New+ Feature - Option to hide the built-in New context menu (37545 and 37946) #39843

cgaarden · 2025-06-01T17:19:31Z

Summary of the Pull Request

New+ Add the option to hide the built-in New context menu via settings

Note: This setting requires PowerToys to be run as Administrator as it relies on updating the registry

PR Checklist

Closes: [New+] Replace default New entry #37545 and Replace "New" with New+ option #37946
Communication: I've discussed this with core contributors already. If work hasn't been agreed, this work might be rejected
Tests: Added/updated and all pass
Localization: All end user facing strings can be localized
[n/a] Dev docs: Added/updated
[n/a] New binaries: Added on the required places
- [n/a] JSON for signing for new binaries
- [n/a] WXS for installer for new binaries and localization folder
- [n/a] YML for CI pipeline for new test projects
- [n/a] YML for signed pipeline
Documentation updated: If checked, please file a pull request on [our docs repo] -- Doc PR coming (https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-uwp/tree/docs/hub/powertoys) and link it here: #xxx

Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments

Includes updates to PowerToys settings to update the registry to enable/disable the built-in New context menu
Updated installer to reenable New context menu on uninstall

Validation Steps Performed

Windows 11 x64 and Windows 11 ARM64

Settings UI
Non elevated mode
Elevated mode
New+ enabled
New+ disabled

Windows 10 x64
NOT tested. Do not have a Windows 10 key with me

Windows 11 x64, Non-elevated, New+ Disabled

Windows 11 x64, Non-elevated, New+ Enabled

Windows 11 x64, Elevated, New+ Enabled

Tested on Windows 11 x64

…ption-to-disable-existing-new

Copilot

Pull Request Overview

This PR implements the option to hide the built-in New context menu by adding registry update logic in the settings UI and ensuring the original context menu is restored on uninstall.

Updates the NewPlusViewModel with new registry read/write functions and properties to manage the built-in New context menu status.
Adds a new toggle and elevation warning InfoBar in the settings UI (NewPlusPage.xaml).
Extends the installer with a custom action to restore the built-in New context menu upon uninstallation.

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/ViewModels/NewPlusViewModel.cs	New registry logic, properties, and methods to enable/disable the built-in New menu
src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/Strings/en-us/Resources.resw	Added localized strings for the new toggle and elevation warning
src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/SettingsXAML/Views/NewPlusPage.xaml	New toggle and InfoBar controls for managing the built-in New context menu
installer/PowerToysSetupCustomActions/CustomAction.def	Added an export entry for the custom action
installer/PowerToysSetupCustomActions/CustomAction.cpp	Implementation of the custom action to restore the built-in New context menu
installer/PowerToysSetup/Product.wxs	Integrated the custom action into the installer sequence

src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/ViewModels/NewPlusViewModel.cs

Co-authored-by: Copilot <[email protected]>

cgaarden · 2025-06-11T11:28:08Z

Updated property notification per feedback

…e-existing-new

…ption-to-disable-existing-new

…e-existing-new

cgaarden · 2025-08-16T16:19:26Z

Hi @shuaiyuanxx and @moooyo

Wanted to check-in and see if you had any ideas or feedback?

Kind regards,
Christian

moooyo · 2025-08-19T07:05:05Z

I have no idea on this toy...I didn't touch this part before, any suggestion? @shuaiyuanxx

lei9444 · 2025-08-20T07:52:07Z

I will trigger a official build for per-user installer and test it, I afraid if the per-user installer could restore as expect as the per-user will not have UAC popup

lei9444 · 2025-08-21T07:02:02Z

Tested the per-user installer but it couldn’t restore the built-in New context menu:

The machine-level installer works fine since it uses UAC to elevate permissions.

lei9444 · 2025-08-21T07:59:28Z

installer/PowerToysSetupCustomActions/CustomAction.cpp

+        auto regDeleter = [](HKEY* regKeyHandle) { if (regKeyHandle && *regKeyHandle) RegCloseKey(*regKeyHandle); delete regKeyHandle; };
+        std::unique_ptr<HKEY, decltype(regDeleter)> regKeyHandle(new HKEY(nullptr), regDeleter);
+
+        const LONG openStatus = RegOpenKeyExW(HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, builtInNewRegistryPath.c_str(), 0, KEY_READ | KEY_WRITE, regKeyHandle.get());


could we separate the machine-level and per-user installers? I confirmed that the built-in New context menu is only in HKLM, but HKCU can override it. So the machine-level installer only needs to write to HKLM, and the per-user installer only needs to write to HKCU — both will work and can stay clean when uninstalled.

Do you have code example how to know it is per-machine vs per-user installation here to make the right decision?

we could check the msi InstallScope, in installer, we could do like this
hr = WcaGetProperty(L"InstallScope", &currentScope);
if (std::wstring{currentScope} == L"perUser")

lei9444 · 2025-08-21T07:59:43Z

src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/ViewModels/NewPlusViewModel.cs

        private NewPlusSettings Settings { get; set; }

        private const string ModuleName = NewPlusSettings.ModuleName;
+        private const string BuiltInNewRegistryPath = @"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New";


Do you have code example how to know it is per-machine vs per-user installation here to make the right decision?

setting-ui, we can use GetCurrentInstallScope()

Hi @lei9444 and thanks for the feedback

I'm happy to make these changes but I don't see any "New" registry key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Question:
Do any of you see a key there (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New)?

