Unremovable items from New right-click menu

Question

I would like to remove the Text Document and Bitmap image items from the context menu's New menu, but I am unable to find the items in the Registry. I was able to remove other items from the New menu, but these two items don't seem to be stored in the same place as other new item shortcuts:

• I looked in both HKCR\.bmp and HKCR\.txt, with neither having the ShellNew key, nor are they stored within:

  HKCR\*\shell
  HKCR\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
  HKCR\AllFileSystemObjects\ShellEx
  HKCR\Directory\shell
  HKCR\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
  

• I used Nirsoft's ShellMenuNew and Bitmap Image and Text Document do not appear
• I have tried the suggestions listed in this question and How-To Geek article

Answer 1

Found an answer to this at Windows ElevenForum. It has to do with the fact that Notepad and Paint are now UWP apps. To remove the context menu entries, you have to uninstall Notepad and Paint. There is another way, but it requires mucking into the apps themselves.

To remove .txt and .bmp from Create > New Context Menu without removing notepad and paint components from Windows.

For Paint Open C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Paint_11.2110.0.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppxManifest.xml

For Notepad Open C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_10.2103.7.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppxManifest.xml

And remove the line starting with <uap:FileType uap4:ShellNewFileName=

Note that C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\ can't be edited with user or even administrator and the change will most likely get reset each time there's a new app version released.

Answer 2

Renaming HKCR\.txt\ShellNew to HKCR\.txt\xShellNew [likewise with .bmp] was sufficient to remove the entry from the context menu:

ShellNew keys I found on my computer:

PS HKCR:\>> gci -s | ? PSCHildName -eq 'ShellNew' | select -expand name

  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.api\AcroExch.Plugin\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.contact\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.fdf\AcroExch.FDFDoc\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.library-ms\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.odg\LibreOffice.DrawDocument.1\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.odp\LibreOffice.ImpressDocument.1\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ods\LibreOffice.CalcDocument.1\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.odt\LibreOffice.WriterDocument.1\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdx\PDXFileType\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.rtf\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.secstore\AcroExch.SecStore\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xdp\AcroExch.XDPDoc\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xfdf\AcroExch.XFDFDoc\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.zip\CompressedFolder\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{a5a3563a-5755-4a6f-854e-afa3230b199f}\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\ShellNew
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{a5a3563a-5755-4a6f-854e-afa3230b199f}\ShellNew

Answer 3

To remove:

• Bitmap Image:

  # PowerShell $env:UserProfile variable used | Cmd: Replace with %UserProfile%
  
  # Backup key within the Registry and delete:
    Reg Copy "HKCR\.bmp\ShellNew" "HKCR\.bmp\CustomDisabled\ShellNew" /s /f
    Reg Delete "HKCR\.bmp\ShellNew"
      # To restore:
        Reg Copy "HKCR\.bmp\CustomDisabled\ShellNew" "HKCR\.bmp\ShellNew" /s /f
  
  # Backup key within a file and delete:
    MkDir "$env:UserProfile\Documents\RegistryBackup"
    Reg Export "HKCR\.bmp\ShellNew" "$env:UserProfile\Documents\RegistryBackup\bmp-ShellNew.reg"
    Reg Delete "HKCR\.bmp\ShellNew"
      # To restore:
        Reg Import "$env:UserProfile\Documents\RegistryBackup\bmp-ShellNew.reg"
  

  
  
• Text Document:

  # PowerShell $env:UserProfile variable used | Cmd: Replace with %UserProfile%
  
  # Backup key within the Registry and delete:
    Reg Copy "HKCR\.txt\ShellNew" "HKCR\.txt\CustomDisabled\ShellNew" /s /f
    Reg Delete "HKCR\.txt\ShellNew"
      # To restore:
        Reg Copy "HKCR\.txt\CustomDisabled\ShellNew" "HKCR\.txt\ShellNew" /s /f
  
  # Backup key within a file and delete:
    MkDir "$env:UserProfile\Documents\RegistryBackup"
    Reg Export "HKCR\.txt\ShellNew" "$env:UserProfile\Documents\RegistryBackup\txt-ShellNew.reg"
    Reg Delete "HKCR\.txt\ShellNew"
      # To restore:
        Reg Import "$env:UserProfile\Documents\RegistryBackup\txt-ShellNew.reg"
  

  
  

---

References:

• Reg: Copy | Delete | Export | Import
• Default HKCR\.bmp and HKCR\.txt keys:

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp]
  @="Paint.Picture"
  "Content Type"="image/bmp"
  "PerceivedType"="image"
  
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\OpenWithList]
  
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\OpenWithList\MSPaint.exe]
  @=""
  
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\OpenWithProgids]
  "AppX2jm25qtmp2qxstv333wv5mne3k5bf4bm"=hex(0):
  "AppX43hnxtbyyps62jhe9sqpdzxn1790zetc"=hex(0):
  "AppXcdh38jxzbcberv50vxg2tg4k84kfnewn"=hex(0):
  "Paint.Picture"=""
  
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\PersistentHandler]
  @="{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"
  
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\ShellNew]
  "ItemName"=hex(2):40,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,\
    73,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,6d,00,73,\
    00,70,00,61,00,69,00,6e,00,74,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,2c,00,2d,00,35,00,\
    39,00,34,00,31,00,34,00,00,00
  "NullFile"=""
  
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt]
  @="txtfile"
  "Content Type"="text/plain"
  "PerceivedType"="text"
  
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\OpenWithProgids]
  "VSCode.txt"=""
  
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\PersistentHandler]
  @="{5e941d80-bf96-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"
  
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\ShellNew]
  "ItemName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,\
    6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,\
    00,6e,00,6f,00,74,00,65,00,70,00,61,00,64,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,2c,00,\
    2d,00,34,00,37,00,30,00,00,00
  "NullFile"=""