File Explorer

I am torn. I love the icons in the File Explorer in W11 but miss the context menu's from Windows 10 along with the ribbon. IS there any way to get that back?

Yes, there's a way, it is slightly tedious however.

• First you must download and extract the icon pack from Windows 10: Download Download icons from Windows 10 10125
• Next, go to file explorer, and right click the folder you desire to change the icons of. For example, Videos, and then click Properties
• ​
• Then, go to the Customize tab at the very top, and Choose file..​
• Now head to the extracted folder of which your windows 10 icons are in. Choose the icon relative.​
• ​
• Finally click Apply, then OK and you should be good to go!​

• ---

  ​

!! You may need to restart your computer in order for these changes to take affect

that's not what I want to do. I want the Windows 10 File Explore interface in Windows 11.

sparker01915 said:

that's not what I want to do. I want the Windows 10 File Explore interface in Windows 11.

Click to expand...

This will get you the Windows 10 Context Menus...


I would give up on the Ribbon Bar.
But... I believe you CAN get it back with Explorer Patcher...











/edit
All the posts about Explorer Patcher, can be found here...


It should work with 22H2.


From the ExplorerPatcher site...

22621.819.52.2 Pre-release

Tested on OS builds 22621.819 and 22000.1098. (22621.xxx is 22H2)
Please make sure you are connected to the Internet while installing, the application might need to perform one-time downloads for several resources in order to enable full functionality.


Now that's not to say the File Explorer (ribbon bar) part will work.
But ExplorerPatcher itself will work on 22H2.
I don't use ExplorerPatcher so I can't test.

The new context menu looks better than the old one, and if you ever need the old one it's just one click away.
As for the ribbon, you can get it back using some programs like Explorer Patcher and StartAllBack however those programs might stop working one day (not very likely though).
The new "ribbon" definitely doesn't have as much options as the old one, but I don't get the point of it. You have an easy alternative to every option that is in the old ribbon. It's just needlessly taking up space.

I've done the trick to get the old one back but it doesn't last that long. I guess I can stick with the new one

MaRio said:

The new context menu looks better than the old one

Click to expand...

The one that looks best to me is the one that gives me the least amount of eyestrain and other stress symptoms, as lost productivity resulting from unnecessary headaches looks worse than poo in a blender.

MaRio said:

, and if you ever need the old one it's just one click away.

Click to expand...

Therein lies the problem. One unnecessary click is still one click too many, especially if you need to repeat it hundreds of times (which some of us do, albeit I don't expect everyone to understand why some of us do).

MaRio said:

those programs might stop working one day (not very likely though).

Click to expand...

After the ship has sunk, do you jump into the lifeboat? Or you decide to worry that one day the lifeboat might also sink?

Windows 11 File Explorer is so terrible on so many levels!
Just one small example...





You're tryin to tell me that's better!?!?!?

Edwin said:

You're tryin to tell me that's better!?!?!?

Click to expand...

Well for most people actually yes. It's cleaner and the features that you don't use that often are tucked away. How often do you really need to toggle the preview or details pane? You turn it on if you need it or turn it off if you don't. Mine is on forever, and that's it. Not saying the old way is bad, but the new one isn't as well.
And the same goes for this -

hdmi said:

The one that looks best to me is the one that gives me the least amount of eyestrain and other stress symptoms, as lost productivity resulting from unnecessary headaches looks worse than poo in a blender.

Click to expand...

hdmi said:

Therein lies the problem. One unnecessary click is still one click too many, especially if you need to repeat it hundreds of times (which some of us do, albeit I don't expect everyone to understand why some of us do).

Click to expand...

The new menu has pretty much all the features of the old one. Open, open with, cut, copy, paste, share, rename, delete, properties, add to zip, extract zip, copy path, and so on. The only few I've noticed it doesn't have are print, give access to (network share), send to, and restore previous versions. Those are all the default ones. So basically the only ones "hidden" are the ones that barely ever get used.
As for the ones that are added by other programs, yes for now they don't appear, however there is a way to add them there. NanaZip can integrate into the new menu. So basically the programs just need to update the entries and they'll appear again.

If you have some weird workflow and it doesn't work for you, well that sucks, just use the old one then. But for most people the new one will be just fine, if not better because it's more compact.

