A Universal Share Button is Coming to Windows 11

Microsoft is continuing its effort to streamline Windows 11 and design a consistent user experience. The recent Windows 11 Insider Beta Build (22635.4445) fixes several issues, but underneath, there is a hidden share button that is disabled by default. First discovered by phantomofearth on X, the Beta build adds a universal share button to Windows 11’s UI elements.

You can right-click on a file in the Start menu and share the file right away. Apart from that, you can right-click on the Taskbar and share opened files within an app. Basically, Microsoft is adding the share button across the UI so you can easily share files with other devices.

If you are on the latest Insider Beta build, you can enable the universal share button on Windows 11 using ViveTool. Make sure to run the commands below.

vivetool /enable /id:46493758
vivetool /enable /id:45738940

Earlier, Microsoft rolled out another neat feature to the File Explorer context menu. You can now share files to your Android phone directly from the context menu without having to open the share sheet. This will make file transfer between Windows 11 and Android phones even more seamless.

That said, Microsoft’s recent decision to add an “Edit with Paint” option in the context menu has not been received well. Many argue that it makes the context menu cluttered and slower to respond. In my opinion, the ability to edit with Paint is a good addition, but Microsoft must improve the performance of the context menu. It’s much slower than what we had on Windows 10.