Skip to content
Windows.HomesUnofficial

File Explorer in Windows 11: tabs, context menus and what actually changed

Verified 2 min read

What the new Explorer does differently, where the old right-click menu went, and the settings that change behaviour rather than looks.

Tested onPro (26H2) · Build 26300.9457 · x64
E1
Build
26300.9457
Edition
Pro (26H2)
Architecture
x64
Support
Documentation (E1)
Evidence
E1Official documentation
Verified
2026-10-29
Page type
Concept

The short answer

Section titled “The short answer”

Windows 11’s Explorer changed three things that matter, and a lot that does not:

  1. Tabs — one window, several folders, like a browser.
  2. A new context menu — fewer entries, icons, and the legacy menu behind Show more options (Shift + F10).
  3. A command bar — New / Cut / Copy / Rename / Share / Delete moved to the top.

Everything else people complain about (rounded corners, the “gallery”, the home page) is presentation. The behaviour changes are the three above.

Where the old right-click menu went

Section titled “Where the old right-click menu went”

The full menu still exists. Ways to reach it:

  • Show more options at the bottom of the new menu;
  • Shift + F10 (or the menu key) on the selection;
  • Shift + right-click in most builds.

If a shell extension only appears in the legacy menu, it is not broken — it has not been updated to the new extensibility model. That is a vendor issue, not a Windows setting.

Tabs: what they do and do not do

Section titled “Tabs: what they do and do not do”
Works Does not
Open a folder in a new tab (Ctrl + T) Share a tab across windows
Duplicate a tab Restore tabs after a restart
Drag a tab into its own window Keep tabs per-monitor

Tabs persist per window while the window is open. After a reboot or an Explorer restart, you get the previous windows back depending on Settings → System → For developers? No — on the View → Options → General → Restore previous folder windows setting.

Settings that change behaviour

Section titled “Settings that change behaviour”
Setting Where Effect
Show file extensions View → Show the single most useful change
Show hidden items View → Show needed for AppData, .git
Restore previous folder windows at logon Options → View tabs/windows come back
Open Explorer to Options → General This PC vs Home vs a folder
Use compact mode View more rows, less padding
Clear File Explorer history Options → Privacy removes Quick Access entries
Terminal window
# what Explorer is configured to do (per-user)
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced' |
  Select-Object HideFileExt,Hidden,LaunchTo

HideFileExt = 1 means extensions are hidden — the reason a .pdf.exe looks like a PDF.

The home page and Quick Access

Section titled “The home page and Quick Access”

The Home page mixes Quick Access (pinned + recent) with Recent and Shared. It is convenient and it is also an information leak on a shared screen: recently opened files are visible before anyone clicks anything.

Turn off recent files in Options → Privacy if the machine is used in front of other people.

What still breaks

Section titled “What still breaks”
  • Long paths — a deep folder tree can exceed the classic 260-character limit; see symlinks and long paths.
  • Network locations — some tabs and preview features behave differently on SMB shares.
  • Cloud files — OneDrive placeholders show a status icon; the file may not exist locally. See OneDrive Files On-Demand.
  • Third-party shell extensions — mostly legacy menu only.
Section titled “Related”

Lab boundary

Section titled “Lab boundary”

E1. Explorer behaviour is documented by Microsoft and verified visually on Windows 11 26H2 in this lab’s desktop VMs, but no setting-by-setting measurement was recorded for this page.

Sources