The terrible menu bar in the Windows 11 Notepad
21 days ago
- The menu bar in the modern Windows 11 Notepad has several regressions compared to the old Win32 version, including bugs with mouse and keyboard navigation.
- Holding the primary mouse button to open a menu and release to select an item does not work in the new Notepad, nor does moving between top-level menu items while holding the mouse button.
- Keyboard navigation is broken: left and right arrow keys get stuck on items with submenus like 'View › Zoom', and F10 key for focusing menu bars does nothing.
- Access keys (shown via Alt key) disappear when using arrow keys for navigation, and menu bar items respond to right-clicks, causing pointer issues and enabling disabled items.
- Most of these issues are not unique to Notepad but stem from the WinUI 3 MenuBar component, with long-standing bug reports since 2019 being closed as 'feature requests' despite being regressions from Win32 menus.