Right click - New: Create and change file types in the context menu

Right-clicking on the Explorer opens the extended context menu in which empty files of any type can be created under "New".

Remove file extensions from "New"

To quickly create a new file, the "New" area in the extended context menu of the Explorer is very helpful. Many programs therefore create an entry here during installation. This area is often overloaded with rarely needed file extensions. These can be removed in a few steps:

1. Open the registry editor by pressing the key combination [Windows] + [R] and entering "regedit" in the Run field
2. Navigate to "Computer \ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \" and find the file extension (including the period) that you want to remove
3. This folder (key) contains a key "ShellNew". Delete the string "NullFile" there.
4. At the latest after a restart, the file extension should have disappeared from the "New" context menu.
5. The exception file extensions for the briefcase and the Windows contacts can be found below in the picture gallery.

Create a new file extension in the "New" context menu

Sometimes the desired file extension is not available in the "New" context menu. You can change this in a few steps:

1. As described above, navigate to the desired file extension in "Computer \ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \" in the registry editor
2. Right-click> "New"> "Key" to create a key.
3. Rename this to "ShellNew" and create a new string with right-click> "New"> "String"
4. Rename this to "NullFile". From the next computer start, this file extension appears around the "New" context menu.

These tips usually work from Windows XP. You can find registry settings that deactivate the Capslock key, deactivate the Balloon Tips or make Windows Explorer more stable in other CHIP-Online practical tips.

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Press the key combination [Windows] + [R] and type "regedit" in the Run field to open the Windows Registry Editor.

Navigate to "Computer \ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \" (1) and select the file extension (2) there that you want to remove from the "New" context menu. In ShellNew (3) is the string that you need to delete (4).

You will find the Windows contacts under the extension ".contact". You can also delete the entire ShellNew key.

The briefcase is located under the file extension "briefcase" (without a period).

If you want to insert an empty file in the "New" context menu, create the desired file extension in the registry editor and generate a new key.

A folder symbol is created. Name this key "ShellNew" and create a new string in "ShellNew" that you call "NullFile".

From Windows Vista there is a trick: If a "New" entry cannot be removed or created, navigate in Explorer to "% WinDir% \ ShellNew". Here you will find some file extensions, but far from all.

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Here you can remove unwanted file extensions. If you copy a file here, it will be offered under "New" after a restart. You can insert an empty file, or one that already contains settings such as a letterhead or certain metadata.