Windows 7 Explorer will no longer let me create regular folders...

[cohenfive]

I am using Win 7 home premium and have a problem...When I am in explorer and want to create a new folder, the only option I now have (which I have never seen until now) is to create a compressed 'zipped' folder. The option to create a regular folder (not compressed) has disappeared. I do not want to create zipped folders, only regular uncompressed folders. How can I get this feature back? Thanks, this is mysterious.

 

[Bubbaleone]

From an account with administrative privileges, copy and paste the following into Notepad:

==============================================================

[Version]

Signature=$Windows NT$

[DefaultInstall]

AddReg     =REGEntries.AddReg

[REGEntries.AddReg]

HKCR,"%String0%",,0x0,"CLSID_ExecuteFolder"

HKCR,"%String0%\InProcServer32",,0x0,"ExplorerFrame.dll"

HKCR,"%String0%\InProcServer32","ThreadingModel",0x0,"Apartment"


[Strings]

String0 = "CLSID\{11dbb47c-a525-400b-9e80-a54615a090c0}"

=============================================================

Save the file to your desktop as NewFolderFix.inf. Be sure you select All Files (not Text Documents) in the Save as type drop-down menu. Right-click on the NewFolderFix.inf file, and then select Install.

.

 

[cohenfive]

OK, you got me...not sure I am capable of the above.

One question is how could this happen? I surely didn't make the change.

 

[Bubbaleone]

OK, you got me...not sure I am capable of the above.

One question is how could this happen? I surely didn't make the change.

I'm pretty sure you're capable of highlighting the text in the above code box, then press Ctrl + C to copy it to the clipboard, then open Notepad and press Ctrl + V to copy it into Notepad, and then save it to your desktop as NewFolderFix.inf (not NewFolderFix.txt). Now, right-click on the NewFolderFix.inf file and select install. This will repair the Windows Explorer context menu.

As to your last question and without getting technical; you may have recently installed some application that utilizes an Explorer context menu, and it wrote bad data to the registry which in turn broke Explorer's context menu, thus the reason you can't create a new folder.

.

 

[cohenfive]

Thanks, I'll give it a go. The pc was just in the shop for a psu replacement, wonder if that had something to do with it. Your explanation helps, I certainly can do what you are suggesting, for some reason thought it was more complicated. Very odd thing to have happened....

 

[FalseChristian]

Well? Did it work? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[cohenfive]

Unfortunately, it did nothing. There continues to be no option to create a regular folder, only a compressed folder. The 'new folder' button also does nothing now. I asked this question on Tom's hardware forum and they suggested ctrl+shift+n as a solution. That also did nothing.

I am stumped, and this is a real pita. I can always create a compressed folder and then uncompress it, but I need to find a way to get this working again.

Thanks, I am all ears still....

 

[Bubbaleone]

Unfortunately, it did nothing. There continues to be no option to create a regular folder, only a compressed folder. The 'new folder' button also does nothing now. I asked this question on Tom's hardware forum and they suggested ctrl+shift+n as a solution. That also did nothing.

I am stumped, and this is a real pita. I can always create a compressed folder and then uncompress it, but I need to find a way to get this working again.

Thanks, I am all ears still....

Sorry that wouldn't work for you, which means there are other problems with your Windows installation. I'm assuming you've already run a thorough malware/virus scan and come up clean, so don't waste any more time trying to pin down the cause unless you just happen to enjoy the technical challenge of solving a mystery problem. And that's OK, but I'd suggest that at this point you simply perform an in-place upgrade installation and be done with it in less than an hour.

An in-place upgrade installation will completely reinstall Windows while at the same time keep all of your installed programs, custom settings, and all of your personal data (pics, videos, music, docs, etc,) completely intact and ready to use when the procedure is finished. This procedure will delete any currently installed Windows Updates during the reinstallation of the operating system, so you'll need to run Windows Update after it's completed and you've booted back to the desktop. It will also create two new temporary folders (~1.5GB) on your C:\ drive which can be safely deleted afterward, in order to regain disk space. All that you need is your Windows 7 installation disk and to follow the simple instructions in the link below:

Win7′s no-reformat, nondestructive reinstall

.

 

[mikeymikec]

Can you create a new folder via the command prompt?

I wonder whether it might be permissions related, even though when I go into a folder that I don't think I have write privs to by default, it still works via UAC. Perhaps it won't provide the option if the permissions are seriously broken.

Perhaps Bubbaleone's suggestion requires a restart?

I was going to trawl through the Process Monitor output to find where the 'New Folder' registry data is, but it looks like Windows trawls through loads of HKCR (amongst other things) when one right-clicks in Explorer.

 

[cohenfive]

How do I create a new folder from the command prompt? I have a different registry 'fix' from ms that the pc company has given me, I am going to try that first. Thx.

 

[sm625]

You can also copy a folder and then rename it and empty it. It will be just like a new folder. Once you have that you can copy and paste it wherever you want. Now if that doesnt work then you've got a very serious problem. As far as reinstalling windows to fix somethine like this? It is very irritating and tbh if I did that every time I encountered a stupid little bug like this I would be spending all my time installing windows.

