How to Completely Disable ‘Show More Options’ (New Context Menu) and Restore the Classic Menu in Windows 11

One of the most controversial design changes introduced in Windows 11 was the complete overhaul of the right-click context menu. In an attempt to make the interface look cleaner and more touch-friendly, Microsoft hid the vast majority of traditional right-click options behind a secondary button labelled “Show more options” (or Shift + F10).

For power users who rely heavily on third-party software integrations—such as 7-Zip for extracting archives, Notepad++ for quick editing, or Git for version control—this new design forces a frustrating extra click every single time they want to access their tools. If you want to bypass this modern, truncated menu and force Windows 11 to instantly open the classic, full-featured Windows 10 style context menu every time you right-click, you must modify the Windows Registry.

Restoring the Classic Context Menu via Registry Editor

Because Microsoft did not include a graphical toggle for this feature in the Settings app, we must manually create a specific registry key to override the new behavior.

1. Click the Start button, type cmd in the search bar, right-click on Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.
2. Click Yes on the User Account Control (UAC) prompt.
3. To restore the classic menu, you need to add a specific override string. Copy and paste the following command exactly as it appears and press Enter:
   reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve
4. You should see a message stating, “The operation completed successfully.”

Applying the Registry Change

The registry has been updated, but Windows Explorer is still holding the old interface in its active memory. You must restart the Explorer process for the change to take effect.

1. Right-click on the Taskbar and select Task Manager (or press Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
2. In the Task Manager window, look for Windows Explorer in the list of active processes.
3. Right-click on Windows Explorer and select Restart.
4. Your taskbar and desktop icons will briefly disappear and reload.

Once the desktop reloads, right-click any file or folder. You will instantly see the classic, tall context menu containing every single option and third-party integration, completely eliminating the “Show more options” barrier.