- Windows 11 has a new preview build
- It fully removes AI actions if you’ve disabled them all in File Explorer
- This means there will no longer be an empty folder in the right-click menu for AI actions that have been turned off
Windows 11 just got a change for the better in terms of AI – albeit only in testing for now – which removes some clutter related to the AI actions feature.
That functionality pertains to File Explorer’s right-click context menu, but it’s more of a refinement to existing options than anything else (and I’ll come back to why later). Even so, it’s going to be well-received; you can count on that.
Windows Central reported on Microsoft announcing a simple but functional change in a new Windows 11 preview (build 26220.7344): “If there are no available or enabled AI Actions, this section will no longer show in the context menu.”
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This means that if there are no possible AI actions with any given file that you’ve right-clicked, you no longer see the (empty) folder relating to said actions (or lack of them).
AI actions include things like asking Copilot to summarize a document or pulling off image-editing tricks on your photos (like erasing an object using AI).
Analysis: a mystifying omission
(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)
Essentially, this avoids the weird situation where you’ve gone into Settings and disabled all AI actions, and yet the AI actions option still appears in the right-click menu – even though when you mouse over it, it’s empty. Which, of course, made no sense whatsoever, and really, this is more of a fix than a feature.
You could previously disable these AI actions, in case you were wondering, so that isn’t a new feature, although it is a relatively recent addition. The change here is Microsoft’s removal of the AI actions entry in the right-click menu if there aren’t any available AI shortcuts, as noted.
All this is part of Microsoft’s wider drive to declutter File Explorer’s right-click menu, which is a welcome initiative.
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