A huge cookie to anyone who can answer this question.

[thetxstang]

I've been pulling my hair out over this matter and Google has not been my friend. Anyone know the answer to my dilemma? A juicy cookie awaits you if you do!

I'm using Windows XP Home. If I right-click on the bare desktop to bring up the Contextual Menu, I see a "New" option. Highlighting this brings up a sub-menu that has such familiar items as Folder, Shortcut, Bitmap Image, Briefcase, Text Document, WinRAR Archive, etc.

My question is, where do these items actually exist within Windows XP environment? In other words, where would I navigate to within the OS if I wanted to sort the items within this list, or to remove or add an item there?

 

[tk11]

The items are littered throughout the registry under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

eg. the item to create new text documents is here:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\ShellNew

I'm not sure how windows determins the order of the items.

You can add and remove items from the menu with a utility from microsoft called tweakUI. Download and install it then open it up and look under the templates section.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/...-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe

hopfuly this was the info you were seeking.

 

[Captante]

This can be done via TweakUI, one of Microsoft's free PowerToysXP that you can download from microsoft.

Once you install it, go to where it says Document Templates There, you can create or delete existing templates for new items for your desktop.

Edit: Damnit ... beat me to it!

 

[thetxstang]

tk11 and Captante, thanks so much for the help! Much appreciated.

You both have definitely solved one part of my issue. The second part -- and what my primary issue involves -- is how to alphabetically sort all those items. I've tried removing and then adding them again, but the items within the list are still very out of sorts when viewing them through the contextual menu.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[tk11]

I've deleted most of mine so it's hard to tell. It appears that they are sorted alphabetically but by the extension of the file they create not by name.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: thetxstang
tk11 and Captante, thanks so much for the help! Much appreciated.

You both have definitely solved one part of my issue. The second part -- and what my primary issue involves -- is how to alphabetically sort all those items. I've tried removing and then adding them again, but the items within the list are still very out of sorts when viewing them through the contextual menu.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

I suspect that this will require manually editing the registry which as I'm sure you know shouldn't be undertaken lightly ... be sure to backup the registry before you begin!

This website has instructions to customize the "new" menu manually, I'm too lazy to read through it but hopefully it'll at least point you in the right direction.