” to blank.
7. Close Registry Editor and restart your PC.

Now you will see the classic right-click menu every time.

How to Go Back to the Windows 11 Menu

Use any of these, then restart your PC:

• Double-click Disable Old Right Click Menu.reg from the ZIP file.
• Or run this command:

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

• Or delete the InprocServer32 key (or the whole {86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2} key) in Registry Editor.

Want more Windows 11 tweaks? See 10 Tips to Do Right After Installing Windows 11 and 15 Tricks to Speed Up Windows 11.