Cleanup & Make the Windows Context Menu’s “New” Folder Open Faster

By default when you right-click your desktop to get to the Context Menu’s New folder, there is a lot of items you probably don’t use. Here we look at how to clean up the menu for faster access in creating a new folder.
Creating a New Folder on the Desktop
To create a new folder on the desktop Right-Click an empty area New \ Folder. The problem with this is there is a bunch of items in the list that you probably don’t even use and it takes longer to get to the Folder.

It really depends on where you are on the screen though. Sometimes you can right-click and Folder is right there for easy access.

Then other times it might be over the the left up high on the list.

ShellNewHandler
Rather than having to deal with worrying about proper Desktop placement, we’re going to use a slick utility called ShellNewHandler to clean up the unnecessary items on the list. It is a small executable that requires no installation and is portable. Simply launch ShellNewHandler.exe then uncheck the items from the Context Menu that you don’t use and click Ok.
In our example we are using Windows7 x64 Ultimate edition and ended up disabling everything…

Now when we go to create a new folder on your Desktop, it’s right there!  Although, there’s still the Briefcase…yep the Briefcase still exists!

Remove the Briefcase
We can go a step further and remove the Briefcase from the context menu as well with a simple Registry hack. Open the Registry by typing regedit into the Search box in the Start Menu.

Now Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Briefcase (If you don’t want to scroll all the way down to it. Go to Edit \ Find and type in Briefcase). Expand the Briefcase folder and delete the ShellNew sub-key and all of it’s values.

Select Yes to the confirmation dialog box and close out of the Registry editor.

That’s it! Now it’s a clean Context Menu with only New Folder…Awesome!

If you’ve found it to be very annoying to create a new folder on your desktop, using ShellNewHandler will allow you to clean up the Context Menu for faster access. If all you want is the new folder option, with a quick Registry hack, you can get rid of that too.
Download ShellNewHandler –Vista and Windows 7