Windows 11 has plenty of controversial design decisions, some of which took Microsoft several years to patch. While the Start menu is arguably the biggest point of criticism for many, context menus have received a fair, mostly deserved, share of hate from frustrated customers. When Microsoft introduced the new context menus, it promised to simplify the experience and fix the problem of overpopulated menus. Sadly, this attempt failed spectacularly.
The good thing is that Microsoft is aware of the mess it created, and it is now scrambling to fix it. During the latest WinUI Community Call, a stream where developers discussed improvements and future plans for Windows" user interface framework, particularly in the context menu area.
The proposed SplitMenuFlyoutItem control is supposed to fix gigantic context menus by allowing developers to create "hybrid submenus." These submenus combine the primary action, for example, Open in Photos," with submenus, all in one item. As such, you can either execute an action or click the arrow button next to it to discover additional features.
Developers will be able to determine the default and secondary actions and make menus context-aware so that they can present relevant features. In File Explorer, for example, this approach can combine the "Open" and "Open with" entries into one.
During the call, Microsoft explained the proposed improvements with examples that look similar to what you get in File Explorer. These are just examples, so do not assume that is what context menus in File Explorer will look like in future updates. However, at this point, it is not entirely clear if Microsoft plans to bring these improvements to Windows 11"s shell. WinUI is about building apps, so these changes are aimed mostly at third-party developers.
Windows 11"s context menus in their current state are slow, cluttered, and filled to the brim with redundant, often completely irrelevant and frankly preposterous entries, like opening a picture in Notepad. Microsoft needs to fix them, and one can only hope we will get some positive changes in future updates.