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Right-click on Explorer window icon does not display shell context menu anymore

Submitted by rh on December 26, 2009 to Annoyance, Bug, Icons, Usability

In XP you could right-click the icon of an Explorer window (in the upper-left corner in the title bar of the window) to get a shell context menu of that folder. Very useful to apply some context menu operation to the CURRENTLY OPEN folder, like zipping and emailing it, or openening it with a tool like Mp3tag, etc.pp.

Of course it makes sense that there is some way to get a context menu of the currently open folder, because when it is open, chances are, you want to do something with this folder. Power users have used this A LOT.

In Win7 the situation is as follows, depending on your config:

Aero look with folder tree pane enabled: No icon, so the only way to get a shell context menu of the current folder is to search for the folder in the folder tree (waste of time) and right-click that.

Aero look with folder tree pane disabled: No way AT ALL to get a shell context menu of the current folder.

Classic look: Folder window icon is there, so you would expect that this should restore XP behaviour. No. Instead you get a useless standard window menu.

- In classic mode: Please restore XP behaviour.
- In Aero mode: Define some other spot of the UI where the user can right-click to get a shell context menu of the current folder, maybe the title bar or something like that.

Medium

Medium

Not fixed

Discussion (5 comments)

ZeroSkyX wrote on January 4, 2010, 6:02pm

They just cleaned it up. Right-clicking on the icon is deprecated anyway. The biggest indication for that is: Jumplists.

I myself used to double click on the icon to close the window but due to the fact that there are a lot of apps that don't even provide the icon i think it's best to stick to the X. I think MSFT is trying to get away from the icon interaction.

patternjake wrote on January 6, 2010, 12:03am

-1. Jumplists are there for a reason.

rh wrote on January 6, 2010, 12:04am

Errm... this has absolutely NOTHING to do with jumplists.

.Chris wrote on January 6, 2010, 12:24am

would help if the damn image was in English

rh wrote on January 6, 2010, 12:27am

Well, can't do. But even so it should be obvious that this is the shell context menu.

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