Off the Clock Labs
Lab notes

How to Revert to Windows 11’s Old Right-Click Menu (November 2026 Fix)

· 4 min read · Off the Clock Labs · Updated

I’d already brought back the old right-click menu on my Windows 11 PC. Then the late October update put the short menu back, and the fix I’d used stopped working. The two lines below brought the old menu back. You don’t need an app or admin rights, and two more lines undo it.

Windows 11's short right-click menu on a text file, with Cut, Copy, Rename, Share and Delete as icons at the top and App extensions at the bottom
Before: the short menu.
Video: how to revert to Windows 11's old right-click menu, the short menu beside the full one
Prefer to watch? The whole fix in under two minutes, on YouTube.

Bring back the old menu

  1. Click Start, type cmd and press Enter. Command Prompt opens.
  2. Click Copy on the first box below. Click inside Command Prompt, press Ctrl+V to paste, then press Enter.
  3. Do the same with the second box.
reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /ve /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{51668040-5e31-4023-bbe3-149163bd80f1}\InprocServer32" /ve /f
  1. Each line prints “The operation completed successfully.”
  2. Restart File Explorer: press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager (or click Start, type task manager and press Enter). Under Processes, right-click Windows Explorer and click Restart. The taskbar goes blank for a moment and comes back. If you can’t find Windows Explorer, type explorer in the search box at the top of Task Manager.
  3. Right-click any file or folder. The old menu opens.
Windows 11's classic right-click menu on a text file after the fix, every entry in one long list
After: the old menu, every entry in one list.

Both lines change only your own Windows account. That’s why a normal Command Prompt is enough, and why other accounts on the PC keep the short menu.

Undo it

Run these two lines the same way, then restart File Explorer as in step 5. The short menu comes back.

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}" /f
reg delete "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{51668040-5e31-4023-bbe3-149163bd80f1}" /f

If a line says it can’t find the key, that key is already gone. You can ignore it.

Other ways, without the registry

Hold Shift

Hold Shift while you right-click a file or folder. The old menu opens that one time, and nothing on your PC changes.

Turn on Show more options in Settings

The short menu stays, but Show more options comes back at its bottom. Click it to open the old menu.

  1. Click Start, then Settings (the gear icon). Or press the Windows key and I together.
  2. In the list on the left, click Personalization.
  3. Click Context menu. Scroll down if you don’t see it.
  4. Under Additional options, turn on Show more options.
Windows 11 Settings on the Personalization, Context menu page, with the Show more options toggle outlined under Additional options
Show more options, under Additional options.

Or open the page directly: press the Windows key and R together, paste ms-settings:personalization-contextmenu and press Enter. Then do step 4.

Or search for it: in Settings, type context menu in the Find a setting box at the top, click Context menu, then do step 4.

The same page can put Send to, Print, Create shortcut, Copy as path and Rotate image back in the short menu. Under App extensions, you choose which apps show their entries in the short menu itself. If your Settings has no Context menu page, your PC doesn’t have the new menu yet.

Tested on

Windows 11 Home 26H2, build 26300.9818, with the late October 2026 update (KB5127936).

Sources