If you upgraded to Windows 11 and felt like your PC suddenly hid half of its right-click menu, you were not imagining it. Windows 11 introduced a redesigned context menu that shows only a small set of primary actions. Everything else, including commands you reached directly for years, moved into a secondary menu you open by clicking “Show more options” or pressing Shift+F10.
Microsoft’s reasoning was to declutter the interface and make it friendlier for touch and for new users. That is a defensible goal. The side effect is that anyone with an established workflow now pays an extra click, every single time, for actions that used to be one click away. Over a workday of right-clicks, that adds up to real friction.
The good news: the two-tier menu is configurable, and you do not have to settle for whatever Windows decided to surface. ContextCleaner lets you decide which entries live on the top menu and which get demoted, so the commands you actually use are back where you can reach them.
Why Windows 11 split the menu in two
Understanding the split helps you fix it intelligently rather than just brute-forcing it back.
Windows 11 has two context menus working together:
- The new menu is the streamlined one you see first. To appear at the top of it, a command generally has to be registered through the modern
IExplorerCommandinterface, often delivered as part of a packaged app. - The legacy menu is the classic, full menu from earlier Windows versions. It still exists, still holds the bulk of older COM-based shell extensions, and is exactly what opens when you click “Show more options.”
Many third-party tools have not updated to the modern model, so their entries land in the legacy menu by default. That is why, after installing Windows 11, so many familiar commands seem to have “disappeared” — they were pushed into the overflow, not removed.
A common reaction is to follow a registry hack that disables the new menu entirely and forces the old one back for everything. That works, but it is a blunt instrument: you lose the cleaner default menu wholesale instead of curating it. A better approach is to keep the streamlined menu and simply promote the specific entries you want at the top.
Curate, do not carpet-bomb
ContextCleaner treats the two menus as something you tune, not something you flip on and off. In the Menu Items view, every entry is labeled with its current location — “Top of menu” or “Show more” — so you can see at a glance what is buried.
From there you have direct control:
- Promote an entry to the top so it appears in the first menu without the extra click.
- Demote an entry to “Show more options” to keep it available but out of the way.
- Hide an entry entirely if you never use it, clearing it from both menus at once.
This is the difference between curation and a sledgehammer. Instead of “classic menu for everything” or “new menu for everything,” you build the exact menu you want: a short top menu with your most-used commands, a tidy overflow for the rest, and no clutter from entries you never touch.
🛍️ Put your most-used commands back on top — get ContextCleaner on the Microsoft Store →
See everything in one place
Part of what makes the Windows 11 menu frustrating is that you cannot easily see what is where. The top menu shows you a handful of items; the rest are behind a click; and the registry locations that drive them are scattered.
ContextCleaner consolidates the whole picture. It scans the relevant registry roots — entries for files, folders, drives, and the background of an Explorer window — and lists every command and handler it finds. Each row tells you:
- The entry’s name and a friendly label
- Whether it is a built-in Windows entry or a third-party one
- Which scope it applies to (Files, Folders, Empty space, or Other)
- Its current location in the menu
You can search by name, filter by scope or source, and select multiple entries to promote, demote, hide, or show them in one bulk action. For a menu that has accumulated cruft over years, the bulk tools turn a tedious one-at-a-time job into a single pass.
Changes you can trust, and reverse
Reorganizing your context menu means writing to the registry, and that is precisely where people hesitate. ContextCleaner is designed so that hesitation is unwarranted.
When you promote, demote, or hide entries, the changes do not apply instantly. They accumulate as a pending list with a visible count, so you can review everything before committing. When you click Apply:
- A backup runs first. The app exports the affected registry keys to a timestamped
.regfile before making any change. This happens automatically by default. - The changes are written as per-user overrides where possible, leaving the original system registrations intact.
- The result is recorded in a local history so you can see exactly what changed and when.
If the result is not what you wanted, you have a 10-step undo stack and one-click restore from any earlier snapshot. There is no scenario where a menu tweak leaves you stuck.
And because some shell entries are cached by Explorer, ContextCleaner includes a built-in “Restart Windows Explorer” action so your changes take effect immediately without a full reboot.
A note for Windows 10 holdouts and upgraders
If you are moving from Windows 10, the muscle-memory problem is the hardest part of the transition. You reach for a command where it has always been, and it is gone. Promoting your handful of essential entries to the top menu is the fastest way to make Windows 11 feel like the system you already know, without disabling the new design entirely.
ContextCleaner targets Windows 11 first but also runs on Windows 10 version 22H2, with graceful fallback, so the same workflow applies if you manage a mix of machines.
Reclaim the menu in a few minutes
Here is a focused workflow specifically for the “Show more options” problem:
- Open ContextCleaner and go to Menu Items.
- Filter to the “Show more” tab to see what got demoted into the overflow.
- Find the two to five commands you use most and promote them to the top.
- While you are there, hide anything in the list you never use.
- Review the pending count and click Apply (the backup runs automatically).
- Use Restart Windows Explorer if a change does not appear right away, then right-click a file to confirm.
That is the entire fix. No registry hack to memorize, no risk of forcing a system-wide change you cannot easily undo.
Frequently asked questions
Can I keep the new Windows 11 menu but move a few items to the top?
Yes, and that is the recommended approach. Rather than disabling the modern menu entirely, ContextCleaner lets you promote only the specific entries you want, so you keep the cleaner default while reaching your key commands without the extra click.
Why did my commands move to “Show more options” after upgrading?
Entries registered the older, COM-based way land in the legacy menu by default, which Windows 11 hides behind “Show more options.” They were not removed; they were demoted. Promoting them brings them back to the top menu.
Do I have to restart my PC for changes to appear?
Usually not. Some entries are cached by Explorer, so ContextCleaner includes a one-click “Restart Windows Explorer” action that applies changes immediately without a full reboot.
Is forcing the classic menu back a better option?
It depends on your goal. A registry hack that disables the new menu restores the classic one for everything, but you lose the streamlined design wholesale. Promoting individual items keeps the modern menu’s benefits while fixing the specific commands you missed.
The bottom line
Windows 11’s two-tier menu is not going away, but you do not have to live with its defaults. The streamlined menu is genuinely nicer when it surfaces the right commands. ContextCleaner gives you the controls to make that happen: promote what matters, demote what does not, hide the clutter, and reverse anything with a click. See how it works on the ContextCleaner product page.
The “Show more options” tax is optional. Stop paying it.