How can I add an item to the 'new' context menu?

Question

When I right click anywhere I get an option to add a new file with a specified extension. I would like to add some custom files into this menu, so I can right click and create a new PHP file for instance.

How can I do this?

score 78 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 07 '14 at 15:31

One more thing:

If you want to add a file as a template for the new item, use

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html\ShellNew]
"FileName"="html.html"

and then place the file (html.html) in:

For your own profile: %Userprofile%\Templates
For all users: %Allusersprofile%\Templates
For the whole system: %Systemroot%\ShellNew

One more detail: if you want to delete the "Windows Live Call" entry, use:

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.wlcshrtctv2\LiveCall\ShellNew]

th3dude · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-27T21:45:19.897

72

To add extensions of your choice to the list: create a file, add the content below, save it as whatever.reg, and run it.

Note: Replace .png with the file extension you want to add and replace whatever with anything you want.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.png\ShellNew]
"NullFile"=""

Source

edited Jan 27 '11 at 21:45

answered Sep 03 '09 at 02:41

th3dude

9,511

score 18 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 16 '11 at 03:37

18

ShellNewHandler helped me to restore my Windows 7 shell menu > New > txt document entry.

enter image description here

Uncheck .txt
Click Apply
Check .txt
Click Apply

edited Sep 16 '11 at 03:37

Gareth

19,080

answered Sep 16 '11 at 01:23

Eric

213

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 03 '09 at 02:49

Go in to registry editor and expand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

Go to .file_extention

and create a key called ShellNew

Inside that, create a new string key called NullFile with no value

For example, if I wanted to create a new entry for a blank .wil object* I would create

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.wil\ShellNew]
NullFile = ""

*if the file extension such as .wil does not exist, I would first create a file with that extension and double click it. Open it with the program of my choice as this would then create the other needed registry keys and make your job easier.

Arete · Answer 5 · 2024-10-14T11:04:08.897

It seems that the other solutions here are outdated. At least none of these worked for me in Windows 10 v. 1709 Build 16299.192 (Edit: still works in version 1809). I did some testing in a VM and this is what works in Windows 10 1709, as of 2018.01.12:

Add the registry file:

Create a new registry file file with the following content:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; new file type
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.xyz]
@="xyz"
; template
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.xyz\ShellNew]
"FileName"=""
; file type name
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\xyz]
@="XYZ test file"

Replace xyz with the extension you would like to add. And replace XYZ test file with the name of the file extension (e.g a .scss file would be "syntactically awesome style sheet file”). If you want to use a template file see the explanation below.

It might be necessary to restart Windows Explorer after you have added the registry file. You can restart explorer.exe by typing the following in CMD:

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe & start explorer.exe

Explanation of the code:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xyz]
@="xyz"

Will create a new file type in the registry.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xyz\ShellNew]
"FileName"=""

This will enable you to use a template for all new files of this file format. We could for example write "template.xyz" and make a new file called “template.xyz” and use it a s a template. So each time you make a new file it will be populated with pre-made content. As Eduardo Molteni mentioned the paths for the template files are:%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Templates, %programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Templates or for the whole system %Systemroot%\ShellNew. In this example we haven’t specified any template name because we don’t want to use any.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\xyz]
@="XYZ test file"

This will be the name of the file type both for the context menu and the newly created files. As far as I know leaving this value blank does not work.

Icon:

The icon is added once Windows have associated a software with the file type.

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 24 '17 at 13:31

None of these methods were working for me in Windows 10.

I finally found this page that explained that you need to reference another key that contains the name and default icon.

This is the minimum needed to create an entry, but it won't have an icon.

NOTE: the third entry is for a new key textfile referenced in the (Default) value of .txt

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.txt]
@="textfile"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.txt\ShellNew]
"NullFile"=""
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\textfile]
@="Text Document"

Here are two ways to specify an icon

Tell Explorer to use the default icon for the content type:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt] 
@="textfile" 
"Content Type"="text/plain"
"PerceivedType"="text"

or 2. Specify an icon under textfile like so:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\textfile\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\system32\\imageres.dll,-102"

Oh, and at least for me, just closing and reopening Explorer (make sure to close all instances) is enough to reload the context menu. You don't need to restart the whole machine.

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 21 '19 at 03:52

This information is all officially documented by Microsoft; normally intended for developers who are registering their own new file types.

Extending the New Submenu

When a user opens the File menu in Windows Explorer, the first command is New. Selecting this command displays a submenu. By default, it contains two commands, Folder and Shortcut, that allow users to create subfolders and shortcuts. This submenu can be extended to include file creation commands for any file type.

To add a file-creation command to the New submenu, your application's files must have a file type associated with them. Include a ShellNew subkey under the key for the file name extension. When the File menu's New command is selected, the Shell will add it to the New submenu. The command's display string will be the descriptive string that is assigned to the program's ProgID.

Assign one or more data values to the ShellNew subkey to specify the file creation method. The available values follow.

Command: Executes an application. This is a REG_SZ value specifying the path of the application to be executed. For example, you could set it to launch a wizard.
Data: Creates a file containing specified data. Data is a REG_BINARY value with the file's data. Data is ignored if either NullFile or FileName is specified.
FileName: Creates a file that is a copy of a specified file. FileName is a REG_SZ value, set to the fully qualified path of the file to be copied.
NullFile: Creates an empty file. NullFile is not assigned a value. If NullFile is specified, the Data and FileName values are ignored.

And example create a new empty mpy file:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
  (Default) = MyProgram.1
  MyProgram.1
   .myp
      ShellNew
         NullFile

To create a new file based on a specific template file:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
   .myp
      (Default) = MyProgram.1
      MyProgram.1
         ShellNew
            FileName: REG_SZ = "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Templates\MyNewTemplate.myp"

score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 12 '11 at 14:19

5

For removing entries from the list, here is a program which allows you to enable/disable entries from a GUI. Much easier than searching the registry!

Unfortunately, it does not allow you to add entries.

answered Mar 12 '11 at 14:19

Blorgbeard

3,013

User5910 · Answer 9 · 2013-02-12T21:08:12.557

4

You didn't say what version of Windows you're using--if it's XP you can download the TweakUI PowerToy from Microsoft (also covered in Wikipedia). Click on Templates and add/remove file types to your heart's content. Here's what it looks like: enter image description here

edited Feb 12 '13 at 21:08

answered Jan 26 '13 at 22:35

User5910

566
1
4
21

score 2 · Answer 10 · edited Dec 08 '11 at 13:33

Create a plain text file and add the following line to it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\ShellNew]
"NullFile"=""

Save the file and rename it's extention to a .reg file. E.g. "myNewItem.reg". Be sure that you renamed the extention and not only the file name like (myNewItem.reg.txt)

Double click the file and it will update your registry.

The next step, and that is very important, restart your computer directly. So DON'T try to open the content menu to see if it's already works! First restart you computer.

If you open the content menu to see if your amazing new item is already listed, the registry will be restored ...

Also try this program: http://sourceforge.net/projects/shellnewhandler/

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 07 '25 at 06:01

PowerToys New+ (for Windows 10 and 11)

If you have Windows 10 or 11:

Go to PowerToys GitHub release page and install it
In the PowerToy settings dialog, under "File Management" click on "New+"
Enable New+ and choose the location of your Templates
In the right-click context menu of File Explorer, a new entry "New+" will show up with all your templates

How can I add an item to the 'new' context menu?

11 Answers11

Extending the New Submenu

PowerToys New+ (for Windows 10 and 11)

Linked

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