ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Now you can customise the right-click menu in Home windows 11.
- The brand new Cloud rebuild can get better Home windows if it received’t load.
- The brand new replace helps solely Home windows 11 25H2 and 26H2.
Home windows 11 customers who’ve struggled to navigate and use the right-click menu in File Explorer now lastly have some aid. With the November Patch Tuesday Home windows replace, you’re now capable of customise the menu so as to add and take away particular instructions and apps in order that solely your favorites seem.
As traditional, the month-to-month replace is necessary, which implies it ought to routinely obtain and set up in your PC. To verify, head to Settings and choose Home windows Replace. If the most recent replace — labeled “2026-11 Safety Replace (KB5132061) (26300.9974)” -– pops up as put in with a pending restart, simply reboot your pc. In any other case, click on the button to verify for updates and permit it to obtain and set up.
Additionally: You’ll be able to change Home windows settings straight from a search now
One caveat: Microsoft’s month-to-month updates totally help Home windows 11 26H2 and 25H2. However help for 24H2 ended final month, no less than for the House and Professional editions. Home windows 11 24H2 Enterprise and Schooling will proceed to get month-to-month safety updates, although not common non-security preview updates, whereas Home windows 11 23H2 Enterprise and Schooling will obtain no extra updates after this month.
File Explorer will get a customizable right-click menu
In the beginning within the newest replace is the brand new customizable right-click menu.
The context-sensitive right-click menu is a helpful option to rapidly entry key settings, options, and apps, each in File Explorer and on the desktop. However there’s all the time been a flaw in its primary design. The extra apps you put in, the extra cluttered and disorganized the menu turns into. That was particularly problematic in earlier variations of Home windows. The old-style, traditional menu would develop so lengthy that it might be troublesome to navigate and allow you to discover the merchandise you needed.
With Home windows 11, Microsoft launched a extra trendy and pared-down menu. However this model may also get crowded. Plus, it might not show each command you want, so that you typically should revert to the older traditional menu. You’re then caught coping with two separate variations of the identical menu, resulting in an much more complicated and cumbersome expertise.
Additionally: Home windows 11 can run higher on PCs with 8GB now, Microsoft says
The perfect answer is a menu which you could customise your self, and that’s what we now have, no less than that’s what’s now rolling out. Microsoft calls this one a gradual rollout, which implies it’s possible you’ll or could not get it instantly.
To see if and the way that is out there, open File Explorer and right-click on a folder or file. If the brand new menu has reached your PC, you’ll see an entry for Customise menu. Choose that to view all of the out there choices for tweaking it. Alternatively, head to Settings, choose Personalization, after which click on the entry for Context menu.
There, you’re capable of flip sure file actions on or off, corresponding to Ship to, Print, Create shortcut, Copy as path, and Rotate picture. You can too select which apps seem on a regular basis, both in the principle menu or in a submenu. Plus, extra choices allow you to determine the place sure instructions and actions seem and whether or not you’ll be able to nonetheless entry the old-style menu.
Cloud rebuild rolls out
Although the customizable right-click menu is the star of the replace, Microsoft has added different surprises because it strives to make Home windows extra dependable and user-friendly.
Additionally steadily rolling out, Cloud rebuild is a brand new restoration choice that allows you to reinstall Home windows 11 by way of cloud-based system photographs and drivers downloaded from Home windows Replace. This device might help you get better Home windows when it received’t load and also you don’t have a USB drive or your personal customized picture. The draw back is that your information received’t survive. However if you happen to usually again them up as it is best to, you’ll be able to restore them after Home windows is again in enterprise.
To start out Cloud rebuild, go to Settings, choose System, click on Restoration, after which choose Rebuild PC. Your PC will then restart into the Home windows Restoration Surroundings (WinRE) to kick off the cloud rebuild. If Home windows can load, your pc ought to routinely enter WinRE mode, the place you’ll be able to then select the cloud rebuild. You need to want to verify your PC is on-line by way of a wired or wi-fi connection.
Different Home windows 11 November upgrades
The November replace additionally enhances or fixes different Home windows options and apps.
File Explorer will now extra clearly and persistently present you the names, areas, and dates of information while you seek for them. Telephone Hyperlink will preview the textual content in a latest message if you happen to hover over it. The AutoPlay dialog field that seems while you join a tool like a cellphone or digital camera has been given a extra trendy makeover. The Privateness & safety web page in Settings now teams collectively associated controls for simpler viewing. Plus, there are adjustments to the Taskbar, Magnifier, Narrator, Xbox Mode, and Stay Captions.
Home windows 11 November replace safety fixes
And that then brings us to the safety fixes.
This month’s replace resolves 1,094 safety vulnerabilities, based on Microsoft, with 63 of them rated crucial and one already exploited within the wild. That’s fewer than October’s report of 1,400 patches. But it surely nonetheless represents a hefty quantity as Microsoft and different distributors proceed to depend on AI to search out and repair safety holes.
Additionally: Home windows lastly will get a built-in web pace take a look at device – find out how to attempt it
The exploited flaw factors to a spoofing vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook. Right here, a distant attacker who sends you a malicious e-mail and convinces you to open it may trigger Outlook to hook up with a community managed by that attacker. On this case, although, you wouldn’t obtain any warning. Additional, the exploit may reveal your username and password to the sender, probably permitting them to impersonate you.
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