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On Windows File Explorer, I like to keep the New right-click context menu decluttered by removing most entries except those that I specifically want.

Thus, in the Registry, I delete (replacing "ext" and "TypeName" with the appropriate values for file extension and type name)...

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ext\ShellNew

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ext\TypeName\ShellNew

...keys for those entries that I do not want. This has always worked fine for me in the past.

However, I recently got a new Windows 10 computer, and there are four entries that I am trying to remove for which I cannot find any ShellNew key. They are:

  • Office Open XML Document
  • PPTX File
  • PUB File
  • XLSX File

These entries in the New context menu, if clicked on, respectively create:

  • a 0-byte file with the default name "New Office Open XML Document.docx" file-associated with WordPad
  • a 0-byte file with the default name "New PPTX File.pptx" not file-associated with any application
  • a 0-byte file with the default name "New PUB File.pub" not file-associated with any application
  • a 0-byte file with the default name "New XLSX File.xlsx" not file-associated with any application

When I say "not file-associated with any application", I mean that if you try to open the file, Windows displays the "How do you want to open this file" dialog box asking you to choose an application to open the file with.

There are no ShellNew keys or subkeys under

  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.docx
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pptx
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pub
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx

I have gone further and searched the Registry for hours and cannot find any ShellNew key associated with these four New entries. What other possibilities are there for how these New entries are being created, and how can I get rid of these entries?

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  • Don't you have for example HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.docx\Word.Document.12\ShellNew?
    – harrymc
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 20:31
  • It is there and not much new in Windows 10. Are you may talking about Windows 11 which has changed?
    – anon
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 20:34
  • @harrymc: No, there is no HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.docx\Word.Document.12\ShellNew because I uninstalled Microsoft Office that was preinstalled on the computer.
    – WingedKnight
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 20:34
  • I did not have Office Preinstalled (but did install my own Office License) and the key is there. And there is nothing really new about File Explorer for Windows 10.
    – anon
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 20:36
  • There is nothing big new, but Microsoft has been simplifying context menus, mostly in Windows 11, but some simplification may have slipped into Windows 10. It is the way Microsoft is moving with User Interface.
    – anon
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 21:02

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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You can use NirSoft's ShellMenuNew utility to easily see the exact registry entries for the options in the New right-click menu (and disable them): https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shell_menu_new.html

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  • There are tons of context menus, so you do need to be experienced with this.
    – anon
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 21:07
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    ShellMenuNew is specifically for the New context-menu, not all the others
    – Yisroel Tech
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 21:08
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    I have use Shell View many times. It handles Contexts for Office, WinMerge, and other context sensitive Apps.. OK looking at Nirsoft I do see a Shell View New. I will try it.
    – anon
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 21:39
  • Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, it does not help with my problem: I installed and tried the NirSoft ShellMenuNew utility, but the utility detects all the New context menu items EXCEPT the four entries that I'm having trouble with which have no ShellNew entries in the Registry.
    – WingedKnight
    Commented May 10, 2023 at 1:41
  • Have you restarted the computer recently? Try a restart and see if they're still there.
    – Yisroel Tech
    Commented May 10, 2023 at 2:33
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From the problem description and the comments it seems that you have renamed Office registry entries. When you uninstalled Office, this caused these entries to be left-over in the context menu.

To completely clean after Office, see the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant and especially the Uninstall Office tool, which is described in detail in the article How to Completely Uninstall Previous Versions of Office with Removal Scripts?

If this does not get rid of all of them, you would need to do that manually. I suggest using the fast registry search tool RegScanner to search for all registry items that contain the string "Microsoft Office", then delete their containing keys.

enter image description here

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  • Your 3rd option sounds totally unsafe. There is no reason why an item containing the string "Microsoft Office" is related to the software Microsoft Office only
    – PythoNic
    Commented Sep 4, 2023 at 11:23
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    @PythoNic: Registry updates should be done with great attention. I've not intended to advocate the indiscriminate deletion of registry keys.
    – harrymc
    Commented Sep 4, 2023 at 11:58

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