Windows 11’s PowerToys could upgrade right-click menu with “file actions” feature

The right-click menu or context menu in Windows 11 could soon become more powerful with a new ‘file actions’ menu, which offers advanced toggles for managing files, generating checksums, and copying paths, all directly from one place. This feature could be coming to PowerToys as an optional module.

The talented independent developer Aaron Junker, who is known for his contribution to the open-source community, is working on the “file actions menu” for PowerToys. According to a Github pull request first spotted by Windows Latest, the new File Actions Menu in the PowerToys adds a range of helpful options directly in the right-click menu.

Aaron Junker’s file actions menu in PowerToys could help you generate and verify checksums. You need to select a file and then click “checksums” under the new action menu. For those unaware, the “checksums” are basically “fingerprint” of any file, and it could help you verify whether a file is real and hasn’t been changed by anyone.

For example, if you download an ISO image from a random website, you can compare its checksum with the checksum provided on Microsoft’s website. If the checksum matches, it’s the same file. As shown in the screenshot below, PowerToys’ file actions feature lets you easily do this:

You can select two files and find out if they’re the same by comparing their checksum codes. You can compare a file with a checksum saved in another file, with the checksum of a similarly named file, or even a checksum you’ve copied to the clipboard.

As shown in the above screenshot, you can choose different types like MD5, SHA1, or CRC.

For power users, there’s even option to choose between hexadecimal (Hex) or decimal (Dec) formats.

Another notable feature is called “copying path” which could let you copy different parts of a file’s location. It could be its full path, just the file name, or the path for specific use cases. This is quite similar to Linux-like environments such as WSL.

You can even copy the content of a file or convert it into formats like Base64, XML, or URL encoded strings. While that’s not something you would do unless you’re familiar with these strings, it could be useful for power users.

This idea addresses the following feedbacks:

• Generate/Verify checksums from File Explorer.
• Explorer: right click copy image to clipboard (not file).
• Replace filename with checksum.
• Marking and unlocking locked files from context menu.
• Folder collapse (move all files to root).

Aaron told me that the feature will be a seperate menu invokable by a shortcut, which means it will not change the existing context menu. Basically, it’s a new context menu that shows up when you use a specific shortcut, assuming the feature is toggled on in PowerToys.

Initially, the PowerToys file actions will be limited to Windows 11, but they could also arrive on Windows 10 in the future.

Speaking of PowerToys and the context menu, Microsoft is also adding a “New+” option to the click menu, allowing you to quickly generate a template on topics like PowerShell script, PowerPoint slide, and more. All directly from the context menu.

Microsoft is working on other improvements for PowerToys, including Workspaces and Settings scheduler.