New Menu - Context and File

How to Add and Remove a Item in the"New" Context Menu​

   Information

The New menu is located in the Context (right click) menu and Windows Explorer File menu. This will show you how to add and remove a item of your choice to the New menu.

   Note

In the root and root folders of C: drive, the only New context menu item available is Folder.

   Tip

• To restore or remove New from the context menu, see: How to Restore or Remove New from the Context Menu in Vista
• If you are missing any of the default menu items in the New context menu, then see: How to Restore Missing Default New Context Menu Items in Vista
• A good free program for advanced users to use to disable or remove context menu items is ShellExView.

EXAMPLE: Context menu New menu Items Before (Default) and After

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EXAMPLE: File menu New menu Items Before (Default) and After

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   Warning

Before you make changes to the registry, you should backup the ShellNew key under the file extension you will be changing. (See step 6 below)

1. To Backup Registry Key

A) Right click ShellNew and click Export.​

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B) Save the exported REG file to where you want it.​

NOTE: This is the back file.​

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2. To Restore Registry Key

A) Right click on the exported REG file and click Merge.​

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B) Confirm the action to restore the registry key back to the same as the REG file.​

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Here's How:

1. Open the Start Menu.​

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2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.​

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3. If prompted, click on Continue in the UAC prompt.​

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4. In regedit, go to:​

NOTE: Go to the key of the file extension (left pane) of the item you want to add to the New menu.​

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\(File Extension)​

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FOR EXAMPLE: For a New Batch File, go to (.bat) : (See screenshot below)​

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bat​

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   Warning

For an existing file extension that you want to remove from the New Menu, skip this and go to to Option One (step 8) instead.

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5. In the left pane, right click on the file extension (EX: .bat) and click on New and Key.​

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6. Type ShellNew and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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Option One

To Add or Remove a Blank New Item

7. To Add a Blank New Item​

NOTE: This will create a new blank (no content) file of the file extension.​

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A) In the right pane, right click on a empty area and click on New and String Value. (See screenshot below step 6)​

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B) Type NullFile and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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C) Continue to step 9, or go to step 13.​

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8. To Remove the Blank New Item or Already Existing Item ​

A) In the left pane of the file extension, right click on ShellNew and click on Delete. (See screenshot above)​

NOTE: To just hide it instead to make it easy to restore again later if you wanted, right click on ShellNew and click on Rename. Rename it to ShellNew*. To unhide it, just remove the * from the name. ​

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B) Continue to step 9, or go to step 13.​

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Option Two

To Add or Remove a New Item with Content or Data

9. To Add a New Item with Content or Data ​

A) Do step 7 first.​

NOTE: This will create a new file of the file extenstion with content or data the you will enter in step D below.​

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EXAMPLE: When you right click on the created New item and click Edit, you will have the content you added in it.​

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B) In the right pane, right click on a empty area and click on New and String Value. (See screenshot above)​

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C) Type Data and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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D) In the right pane, right click on Data and click on Modify.​

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E) Type in the Text or Data content that you want the New item to always have when created and click on OK. (See screenshot below)​

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F) You should now see something like this. (See screenshot below)​

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G) Continue to step 11, or go to step 13.​

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10. To Remove a New Item with Content or Data ​

A) In the right pane, right click on Data and click Delete. (See screenshot above)​

NOTE: To just hide it instead to make it easy to restore again later if you wanted, right click on ShellNew and click on Rename. Rename it to ShellNew*. To unhide it, just remove the * from the name. ​

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B) Continue to step 11, or go to step 13.​

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Option Three

To Add or Remove a New Item that is a Copy of Another File

11. To Add a New Item that is a Copy of Another File -​

WARNING: This will override step 7 and 9, so you will need to choose to do either those steps or this step.​

NOTE: This will create a new file of the file extension that is a copy of the file you will specify in step 11D below.​

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EXAMPLE: When you right click on the created New item and click Edit, you will have the copied content of the file you chose.​

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A) In the right pane, right click on a empty area and click on New and String Value. (See screenshot below step 6)​

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B) Type FileName and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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C) In the right pane, right click on FileName and click on Modify.​

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D) Type in the full path of the file you want copied and click on OK. (See example screenshot below)​

NOTE: If you add the file you want copied into C:\Windows\ShellNew , then you will just need to type the name of the file instead. (EX:Old Batch File.bat)​

WARNIING: The file you want copied must have the same file extension.​

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E) You should see something like this now. (See screenshot below)​

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F) Go to step 13.​

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12. To Remove a New Item that is a Copy of Another File​

A) In the left pane, right click on ShellNew and click Delete. (See screenshot above)​

NOTE: To just hide it instead to make it easy to restore again later if you wanted, right click on ShellNew and click on Rename. Rename it to ShellNew*. To unhide it, just remove the * from the name. ​