 

[cohenfive]

Well I got on the phone with tech support at the pc company that built my machine. We went through a specific registry import that ms recommended, and after we did it a few times it worked. So a bit of time wasted, but not too much, and now I'm back to business...without having to reinstall the entire operating system. Thanks for the help gang, and if anyone ever needs the fix for this from ms, I'd be happy to copy/paste it or send you all a link. If you think that would be helpful here, lmk and I'll post it.

 

[Ketchup]

Well I got on the phone with tech support at the pc company that built my machine. We went through a specific registry import that ms recommended, and after we did it a few times it worked. So a bit of time wasted, but not too much, and now I'm back to business...without having to reinstall the entire operating system. Thanks for the help gang, and if anyone ever needs the fix for this from ms, I'd be happy to copy/paste it or send you all a link. If you think that would be helpful here, lmk and I'll post it.

As a community we are here to both give and receive helpful information. So if you have the fix, please share it with us. You will not only help current members, but folks in the future that run into this issue.

BTW, you don't run registry cleaner(s) do you? I would love to know how you ran into this problem in the first place. I want to say I have seen an issue like this before (trying to remember), but it involved a virus.

 

[cohenfive]

Happy to post the registry script, I just wanted to make sure people wanted it here. It came from the ms developer site and the link was sent to me by the tech support guy at the pc company that built the box. I run ccleaner, not registry cleaner. My pc was in the shop to fix a psu problem, and maybe in running all the diagnostics the registry was changed. We don't know how it happened, only that it did. When importing this into my registry, we ran it a couple of times and was getting an error message, but it fixed the problem regardless.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{11dbb47c-a525-400b-9e80-a54615a090c0}]

@="CLSID_ExecuteFolder"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{11dbb47c-a525-400b-9e80-a54615a090c0}\InProcServer32]

@="ExplorerFrame.dll"

"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New]

@="{D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719}"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder]

@="Folder"

"EditFlags"=hex:d2,03,00,00

"FullDetails"="prop:System.PropGroup.Description;System.ItemNameDisplay;System.ItemType;System.Size"

"ThumbnailCutoff"=dword:00000000

"TileInfo"="prop:System.Title;System.PropGroup.Description;System.ItemType"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\DefaultIcon]

@=hex(2):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,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,\

65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,33,00,00,00



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell]



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\explore]

"MultiSelectModel"="Document"

"BrowserFlags"=dword:00000022

"ExplorerFlags"=dword:00000021



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\explore\command]

@=hex(2):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,00,45,00,78,00,70,00,6c,00,6f,00,72,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,\

65,00,20,00,2f,00,73,00,65,00,70,00,61,00,72,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,2c,00,2f,\

00,65,00,2c,00,2f,00,69,00,64,00,6c,00,69,00,73,00,74,00,2c,00,25,00,49,00,\

2c,00,25,00,4c,00,00,00

"DelegateExecute"="{11dbb47c-a525-400b-9e80-a54615a090c0}"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open]

"MultiSelectModel"="Document"

"BrowserFlags"=dword:00000010

"ExplorerFlags"=dword:00000012



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open\command]

@=hex(2):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,00,45,00,78,00,70,00,6c,00,6f,00,72,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,\

65,00,20,00,2f,00,73,00,65,00,70,00,61,00,72,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,2c,00,2f,\

00,69,00,64,00,6c,00,69,00,73,00,74,00,2c,00,25,00,49,00,2c,00,25,00,4c,00,\

00,00

"DelegateExecute"="{11dbb47c-a525-400b-9e80-a54615a090c0}"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex]



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ColumnHandlers]



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ColumnHandlers\{F9DB5320-233E-11D1-9F84-707F02C10627}]

@="PDF Column Info"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\BriefcaseMenu]

@="{85BBD920-42A0-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Offline Files]

@="{474C98EE-CF3D-41f5-80E3-4AAB0AB04301}"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8}]



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\DragDropHandlers]



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\DragDropHandlers\{BD472F60-27FA-11cf-B8B4-444553540000}]

@=""



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers]



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\BriefcasePage]

@="{85BBD920-42A0-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\Offline Files]

@="{7EFA68C6-086B-43e1-A2D2-55A113531240}"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\ShellNew]

"Directory"=""

"IconPath"=hex(2):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,00,73,\

00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,33,00,\

00,00

"ItemName"="@shell32.dll,-30396"

"MenuText"="@shell32.dll,-30317"

"NonLFNFileSpec"="@shell32.dll,-30319"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\ShellNew\Config]

"AllDrives"=""

"IsFolder"=""

"NoExtension"=""

 

[Steltek]

Are you running ccleaner on your registry? If so, this kind of thing can happen with any application that purports to clean the registry (including ccleaner).

 

[MoparFox]

Can you please send me link on how to fix this. Same problems wont let me create new folder, just a zipped folder. Making me crazy

 

[alwaysaplanB]

Here's a new angle.... I have a folder called "Technical" where for years I have saved useful things like Notepad files with fixes.
Today I found I could not create a new folder just within this folder using right-click or dragging and dropping a new folder created elsewhere.
When I renamed it "Technical stuff", the New folder option returned to the right-click menu and I could create one.
I ran the newfolderfix.inf as described above before I tried changing the name and nothing seemed to happen.
Having changed the name then changed it back it is now working as before.
Strange n'est ce pas?