Make classic menus open faster (MenuShowDelay) — via Winaero

Registrylow riskWindows 11Windows 10

Windows waits 400 ms before opening a cascading submenu when you hover over it. Lowering the delay makes classic menus (like the full right-click menu's "Send to") feel snappier.

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Registry change

Download apply .reg Download undo .reg

Double-click a .reg file and confirm to merge it. Right-click → Edit first if you want to read it, which is always a good idea with any .reg file from the internet.

Apply

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Oddbyte.Me: Make classic menus open faster (MenuShowDelay)

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"MenuShowDelay"="200"

Undo

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Oddbyte.Me: undo Make classic menus open faster (MenuShowDelay)

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"MenuShowDelay"="400"

Same thing from a command prompt

Run in a normal (non-admin) Command Prompt or Terminal.

reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "MenuShowDelay" /t REG_SZ /d "200" /f

Undo:

reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "MenuShowDelay" /t REG_SZ /d "400" /f
The value is a string in milliseconds; 400 is the default. Winaero suggests starting at 200 and advises against 0, which makes menus pop open too eagerly.

Sources

Source reviewed
2026-11-02
Link checked
2026-11-02
Tested hands-on
Not by Oddbyte.Me

Oddbyte.Me hasn't tried this on every Windows build, so keep the undo handy.

menushowdelaymenu delayspeedsubmenu

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