Windows 10 File Explorer – How to Modify ‘New Item’ Menu

windows

This is the menu I mean:

New item menu

I want to be able to add and delete items. Thanks for your assistance.

This is not a context menu (sometimes known as a right-click menu). It's the drop-down menu available near the top of the File Explorer display, under 'New Item'.

Look for 'New Item' with downward arrow.

How can I change its items?

Best Answer

You will need to edit the registry to add and remove entries in the New Context Menu:

Navigate to the Registry editor first by opening the run prompt (Windows+R) then type regedit and press enter.

Removing an entry

  1. Navigate to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and expand it.
  2. Look for the extension of the file-type you want to remove from the menu. For example, if you want to remove "New Word Document", find .docx and expand it.
  3. In the sub-keys, find the key ShellNew and remove it. This will remove the entry.

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Adding an entry

  1. Navigate to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and expand it.
  2. Look for the extension of the file-type you want to add to the menu. For example, if you want to add the entry "New XML Document", find .xml.
  3. Right click on it and select New -> Key and name it ShellNew.
  4. In the right pane select New -> String Value. Name it NullFile and press enter.

If the above does not work (as it does sometimes on certain files on newer Windows versions), try the following:

  1. Navigate to C:\Windows\ShellNew and create a new file (with any name) with the extension of file-type you want to add. For example, if you want .xml:

enter image description here

  1. Go back to the registry editor where you created NullFile in step 4. In there, create another string value named FileName and set it to the path you created in step 5:

enter image description here

The file-type should now show up in the New Context Menu.

All information and images found here and here. Check links for further reading.

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