Windows 11 brings many changes to the overall user interface of the operating system. Anybody who has been using Windows 10 for a number of years will be surprised to see the changes in the desktop, Windows File Explorer, Start and many more components on a Windows 11 system.
The File Explorer in Windows 10 features the Ribbon interface, which provides a series of tabs with various commands and tools. Windows 11 introduces a more streamlined and minimalist design, replacing the Ribbon with a simplified toolbar.
Similarly, Windows 10 keeps the traditional context-menu that has been around for many decades on a Windows system. But Windows 11 introduces a cleaner, more modern context menu with a focus on frequently used actions. For accessing the traditional context menu on Windows 11, we have to do many more clicks.
If you want to switch to the Windows 10 style File Explorer and context menu on a Windows 11 PC, then you can use a freeware tool called SwitchExplorer. It is a portable application that does not require any installation.
After launching SwitchExplorer, we can choose a style for the File Explorer : Windows 10 style or Windows 11 style. Similarly, we can choose a style for the context menu : Windows 10 style or Windows 11 style. Finally we can click on the OK button to save the settings.
As soon as we click on OK, it will make changes to the Registry and then restart the File Explorer processes. It might take a few minutes before you can see the Windows Desktop once again.
Like many other customizations done using third party tools, the future Windows 11 updates might override these changes, requiring you to reapply them once again. This is why it is a good idea to keep the SwitchExplorer files on your computer for later use.
SwitchExplorer is very useful for the Windows users who want to keep going back and forth between the Windows 10 and Windows 11 style File Explorer.
You can download SwitchExplorer from https://github.com/LesFerch/SwitchExplorer.