How I got the Full Right-click Menu back in Windows 11

With Windows 10 end of support rapidly approaching, I’ve been upgrading several PCs to windows 11. One thing that I always find frustrating is the new abbreviated context menus. Part of the problem is that I’ve used the classic Windows context menu for a long time, and I’m very comfortable with it. But what really irritates me is regularly needing to click “Show more options,” to drill down to things like 7Zip and other menu items that get hidden.

A screenshot of the Windows 11 context menu on a white background.

I tried to live with it, but I decided it wasn’t worth it. If there are things, even small things, that I can do to improve my productivity, I want to do them, because they add up. The good news here is that there are a few ways to bring back the full context menu. The hack I’m using is simple to enable, and if necessary, disable. So, if you’re annoyed by the Windows 11 context menu like I am, read on.

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How to free up space on Windows 11 by disabling reserved storage

With this update, Microsoft introduced a feature called Reserved Storage. As the name suggests, Windows automatically began reserving a certain amount of space, which was primarily used for installing updates without any issues.

Since then, the reserved storage feature has been a part of Windows, and you can still find it on your Windows 11 system. At the time of its release, Microsoft announced that Windows would set aside at least 7GB of space as reserved storage, regardless of how much disk space you have. This means it doesn’t matter whether you have only 50GB or 500GB of space, Windows will allocate at least 7GB for reserved storage.

There may also be times when Windows does not have any update files to store in reserved storage. In such situations, Windows will allocate the reserved storage to temporary files created by installed apps and to system cache data in order to improve overall functionality. These temporary files and cache data are regularly monitored by Storage Sense, and once it determines that the temporary data is no longer necessary, it is automatically removed from reserved storage.

Similarly, Storage Sense will monitor stored Windows update files, and if it determines that they are no longer necessary for your computer, they will be automatically deleted to make room for new, important Windows update files. If you are trying to install a major Windows update whose storage requirements cannot be met by the space available in the reserved storage, the update will use the required space from the available free storage on your computer.

For instance, if you have 7GB of reserved storage and want to install a Windows update that is around 10GB in size, Windows will use the remaining 3GB from the available free storage on your computer. However, if you don’t have that extra 3GB of free space, you might encounter an error message or receive suggestions from Microsoft to free up some disk space.

All that being said, to check how much reserved storage you have on your Windows 11 computer, open the Settings menu, then navigate to System > Storage > Show More Categories > System & Reserved. In the Reserved Storage section, you’ll find the amount of storage Windows has set aside. In my case, it’s 4.95GB.

Reserved storage on my computer.
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