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13. Close regedit.​

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14. Log off and Log on, or restart the computer to apply the changes.​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Expand the Context (Shortcuts) Menu in Vista
• How to Customize the Context Menu for the Start Menu in Vista
• How to Customize the Send To Context Menu in Vista
• How to Customize the Recycle Bin Context Menu in Vista
• How to Add COPY TO FOLDER and MOVE TO FOLDER to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Add Encrypt and Decrypt to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Fix Cannot Rename and or Create a New Folder in Vista
• How to Add Take Ownership to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Restore the Search Context Menu Item after Installing the Vista SP1
• How to Add Flip 3D to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Restore or Remove New from the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Enable or Disable the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Remove or Show Drives in the Vista and Windows 7 "Send To" Context Menu
• How to Add View and Print File Directory to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Add or Remove Copy as Path from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Add or Remove Send To from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Fix the New Folder Context Menu Item in Vista
• How to Add System Properties to Computer Context Menu in Vista
• How to Restore Missing Default New Context Menu Items in Vista
• How to Restore or Remove "Restore Previous Versions" from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Fix the New Shortcut Context Menu Item in Vista

 

[pippo]

when I right click I can't get the "new" commands.
I have lost the "new" entirely..
It is not empty but it doesn't exist!
And... on the explorer menu: "create new folder" doesn't work.
I can't create folder

How I can fix this?

thanks. pippo from sicily.

 

[Brink]

Hi pippo,

Welcome to Vista x64 Forums.

See if running a sfc /scannow command can find and fix any system file error that may be related to this. This will show you how.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html

Shawn

 

[niGht kiD]

Hi Brink, do you know a way to remove those items under New menu except Folder and Shortcut?

 

[Brink]

Hi niGht kiD,

You can go to each file extension in the registry for those entries and rename the ShellNew key to ShellNew* to hide them without deleting them incase you want to add them back by renaming it back to just ShellNew. If you do not know the file extension for them, then just click on one to create a new file of it to see the extension.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[niGht kiD]

Thank you Brink :D

 

[Brink]

Your welcome.

 

[kaisellgren]

Hi Brink!

Any ideas why this does not work for me?

I'm trying to add .php to the new context menu. I tried NullFile, NullFile + Data and FileName but nothing worked. I did restart my Vista x64 Ultimate also. It just does not appear there. I managed to make .reg appear, but .php does not work for some reason.

 

[Brink]

Hi Kaisellgren,

Do you have a program installed that can read PHP files?

Shawn

 

[kaisellgren]

Hi Kaisellgren,

Do you have a program installed that can read PHP files?

Shawn

Yes, several.

Zend Studio, phpDesigner and Notepad2. Default program is set to Notepad2.

 

[Brink]

I must admit that I am stumped to why it will not work for you. You might check out this link for more detailed instructions on this.

Add items to the New menu (aka ShellNew entries)

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[bennys]

It's a pretty neat tutorial. However, how do I remove the unwanted context and files that are already there? Example, my New Menu consists of the following:
*Folder
*Shortcut
*Contact
*Microsoft Office Word Document
*Journal Document
*Microsoft Office Powerpoint Presentation
*Text Document
*Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet
*Compressed (zipped) Folder
*Briefcase
Any help to remove some of the unwanted would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hi Bennys,

You will just need to go to the file extension for that New item instead in the tutorial, then right click on it's ShellNew and click on Rename. Rename it to ShellNew*.

Hope that helps,
Shawn

 

[bennys]

There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask them.
Vista Forums
Please post feedback to help others.

So here I ask:
How do I locate those files extension? Is it in the regedit under HKEY...XXX?
Thank you...Brink

 

[Brink]

Yes, it will be at the same HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\(File Extension) location.

You can see what file extension they are by temporarily creating a new one to see the extension on it. This will show you how to see the file extensions once the new file is created.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/103171-file-name-extension.html

 

[bennys]

Thank you...

You can see what file extension they are by temporarily creating a new one to see the extension on it. This will show you how to see the file extensions once the new file is created.

I already know how to show and hide file extension BUT how do I create a new one? This is pretty confusing for me. For example, I see the path file for CONTACT which is C:\Users\MYNAME\Contacts), but where is the extention? Anyhow, I tried to create a new one like you said. This is what I did. Correct me if I'm wrong:
Right click .bat>NewKey>Type ShellNew>New>String Value>Type Contact>Modified>Type Full Path of file. And this the final CONTACT screenshot.

I can't find the extention for CONTACT file. PLEASE HELP...
Thanks for your patience.

 

[Brink]

No problem Bennys,

The file extension is .contacts for Contacts.

If you are not familiar with or sure what to do in the registry, then I would not recommend that you do this. One wrong change can cause you to have to reinstall Vista to fix it.


Do not create a new entry in the registry, but from the context menu instead. Right click on the desktop and and click on New and whatever item you want to see what the file extension is for. Afterwards, you will just need to go to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\(File Extension) location in the registry for that New item, then right click on it's ShellNew and click on Rename. Rename it to ShellNew*.

 

[bennys]

The file extension is .contacts for Contacts.Thanks a million. That was so simple. I feel like an idiot now after spending the last couple days going through many tutorials trying to figure this thing out.
Regards, Judge Judy.

 

[Brink]

LOL, your welcome Judge Judy Bennys.

 

[pclove]

Thanks for the tutorial. All I wanted to do was delete the unused ones, so you gave me the info on where they would be found. I deleted all the crap ones by going under each file extension and deleting the folder that said "shellnew".

If you want to get rid of New-->Contact, just delete "shellnew" from .contact under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\. To get rid of New-->Briefcase, it's found in the same list as the others but without the "." (dot) in front of it.

I love this site and all the cool ass tuts. Thanks Brink! You rock.