Windows 11 File Explorer keeps getting worse, now with added AI

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Editor's take: Windows 11 brought a slew of UI changes and "improvements" few users welcome. File Explorer's state is particularly dire, yet Microsoft shows no sign of backing off its relentless quest to make the interface worse. What should be a simple file manager is now a confusing mess, frustrating longtime users and driving a flood of third-party fixes.

Microsoft's revamp of the Windows 11 File Explorer context menu hid or removed many helpful features, sparking a boom in third-party tools to restore the old interface. Once again, Microsoft is reinventing the wheel with a redesigned Start Menu that brings more frustrating changes to the right-click menu.

The Redmond corporation has added a new "AI action" sub-menu to File Explorer's context menu. This change is already available to unpaid beta testers in the Windows Insider program with the recent Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5603 (KB5058488) released to the Dev Channel.

Microsoft explains that AI actions in File Explorer offer a deeper interaction with users' files through AI technology. The first four AI actions focus on image editing. Bing Visual Search helps find similar pictures online. Blur Background and Erase Objects automatically detect and modify objects and backgrounds in Photos. Remove Background lets users extract an image's background in Paint.

The four AI context menu options support JPG and PNG files but hardly represent an AI revolution. These new actions directly link Bing search or image-editing features from the File Explorer menu – nothing extraordinary about that. Microsoft plans to launch new Copilot-powered AI actions in the coming weeks.

Microsoft 365 subscribers will soon get a new "Summarize" option to generate summaries of larger documents – Word, PDF, or TXT – stored on OneDrive and SharePoint. Microsoft also has a "Create an FAQ" feature that utilizes Copilot's chatbot to transform cloud documents into a neatly formatted, AI-generated Q&A list.

The new Microsoft 365-exclusive AI actions sound far more promising than a handful of shortcuts to AI tools in a couple of Windows-native image editors. Still, I'd bet a kidney they won't ease the frustration for anyone who's disliked Windows 11 File Explorer since day one. Microsoft's new mission is to bring AI everywhere, so get ready to welcome your fully AI-powered Windows operating system sooner than you think.

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Windows 11 File Explorer keeps getting worse, now with added AI

 

[Anton Longshot]

Dear users,

we no longer need you.
Please don't turn off the computer.

Yours truly,

Microsoft

 

[deathspeed]

We just had Windows 11 forced on us at work, and while the ability to anchor the task bar to the left rather than centered is nice, the right-click menu has reinforced that I will delay Windows 11 on my home PC for as long as possible.

No, Linux is not a viable option. But I will be researching 3rd party tools to restore sensible right-click context menus before October. Maybe an idea for a feature article?

 

[RudyBob]

That's the last straw. I'm moving to BeOS

 

[loki1944]

Windows 11 has been a worse expetience for me than Windows Vista. I'm back on W10 now.

 

[RudyBob]

Windows 11 has been a worse expetience for me than Windows Vista. I'm back on W10 now.

me too

 

[Zordon]

I use Directory Opus instead.

 

[seeprime]

We just had Windows 11 forced on us at work, and while the ability to anchor the task bar to the left rather than centered is nice, the right-click menu has reinforced that I will delay Windows 11 on my home PC for as long as possible.

No, Linux is not a viable option. But I will be researching 3rd party tools to restore sensible right-click context menus before October. Maybe an idea for a feature article?

Crapfixer, from Github, gives you back what you want to 11 usable.

 

[MarkHughes]

I would prefer they just fix the search so it, you know, finds things.

 

[OortCloud]

I was trying to create a shortcut to some apps on the start menu the other day. They all seemed to behave in different ways. Some you could drag off, some you could right click to make shortcuts, some no option at all and required finding these weird items in a weird new 'non-folder' that can only be accessed by running shell:appsfolder to see them. You can then right click on them and select create shortcut at which point it says it can't make a shortcut so would you like a shortcut created on the desktop???!!!! It sums up the parlous state of Windows now. So much crap has been tacked on top of crap it's a tottering unsupportable mess. They seem incapable of really addressing all this technical dept so instead just fiddle with outlying areas adding yet more debt and making the whole mess even more bewildering. It needs a rewrite with a huge cull in supported features, I just don't think they have the balls or technical ability to pull that off anymore.

 

[OortCloud]

I would prefer they just fix the search so it, you know, finds things.

Or makes the settings all available in a single place via a single UI. Rather than 90 different settings forms and styles scattered about with often multiple ways to do the same thing?

 

[kanaaka]

It is funny when "enthusiast" here keep whining about every updates that microsoft give, especially when AI is included. but the common majority out there are pretty sure don't bother too much, or I can say even glad about the updates. I know because in my office, they're think copilot is giving so much help for being integrated with the taskbar.

and my coworker when I tell them about the recall features, they're really want to try use it because for the practical use it is gonna help. there will be no difference with this AI context menu, right click to remove the object seems straightforward and inline with the AI trends nowadays.

believe me, the enthusiast is just a vocal minority. this kind of website and forums is just visited by us, enthusiast. the common majority user won't even know what techspot is. and we don't reflect the majority users.

 

[FaTaL]

We just had Windows 11 forced on us at work, and while the ability to anchor the task bar to the left rather than centered is nice, the right-click menu has reinforced that I will delay Windows 11 on my home PC for as long as possible.

No, Linux is not a viable option. But I will be researching 3rd party tools to restore sensible right-click context menus before October. Maybe an idea for a feature article?

Its simple registry edit to get old context menu back. I was reluctant because toying with registry can result in nuking Windows but I did this over 2 years ago and have had 0 issues.

https://www.laptopmag.com/how-to/get-the-windows-10-context-menu-back-in-windows-11

 

[Jme Kerul]

Right, so MS puts AI in everything because AI will behave

https://www.techspot.com/news/10799...cognition-technology-shadows-new-orleans.html

 

[guillejp]

Those are actually good and useful features for casuals.

 

[daffy duck]

Who cares, who actually uses this garbage after all these years of pure crap. It's bad enough people use Notepad and think adding dark mode or other lipstick on a pig, actually make it decent.

 

[TheBigT42]

That's the last straw. I'm moving to BeOS

Did you ever install BeOS. It wasn't bad.

 

[LimyG]

Tries W11 twice. Both times went back to W10. Still on W10, and will be for a while.

I've used PCs since before the concept of OS. Win 95 really impressed at the time.

I've used all versions except ME.

By far W11 is the worst most frustrating piece of garbage code ever released of all and every OS.

What's amazing is it seems programmed to get progressively worse. It stinks.

 

[LimyG]

I was trying to create a shortcut to some apps on the start menu the other day. They all seemed to behave in different ways. Some you could drag off, some you could right click to make shortcuts, some no option at all and required finding these weird items in a weird new 'non-folder' that can only be accessed by running shell:appsfolder to see them. You can then right click on them and select create shortcut at which point it says it can't make a shortcut so would you like a shortcut created on the desktop???!!!! It sums up the parlous state of Windows now. So much crap has been tacked on top of crap it's a tottering unsupportable mess. They seem incapable of really addressing all this technical dept so instead just fiddle with outlying areas adding yet more debt and making the whole mess even more bewildering. It needs a rewrite with a huge cull in supported features, I just don't think they have the balls or technical ability to pull that off anymore.

Good post, well put. Worth re-quoting. Needless to say I share your opinion fully.