I noticed today that there is no longer a “Create new text document” option in my Windows 7 (x64 Ultimate) context menu when I right click. No idea how or when it disappeared, point is it’s gone.
After searching Google for people with the same problem I tried following a post in this guide.
But I got stuck right away because I don’t see a
.txt
key in my registry underHKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
. I only see a.text
but I am not sure if that is the same thing.
Solution:
I gained access to another PC running Windows 7, a computer on which the context menu was intact. I peeked at the registry of this machine and copied exactly what was entered. Doing so resolved the problem on my desktop with the broken context menu.
Following all the instructions listed above, the two Strings within the .txt
key that I needed were Content Type
and PerceivedType
.
So then to recap, if you are facing a similar issue, here is what I did to fix this problem. Hopefully it works for you as well.
(First backup the Registry.)
- Open
regedit.exe
- Expand
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
and look for a.txt
key. If none exist, create one. - Within the
.txt
key, create two new Strings:Content Type
andPerceivedType
. - (Right click) Modify… and the value for
Default
should betxtfile
. - (Right click) Modify… and the value for
Content Type
should betext/plain
. - (Right click) Modify… and the value for
PerceivedType
should betext
. - Create a new key with the name
ShellNew
within the.txt
key. - Within the
ShellNew
key, create a new String with the nameNullFile
. - Within the
ShellNew
key, create a new Expandable String Value with the nameItemName
. - (Right click) Modify… and the value for
ItemName
should be@%SystemRoot%system32notepad.exe,-470
Here are two screenshots of what the final outcome should be: