After installing a software on my Windows computer, suddenly the ability to create new folders by right-clicking in a folder and selecting New → Folder disappeared in Windows. This was a very annoying trouble as I was not able to create new folders easily in Explorer, instead I was forced to open the command prompt and create folders using the mkdir command. But after sometime, I figured out the problem and fixed it. Here is how you can fix the missing create new folder feature in the context-menu of Windows Explorer:
- Press the key combination Win + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog. In the Run dialog, type regedit and press Enter. This would start the Windows Registry Editor.
- In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder
- Double-click on the Default value in the right-side panel and change its value to Folder.
- That’s it. You have restored the missing New → Folder context-menu in Windows Explorer. You may have to wait for sometime, or restart Windows for the changes to take effect.
You can also download the registry script missing_new_folder.zip, extract the contents of ZIP file and double-click on missing_new_folder.reg to automatically make the changes. You should note that the above instructions work only in case if a software has messed up the default value in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder registry key.
Mine already had Folder as default, but creates a Shortcut.