New+ Feature - Option to hide the built-in New context menu (37545 and 37946) by cgaarden · Pull Request #39843 · microsoft/PowerToys

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

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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 <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

cgaarden · 2025-06-11T11:28:08Z

Updated property notification per feedback

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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

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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.

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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 · 2025-12-28T08:21:54Z

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 question: 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,

Hi @niels9001 - what do you think? And happy to jump on a call to chat/explore options

niels9001 · 2026-01-28T15:59:45Z

Closing this PR in favor of: #44979

@niels9001

## Summary of the Pull Request - Add the ability for users and admins (GPO) to control whether to display built in New on the context menu. - Changes to the setting are immediately reflected in the experience. - Built-in New is restored on uninstall. ## PR Checklist Note: Supersedes #39843 - [x] **Closes**: [New+] Replace default New entry #37545 and Replace "New" with New+ option #37946 - [x] **Communication:** Discussed with @niels9001 - 1/22/2025 - [x] **Tests:** Completed manual test pass see highlight below - [x] **Localization:** All end-user-facing strings can be localized - [x] **Dev docs:** Updated "doc\devdocs\modules\newplus.md" - [n/a] **New binaries:** Added on the required places - [n/a] [JSON for signing](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ESRPSigning_core.json) for new binaries - [x] [WXS for installer] Updated installer (uninstall custom action) - [n/a] [YML for CI pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ci/templates/build-powertoys-steps.yml) for new test projects - [n/a] [YML for signed pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/release.yml) - [No] **Documentation updated:** Pending, coming soon. (original PR MicrosoftDocs/windows-dev-docs#5473) ## Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments Added the ability for users' admins' to display Windows built-in New or not I'm NOT aware of an official supported way to do this, so I'm achieving this by adding an invalid context menu handler in place of New in the Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Directory\background\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers\New Changes are immediate, after applying the change, built-in New is shown/hidden accordingly Updates to New+ Settings UI New setting introduced to track user' preference (saved to newplus/settings.json) GPO setting introduced for control New visibility via GPO (GPO wins over user preference) Updates to New+ power_module.cpp When runner is running new plus will also apply built-in New admin GPO and user preference (GPO wins over user preference) to ensure correct behavior on setting restore and GPO application. Updates to installer Uninstall always reenable built-in "New" context menu Updated DevDoc Added a note on how to manually restore built-in New ## Validation Steps Performed Windows 11 x64 Settings UI New+ enabled New+ disabled GPO setting enabled GPO settings disabled Manually updating newplus/settings.json Windows 11 ARM64 I tested the reg hack manually, but didn't go through a full pass. Windows 10 x64 NOT tested. Windows 11, Settings, New+ Disabled and no GPO <img width="1040" height="1002" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1b827b10-f009-4b0b-954f-d9311d40d201" /> Windows 11, Settings, New+ Enabled and no GPO <img width="1015" height="781" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a5fa09d3-7fd3-4830-99a4-5f2ac9ce1a38" /> Hide built-in New: Off (the default) <img width="321" height="417" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/355fea60-bbb8-4f11-b648-291aaf0c4a6d" /> Hide built-in New: On <img width="1015" height="87" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e83e45c4-6b67-443b-b045-26e7dda2cf46" /> Modern <img width="308" height="360" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b164b240-6e67-410c-8481-7db3ee3225b7" /> Classic <img width="308" height="289" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e2b6c262-a311-454c-9c76-40cb11ff2970" /> Disabling New+ also unhide New <img width="1031" height="569" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/29b8dae7-8190-4e64-b106-c6861e472a3d" /> <img width="308" height="353" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e1977d6b-dc85-4db4-b9ab-c7bb2b27dde2" /> Windows 11, Settings, New+ Enabled and with GPO Hide built-in New: GPO enabled <img width="1020" height="691" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/75053ab8-92c6-4d38-b1b8-9b0d8293c207" /> Hide built-in New: GPO disabled <img width="1050" height="161" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1a50b841-ff01-4662-a923-aee63717c834" />

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…

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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

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

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Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

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

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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…

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

yeelam-gordon assigned lei9444 Aug 21, 2025

lei9444 reviewed Aug 21, 2025

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

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

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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…

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cgaarden mentioned this pull request Jan 22, 2026

[New+] Hide existing new - remake #44979

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niels9001 closed this Jan 28, 2026

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cgaarden commented Jun 1, 2025

Summary of the Pull Request

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