Rearrange the context menu

[cinqmilleans]

What feature or improvement do you think would benefit Files?

The organization of the context menu poses several problems.

1. Some commands that look alike are not placed together (Open in new tab/window). ✅
2. The use of separators is not logical. ✅
3. The display of shell entries, which come from Windows and not from Files, take a long time to display. The extra inputs show up while the user is already moving their mouse to their option, forcing them to start over since the target is moved while aiming. ✅
4. Some shell commands are displayed in the main menu, others in its overflow. Those of the main menu are not more important, they are just the first. It can also separate commands that go together, like git in my screenshot.
5. The More menu is a mess of commands without any logic and sometimes redundant with the Files commands.
6. There is an icon style difference between native and shell commands.
7. The menu takes a lot of height and does not leave room for the addition of future commands. ✅
8. Some of these commands have keyboard shortcuts but the menu does not display them and the user cannot know them.

All this gives an impression of clutter and loss of efficiency.

The context menu includes 2 types of commands. Native commands (created by Files) and shell commands (provided by Windows). To be sure to keep a consistent menu, do not display shell commands in the main menu, and no native commands in the overflow menu. This also improves interactivity since the main menu is no longer modified after display.

You can rearrange the native commands. Group together in an "Open" sub-menu the commands "Here", "in a new tab", "in secondary pane", "in a new window". Place together "(Un)Pin to Favorite/Start Menu".

For images, we already have RotateLeft/Right commands. We can include them in an image menu, just for images, which will also contain background options. Equivalent shell commands will be hidden.

Some shell commands can be implemented as native commands (Print, ...) and hide shell commands. This allows to use an icon, a keyboard shortcut or place them in InnerToolbar when available.

We can display the keyboard shortcuts in the menu if it doesn't take too much space.

Requirements

See above.

Files Version

Version: 2.3.63.0 OS Version: 10.0.22621.819

Windows Version

Édition Windows 11 Professionnel
Version 22H2
Installé le ‎05/‎10/‎2022
Build du système d’exploitation 22621.819
Expérience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22636.1000.0

Comments

[yaira2]

Some commands that look alike are not placed together (Open in new tab/window).

These can be grouped together (although the open in new window option should only display when the shift key is pressed)

The use of separators is not logical.

What about them?

Some shell commands are displayed in the main menu, others in its overflow. Those of the main menu are not more important, they are just the first. It can also separate commands that go together, like git in my screenshot.

We'd like to follow Microsoft's lead on this and display the modern shell items in the main menu and put the classic shell items in the overflow menu.

The More menu is a mess of commands without any logic and sometimes redundant with the Files commands.

Any examples?

[cinqmilleans]

1. I was talking about grouping them into a submenu. It takes up less space, it's tidier and everything is always accessible. It is rare to open a folder via the context menu (even if the option must be available). An "Open here" entry in an "Open" submenu is sufficient.
2. For example, tags are in a dedicated section. Why ? (This is really the least important detail of my post).
3. What do you mean by modern shell and classic shell?
4. For images, Rotate Left/Right is redundant with innertoolbar commands. It would be more ergonomic to use our commands (with the correct glyph), in an image submenu (with other options later on) and to hide the shell commands. For videos, Open with VLC is redundant with Open With.

The main problem is too slow and cluttered shell commands. it will be necessary to limit the number displayed in the main view to 0 instead of 3 (by default without the shift key).

[yaira2]

I was talking about grouping them into a submenu. It takes up less space, it's tidier and everything is always accessible. It is rare to open a folder via the context menu (even if the option must be available). An "Open here" entry in an "Open" submenu is sufficient.

I think that the option to open in new tabs is used pretty often but I think we can solve this by adding an option to hide the option to open in new window.

For example, tags are in a dedicated section. Why ? (This is really the least important detail of my post).

I agree, the separator can be removed.

What do you mean by modern shell and classic shell?

Microsoft has a new way to register shell extensions on Windows 11 which we don't yet support.

For images, Rotate Left/Right is redundant with innertoolbar commands. It would be more ergonomic to use our commands (with the correct glyph), in an image submenu (with other options later on) and to hide the shell commands. For videos, Open with VLC is redundant with Open With.

The right click menu is easier for some but I think we already use our own commands here.

The main problem is too slow and cluttered shell commands. it will be necessary to limit the number displayed in the main view to 0 instead of 3 (by default without the shift key).

I made this change in v2.4.30.

[yaira2]

Some shell commands are displayed in the main menu, others in its overflow. Those of the main menu are not more important, they are just the first. It can also separate commands that go together, like git in my screenshot.

Shell commands are now moved to the overflow menu by default with a few exceptions for options like "open with" and "send to".

The More menu is a mess of commands without any logic and sometimes redundant with the Files commands.

There shouldn't be any duplicates but if you find one, please open another issue to track it.

There is an icon style difference between native and shell commands.

This isn't really something we control, it's up to the creator of the shell command to choose the icon.

Some of these commands have keyboard shortcuts but the menu does not display them and the user cannot know them.

I think this can be resolved with the custom actions.