

In these cases, adding a verb for “Edit with (app name)” is an acceptable practice. It is common for certain file types to be both “viewable/runnable” and “editable,” such as scripts, HTML, images, or text-based document formats.īecause the default action on double-click for these files can be “open/run” or “edit,” one of these two actions will be less convenient. When should I add a verb to “Edit with (app)”? They should also explicitly register for any filetypes they are optimized to handle.Ģ. “Universal openers,” like technical text editors, should register to handle * so they will always be offered as an “Open with” option. If your app can open the file to do something more with it, you should always register for any applicable File Type Associations. The new context menu moves “Open with” to the top of the menu, right next to “Open.” When should I register my app for “Open with”? (File Type associations) Many commands run in-process in Explorer, which can cause performance and reliability issues.ġ.Commands added by apps are not attributable to the app itself.Commands added by apps have no common organizational schema and can interrupt sections of inbox commands.Commands that should be grouped together – such as Open and Open with – are sometimes far apart.It includes commands which are rarely used.It has grown in an unregulated environment for 20 years, since Windows XP, when IContextMenu was introduced. The most common commands – cut, copy, paste, delete, and rename – are far from the mouse pointer, touch point, or pen.If you are already in File Explorer or on the Desktop, it significantly reduces the number of steps to complete a file operation compared to opening a separate app.Īs useful as the Windows 10 context menu is, there are aspects of its design we sought to improve in Windows 11. The context menu is one of the most popular and useful shell extensions.


These are extensible by apps, including unpackaged Win32 apps. Windows 11 brings refinement to contextual file operations in the right-click context menu and share dialog.
