The Ridiculous Windows 11 “Show More Options” and How To Bypass

I’m taking no credit for this one. EVERY time I go to right-click a Windows Explorer window, from as simple as DESKTOP to my SCREENSHOTS folder – I invariably want to COPY something… is it there? NOPE. I have/had to use SHOW MORE OPTIONS just to get a simple COPY – what WERE Microsoft thinking of? To be clear I’m using up-to-date Windows 11 Pro 64-bit edition (upgrade from Windows 10).

Anyway, eager to try the latest AI (I’m a fan of CHATGPT, Night Cafe and now bing.com/create – see the end if you’re bored and in need of inspiration) I went off to BARD and asked the simple question:

“In windows 11, image folder dialog, right click – how do I ALWAYS show more options instead of having to click every time?“

Ok I kind of messed up the quesion, Bard understood the question perfectly but then proceeded to give me a duff answer – indeed, I was given 3 responses, all different, none of which worked – goodness knows what I’ve done to my poor registry… and yes I’m aware of the need to use case-sensitivity and be super-accurate. The responses even mentioned folders in the registry which don’t actually exist – and I could not figure out how to create them.

Then I put the same badly-formed question into Google – and the very first response took me to YouTube and THIS guy.. I know nothing about him, didn’t even watch his whole video – but once I skipped the short ads at the start of his video – he went straight into it – giving two solutions including: go to your folder – pick the item you’re after – and instead of right-clicking to be faced with “show more options” at the bottom, simply SHIFT-right-click and you get the lot, straight away. SIMPLES – as he rightly pointed out – so why did BARD give me that nonsense?

Better – there’s a simple registry hack that actually WORKS unlike Bard’s attempts, so I’m including his video here (showing both solutions) for no other reason than… it is people like this guy who bother to put such tips on YouTube or in blogs after checking they actually work that make our lives easier.

Eventually I used his registry hack followed by a reboot – problem solved permanently.

Read this info below only if you’re bored: You may by now understand my frustration with BARD’s answers. Similarly if I ask Night Cafe for a realistic picture of a person in a forest with cats (just for example), invariably the persion or the cats or both end up near-perfect but with one or more seriously mangled eyes. Imagine therefore my surprise when I tried bing.com/create and asked for the following:

Santa Claus in full uniform, in a snow-covered forest, surrounded by reindeer, freezing to death, Walt Disney cartoon style, 8k resolution, detailed.

The result – PERFECT – well, it is getting near Christmas and I’m slightly cynical – so why not.. and now – to get that image to show you, I no longer have to right click my screenshots folder – SELECT MORE OPTIONS – and COPY – thanks to the fellow above – I just go there, right-click…COPY.

Merry Christmas 🙂

I’ve some new reviews coming up soon – just waiting for the post-lady to arrive.