How to Fix: Revert Chrome UI and Right Click Menu (2024)

Infopackets Reader Steve T. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

I use Chrome as my web browser and when I right click on a web page, I often use the option to 'View page source' so that I can copy its contents and edit the HTML using another program. The problem is that in 2023, Google released an update to Chrome that changed the right click menu. Now, I am forced to scroll through the menu in order to get to the 'View page source' option. This is painful and time consuming since I do it many times a day. Last year I came across a few articles that suggested going to 'chrome://flags/' via the web address bar in Chrome, then I searched for 'Chrome Refresh 2023' and disabled it. This reverted my right click menu for a few months, however, a recent update has once again screwed it up. Any ideas on how to fix this? I would like to revert Chrome to its previous UI."

My response:

I asked Steve if he would like me to look into this issue using my remote desktop support, and he agreed.

Below I will discuss my findings.

How to Fix: Revert Chrome UI and Right Click Menu (2024)

It appears Google has made some recent changes to disabling the Chrome Refresh 2023 (i.e. reverting Chrome's user interface) which initially was the cause of the right click menu changing in Chrome.

Here's what you need to do to get the right click menu back (as well as reverting Chrome's UI):

1. Launch Chrome and in the web address bar, type in chrome://flags
    
2. On the chrome://flags screen, type in "Refresh 2023" in the search field, and then disable "Chrome Refresh 2023" and "Chrome WebUI Refresh 2023".
    
3. Now, search for "Customize Chrome Side Panel" and disable that. The most recent changes to Chrome (as of March, 2024) now require to you disable "Customize Chrome Side Panel" in addition to the above flags in order to make the changes stick.
    
4. Relaunch Chrome.

Voila - your right click menu should be back to the way it was, and the user interface will also look as it did previously.

I hope that helps.

About the author: Dennis Faas is the CEO and owner of Infopackets.com. Since 2001, Dennis has dedicated his entire professional career helping others with technology-related issues with his unique style of writing in the form of questions-and-answers; click here to read all 2,000+ of Dennis' articles online this site. In 2014, Dennis shifted his focus to cyber crime mitigation, including technical support fraud and in 2019, sextortion. Dennis has received many accolades during his tenure: click here to view Dennis' credentials online DennisFaas.com; click here to see Dennis' Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science (1999); click here to read an article written about Dennis by Alan Gardyne of Associate Programs (2003). And finally, click here to view a recommendation for Dennis' services from the University of Florida (dated 2006).