Alternative implementation:
Based on GetCurrentInstallScope() I could check

If PerMachine
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New AND
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New

If PerUser
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New

But not sure if this is an actual scenario? Any hints on how to reproduce so that I can verify?

Kind regards,
Christian

…ption-to-disable-existing-new

yeelam-gordon · 2025-09-05T01:05:58Z

Questions and Suggestions

Registry Effectiveness
When we remove/restore the registry, does it take effect in real time, or does it require restarting explorer.exe?
If it is not real-time effective (especially on restore), then we should not enable this feature yet.
Settings Integration
We should introduce this option into the settings (JSON).
Without this, DSC and backup/restore for the setting will not work.
dllMain for Peek also doesn’t know how to handle it if GPO disables New+ — in that case, the setting should also be restored.
Documentation Update
We should update the Peek developer readme
to mention disaster recovery steps. The guidance is on how to restore the setting in case PowerToys cannot start or is gone for unknown reason.

…ption-to-disable-existing-new

niels9001 · 2025-12-05T11:03:04Z

@

Questions and Suggestions

Registry Effectiveness
When we remove/restore the registry, does it take effect in real time, or does it require restarting explorer.exe?
If it is not real-time effective (especially on restore), then we should not enable this feature yet.

Settings Integration
We should introduce this option into the settings (JSON).
Without this, DSC and backup/restore for the setting will not work.
dllMain for Peek also doesn’t know how to handle it if GPO disables New+ — in that case, the setting should also be restored.

Documentation Update
We should update the Peek developer readme
to mention disaster recovery steps. The guidance is on how to restore the setting in case PowerToys cannot start or is gone for unknown reason.

@cgaarden Any thoughts on this?

cgaarden · 2025-12-05T17:08:48Z

Hi,

Thanks for the ping.

Re

Yes the change (on/off) is immediate and requires the PowerToys Settings app to run in admin mode.
I can store the setting the settings file but I'm not sure how I would leverage it. noob questinon: do we have a way of running something in elevated mode other than the installer and the settings app? This was the same reason I didn't add the GPO support for this specific setting. I could perhaps create another custom process that runs at elevated level and monitors for setting changes and apply to the registry.
Good callout, I can look into that too, perhaps once we figure out 1 and 2.

All the best,

cgaarden added 4 commits May 30, 2025 18:13

Initial version

d29e01f

Tested on Windows 11 x64

Minor

3e6eba3

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into New+feature-37545-o…

8b6ce32

…ption-to-disable-existing-new

More changes

79c0946

yeelam-gordon added the Product-New+ Refers to the New+ PowerToys Utility label Jun 10, 2025

yeelam-gordon requested a review from Copilot June 10, 2025 04:46

Copilot AI reviewed Jun 10, 2025

View reviewed changes

src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/ViewModels/NewPlusViewModel.cs Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

Update src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/ViewModels/NewPlusViewModel.cs

1a3d19b

Co-authored-by: Copilot <[email protected]>

This comment has been minimized.

Sign in to view

Merge branch 'microsoft:main' into New+feature-37545-option-to-disabl…

e2a376f

…e-existing-new

yeelam-gordon requested review from moooyo and shuaiyuanxx June 26, 2025 12:32

cgaarden added 2 commits August 15, 2025 07:02

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into New+feature-37545-o…

4a129bb

…ption-to-disable-existing-new

Merge branch 'microsoft:main' into New+feature-37545-option-to-disabl…

13e0d10

…e-existing-new

yeelam-gordon requested a review from lei9444 August 21, 2025 05:56

yeelam-gordon assigned lei9444 Aug 21, 2025

lei9444 reviewed Aug 21, 2025

View reviewed changes

yeelam-gordon added this to the PowerToys 0.95 milestone Aug 22, 2025

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into New+feature-37545-o…

ceb88ff

…ption-to-disable-existing-new

yeelam-gordon added the Needs-input For PRs and Issues: Requesting design or technical input. label Sep 5, 2025

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into New+feature-37545-o…

a3cca9c

…ption-to-disable-existing-new

New+ Feature - Option to hide the built-in New context menu (37545 and 37946) #39843

Are you sure you want to change the base?

New+ Feature - Option to hide the built-in New context menu (37545 and 37946) #39843

Conversation

cgaarden commented Jun 1, 2025

Summary of the Pull Request

PR Checklist

Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments

Validation Steps Performed

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull Request Overview

Reviewed Changes

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

cgaarden commented Jun 11, 2025

Uh oh!

This comment has been minimized.

cgaarden commented Aug 16, 2025

Uh oh!

moooyo commented Aug 19, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

lei9444 commented Aug 20, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

lei9444 commented Aug 21, 2025

Uh oh!

lei9444 Aug 21, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

yeelam-gordon Aug 22, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

lei9444 Aug 22, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

lei9444 Aug 21, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

yeelam-gordon Aug 22, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

lei9444 Aug 22, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

cgaarden Sep 3, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

yeelam-gordon commented Sep 5, 2025

Questions and Suggestions

Uh oh!

niels9001 commented Dec 5, 2025

Questions and Suggestions

Uh oh!

cgaarden commented Dec 5, 2025

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

5 participants

moooyo commented Aug 19, 2025 •

edited

Loading

lei9444 commented Aug 20, 2025 •

edited

Loading

yeelam-gordon Aug 22, 2025 •

edited

Loading

cgaarden Sep 3, 2025 •

edited

Loading