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Comment by InvisibleUp | Hacker News Reader

It would be nice if 7-zip added support for the new Windows 11 context menu. It requires that each context item is registered to an application and gets removed when the app is uninstalled, instead of the current free-for-all. [1] There's a fork, NanaZip, that adds this and a few more features, although the way it's structured makes it a non-trivial patch. [2]

[1] https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2021/07/19/extend... [2] https://github.com/M2Team/NanaZip

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> Due to the issues in Desktop Bridge file system virtualization, you are unable to use NanaZip in the Safe Mode of Windows.

> Due to the policy from Microsoft Store, NanaZip is unable to disable Desktop Bridge file system virtualization, so the file operations in %UserProfile%/AppData will be redirected in Windows 10, and file operations in directories other than Local, LocalLow and Roaming in %UserProfile%/AppData will still be redirected in Windows 11.

> Due to the Microsoft Store limitations, NanaZip 1.2 and later won't support languages not mentioned in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/publish/support....

As usual, sandboxing is a downgrade.

Due to the policy from Microsoft Store, ... file operations in directories other than Local, LocalLow and Roaming in %UserProfile%/AppData will still be redirected in Windows 11.

What does that mean?

Guessing here - the new installer format msix which store apps also use kicking in a filesystem virtualization so even though some garbo app thinks it's writing to `c:/windows/system32/save_preferences_here_why_not` that's still actually virtualized to be under c:/users/<example>/Appdata/...something

I kind of assumed that anyone using 7-Zip would disable the new Windows 11 context menu.

It's disable-able?

Yup: https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-11-bring-back-windows-10-c...

Why would you do that? It looks convenient. On Windows 10 my context menu is cluttered with stuff I never use, which is a huge pain in the ass.

> which is a huge pain in the ass.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/auto...

Explorer tab, anything under ContextMenuHandler keys.

It's possible to unclutter the normal menu, and the nested menu always requires extra clicks, and additionally - all the options I ever use are always in that new submenu.

The whole argument is bogus anyhow - if win11 wanted to avoid orphaned context menu registrations, then it makes sense to tie those to installed programs. However, that has nothing to do what's nested and what's not.

Yes, windows should likely make it easier to declutter the contextmenu, and yes, that may require a new api. But the new interface is still a really poor choice even assuming those are givens.

The items are not orphaned. They are simply useless for me. Your judgement comes from a wrong assumption.

No it doesn't; it comes from _my_ judgement. The fact that you actually use those items and appreciate hiding the other ones behind an extra click is fine, but it's purely a usability regression for me. If I could exactly reverse the distribution between what's nested and what's not, I'd be happier.

I'm curious which options in the new context menu you actually use most often? Clearly your usage is quite different from mine.

Why does Microsoft claim they take backward compatibility so seriously, while at the same time requiring programs to make changes like this to keep existing functionality working on new OS versions?

Programs work, but their functionality is hidden under extra menu item. This is actually a good change. The old one is very cluttered by exact programs you are talking about.

How many are you installing that the menu is cluttered?

Well, 7-zip, subject of this thread, does it (that one is useful though). Git adds "Git bash here" and "Git GUI here", which I never use. VLC adds 2 items, which I never use. There's useless for me stuff from Windows itself.

I have the same entries, as well as "Edit with Notepad++" in the menu of every file. I'm torn about that one. I use it, but mostly only because the "open with" menu is too cluttered as well.

There are some strange builtin entries from Windows. Like why do I have the option to "play" a jpeg on any Bluetooth headsets that are paired with my laptop? I just found out that besides "open with" and "send to" there is a third way to open a file using "share" to share a file with an app.

The most useless entry is probably from AMD Radeon software. Two entries on the very top of the context menu on every folder. I would understand if it appeared in the menu of the Desktop folder, but not on every single folder no matter how deep in the file structure.

What makes you think the new one will be less cluttered once programs adapt?

Just clean out the entries you don't need. Blame microsoft if that means having to dig into the registry.

I am hoping MS is gonna hide them based on usage.

It will be less cluttered because the old system let apps mix their commands with system commands, messing with your muscle memory, while the new system has a dedicated API that oversees everything to group extensions to their own place below system commands.

This is the whole point to why Microsoft took this awkward step.

In my experience so far, I _exclusively_ use the options in the new submenu. It's purely a usability regression so far.

You can make the case for a new API to avoid orphaning, and for greater traceability - and also, hopefully, for better performance. But I sure hope the end result will be more usable not less, and I'm pretty disappointed that this intermediate step is such a step backwards.

Backwards compatibility is only about programs working. So no API changes. And in this case, it still does work; the old context menu is a click away.

I"m optimistic that nanazip will stick around. they seem to be making a good effort to modernize the code.

I'll just wait for PeaZip to implement this.

Keka (or Unarchiver) on macOS and PeaZip on Windows are the nicest decompressors, in terms of UX, I know. Not sure about Linux.

Unarchiver has been one of those “install right away” utilities on my Macs for many years. Like you say, great UX and it’s extremely rare for it to not handle archives properly, even those in old or esoteric formats.

Linux has PeaZip, as well as 7zip. FWIW PeaZip is available for Windows, MacOs and Linux

Ark [0] works well enough for me when I feel like using the GUI - mostly use it from the context menu in Dolphin, in particlar the "Extract and create subdirectory if needed" that provides a consistent experience for Windows-style archives where root-directory is usually filled with stuff (Ark will create a subdirectory based on the archive name) and Linux-style archives where the convention is to have everything inside one directory in the archive (Ark will not create an additional subdirectory if there is just one file or directory in the archive root).

[0] https://apps.kde.org/ark/

I'd like this as well. As a workaround for now, you can right-click drag the icon elsewhere in the same directory/desktop. This will pop up the legacy context menu with 7-Zip available for use.

Yes you can click "Show More Options" as well, but I find the drag operation much faster once you get the habit down.

This pops-up the "copy here"/"move here"/"7-zip archive here" move context menu, sadly. (Or maybe it does now on Windows 11 22H2, build 22621)

That sounds like the right menu. Maybe you just have 7-Zip configured differently than me. I have Extract and Add to... enabled as my context menu options to keep things cleaner.

https://i.imgur.com/lcfXbXn.png

No, that's the one, what I mean is that this isn't the old context menu but the "move here" mini context menu. It doesn't have everything like rename, properties, etc. so it's not a workaround for "show more options" for things that aren't 7-zip.

Okay, I see. Yes I was just talking about 7-Zip. At best you can use the Menu key[1] on keyboards. For some reason that opens the legacy context menu.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menu_key

"Some reason" here is: backwards compatibility. Good old Windows backward compatibility. If you've got habits or automations based on the Menu key (or its even older shortcut: Shift+F10), Microsoft seems hesitant to break them, even if they felt they could change the default behavior of mouse users.

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