Windows 11's New Right-Click Menu Is Out - How to Get It and Where 7-Zip Went

Windows 11's faster, tidier right-click menu is now rolling out in the optional October update, KB5127936.

It opens instantly, shows fewer items, and has a new Customize menu button at the bottom.

If your 7-Zip or VLC entries vanished after the update, they are not gone - one setting brings them back.

Here is how to get the new menu, how to set it up, and where your missing entries went.

How to Get the New Right-Click Menu

We covered the Insider test version last week. Now it has reached regular Windows 11 25H2 and 26H2 PCs as an optional update.

• Open Windows Update. Go to Settings, then Windows Update.
• Ask for new features early. Turn on "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available".
• Install the preview update. Click Check for updates, install "2026-10 Preview Update (KB5127936)" and restart your PC.
• Right-click any file. If you see Customize menu at the bottom, you have it.

Microsoft is switching the menu on in stages, so it may not show up straight away even after the update. If you skip the optional update, the menu still arrives with the regular November update on 10 November.

What You Can Change

Click Customize menu, or go to Settings, then Personalization, then Context menu. Windows only shows the options that apply to the file you right-clicked.

• File actions. Switch on Print, Send to, Create shortcut, Copy as path and Rotate image - or leave them off for a shorter menu.
• App extensions. Choose which apps get a spot in the main menu, which go into an App extensions submenu, and whether that submenu appears at all.
• Words instead of icons. Show Cut, Copy, Paste, Rename, Share and Delete as a normal list, the way Windows 10 did.
• Properties at the bottom, where most people still reach for it.

Copilot sits in the app list too, so you can switch it off here. It follows Microsoft's decision to drop eight Copilot actions from File Explorer earlier this month.

Where Did 7-Zip and VLC Go?

Many popular programs, including 7-Zip and media players such as VLC, still add their entries the old-fashioned way. Those only live in the classic menu, and the new menu hides the link to it by default.

• Quick fix: hold Shift while you right-click. The full classic menu opens, with the 7-Zip submenu, Play with VLC media player and the rest.
• Permanent fix: in the Context menu settings, under Additional options, turn on Show more options - the familiar link comes back at the bottom of the menu.

Nothing needs reinstalling. 7-Zip still opens archives and VLC Media Player still plays your files when you double-click them - only the shortcut moved.

Quick questions