MaRio said:

Well for most people actually yes. It's cleaner and the features that you don't use that often are tucked away. How often do you really need to toggle the preview or details pane? You turn it on if you need it or turn it off if you don't. Mine is on forever, and that's it. Not saying the old way is bad, but the new one isn't as well.

Click to expand...

Okay, that's true..., to a certain degree. Perhaps it was a poor example!
Here's another...
When Word is open full, the navigation pane is fine...



... but, when the window is restored down, the Pane creates a sub menu which needs to be clicked on, and then clicked on again to make a selection. To me that's counter-productive! When menu's become smaller and/or more populated, they should just naturally become scrolling!

MaRio said:

The new menu has pretty much all the features of the old one. Open, open with, cut, copy, paste, share, rename, delete, properties, add to zip, extract zip, copy path, and so on. The only few I've noticed it doesn't have are print, give access to (network share), send to, and restore previous versions. Those are all the default ones. So basically the only ones "hidden" are the ones that barely ever get used.
As for the ones that are added by other programs, yes for now they don't appear, however there is a way to add them there. NanaZip can integrate into the new menu. So basically the programs just need to update the entries and they'll appear again.

If you have some weird workflow and it doesn't work for you, well that sucks, just use the old one then. But for most people the new one will be just fine, if not better because it's more compact.

Click to expand...

Point well taken!
Perhaps it's about change. I don't mind change, but, with certain things, many of us are creatures of habit and familiarity so, when change interrupts that and hampers your workflow, it becomes frustrating.

MaRio said:

Well for most people actually yes. It's cleaner and the features that you don't use that often are tucked away. How often do you really need to toggle the preview or details pane? You turn it on if you need it or turn it off if you don't. Mine is on forever, and that's it. Not saying the old way is bad, but the new one isn't as well.
And the same goes for this -


The new menu has pretty much all the features of the old one. Open, open with, cut, copy, paste, share, rename, delete, properties, add to zip, extract zip, copy path, and so on. The only few I've noticed it doesn't have are print, give access to (network share), send to, and restore previous versions. Those are all the default ones. So basically the only ones "hidden" are the ones that barely ever get used.
As for the ones that are added by other programs, yes for now they don't appear, however there is a way to add them there. NanaZip can integrate into the new menu. So basically the programs just need to update the entries and they'll appear again.

If you have some weird workflow and it doesn't work for you, well that sucks, just use the old one then. But for most people the new one will be just fine, if not better because it's more compact.

Click to expand...

No, for customizing the old context menu there already exist various 3rd party utilities, scripts, and tutorials relying on Windows registry changes. So you can clean up options that you don't use, and also you can tuck away (either by moving them to the Shift + right-click menu or by moving them to one or more sub-menus) the ones that you use infrequently. This is all in addition to being able to add your own custom items/sub-menus of course. Whether you need to do any of this or not is totally irrelevant. What's relevant is that it's possible to achieve, in fact to some degree at least it's even possible to achieve with relative ease, and has been that for ages. As for what most people prefer, that's totally irrelevant also. My point is that, even though you are correct when you say that the new context menu is customizable too, not everyone wants to spend the extra time and effort it takes to port all their customizations (and the ones that are added by other programs) from the old context menu over to the new one. Only some people might be interested in that (for whatever the reason that they might have), even if it's tedious when you've done a lot of customizations (and you keep track of what those other programs are adding/removing).

sparker01915 said:

I am torn. I love the icons in the File Explorer in W11 but miss the context menu's from Windows 10 along with the ribbon. IS there any way to get that back?

Click to expand...

https://www.askvg.com/tip-disable-command-bar-and-restore-ribbon-toolbar-in-windows-11-explorer/

oldschool said:

https://www.askvg.com/tip-restore-old-classic-context-menu-right-click-menu-in-windows-11/

https://www.askvg.com/tip-disable-command-bar-and-restore-ribbon-toolbar-in-windows-11-explorer/

Click to expand...

Don't worry. There's no shame to not reading before you post something. It happens to the best of us I swear! Both of these two old articles you linked each have a comments section underneath, and, in both cases, VG, the author of these old articles pointed to ExplorerPatcher in the final comments that he posted there almost four months ago. lol