Lost "File, New, Folder" option in Windows Explorer

  • Thread starter Thread starter IanB
  • Start date Start date
I

IanB

I have lost the ability to create a new folder in Windows Explorer, either
from teh menu bar or the context menu. Unclear exactly when it took effect,
so can't tie it down to any event - haven't installed any new software
recently, for example.

I seem to remember someone posting about this a while back, but I can't
locate it - please can anyone point me in the direction of any advice on why
it happens and (more importantly) how to get the function back again?

Running Vista Home Premium on a Dell Inspiron 6400, if it makes any
difference.

Regards,
Ian
 
IanB said:
I have lost the ability to create a new folder in Windows Explorer, either
from teh menu bar or the context menu. Unclear exactly when it took
effect, so can't tie it down to any event - haven't installed any new
software recently, for example.

I seem to remember someone posting about this a while back, but I can't
locate it - please can anyone point me in the direction of any advice on
why it happens and (more importantly) how to get the function back again?

Running Vista Home Premium on a Dell Inspiron 6400, if it makes any
difference.
Click to expand...

From MVP Ronnie Vernon

Copy the text between the dashed lines (not the dashed lines) and paste them
into Notepad. Save the file as New.reg and place it on the Desktop.
Double-click the file and answer the prompts to Merge the file to the
registry.

This should restore that right click menu option.
-----------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New]
@="{D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719}"
 
Ronnie,

Thanks for your reply. Tried the route you gave below, but I am afraid it
made no difference. Checking in RegEdit, the key described was present and
OK, yet even after a cold reboot the folder option wasn't present in either
the context menu or the drop-down menu. It also wasn't working on clicking
the 'New Folder' button in a file, save dialogue in (e.g.) Word, Excel etc.

I have now recovered it by restoring the system back to last Thursday (the
oldest scheduled restore point I had - there were no other restore points
other than scheduled ones), so GKW caused the change - certainly no software
installations.

I'm still intrigued to know what causes this - it's the second time it's
happened to me, and given the material that your reply and Shawn's below it's
obviously not uncommon ...

Regards,
Ian
 
Shawn,

Thanks for your reply and the link - gives the same key values as suggested
by Ronnie in his reply above in this thread. I've replied to his with what I
found - having to restore to an earlier point does seem like a sledgehammer
to crack a nut ...

Regards,
Ian
 
IanB said:
Ronnie,

Thanks for your reply. Tried the route you gave below, but I am afraid it
made no difference. Checking in RegEdit, the key described was present
and OK, yet even after a cold reboot the folder option wasn't present in
either
the context menu or the drop-down menu. It also wasn't working on
clicking the 'New Folder' button in a file, save dialogue in (e.g.) Word,
Excel etc.

I have now recovered it by restoring the system back to last Thursday (the
oldest scheduled restore point I had - there were no other restore points
other than scheduled ones), so GKW caused the change - certainly no
software installations.

I'm still intrigued to know what causes this - it's the second time it's
happened to me, and given the material that your reply and Shawn's below
it's obviously not uncommon ...
Click to expand...

Actually, I'm not Ronnie. I just gave you his script and of course I
credited him for it.

It isn't all that common. As Shawn suggested, possibly you are using some
sort of registry cleaner or other third-party "fix-it" type utility that is
doing this. It doesn't happen in the normal course of events on healthy
machines.

I'm sorry but there is no way of me guessing what you're running/doing to
get this error.

Malke
 
Thanks again for the suggestion.

Only possible candidate I could suggest would be McAfee Security Centre (I
haven't run any other cleaner on this machine), although looking at its
maintenance dashboard this morning the 'Quick Clean' function indicates that
it's never actually run (scheduled for a time when the machine isn't usually
on! - must change that...).

Assuming it'll happen again in the future, I'll check the existence of the
function each morning from here on and see if I can spot any untoward
activity on the McAfee logs.

At least I know I can work around the issue, albeit that it's a bit of a
clat. Otherwise, the only way of creating a new directory was to do so from
another machine on my home network :-(
 
"Brink" wrote:
Shawn,

Thanks again - have posted latest state of affairs under the sub-thread above.

Ian
 
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