Right click menu in Explorer (& desktop) missing new "Microsoft Office Word document".

Anonymous
2010-10-28T14:16:09+00:00

I am running MS Office Home & Student 2007 with Vista Business (32 bit).  When using my right click menu in Explorer or on the desktop, it allows me to open most all MS Office apps (Excel, PPoint, Notepad, Contact) but not the most commonly required: Word.

Is there a fix for this problem?  What can I do to rectify it?

Thanks

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2011-02-06T07:28:35+00:00

After many hours of research, installs, uninstalls, reinstalls, repairs, reregistering word etc. etc. I was able to add the Word 97 and 2003 right click menu option by just adding a NullFile string to the “Word.Document.8” key under the .doc key in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.doc but it would not do anything under the .docx key.

I wanted the 2010 docx of office 2010 functionality.

I have found out what I had to do to get back the Right-click New Microsoft Word Document function of Office 2010 in Windows Explorer and on the Desktop.

I found that four keys were missing in the registry in comparison with my other computer’s installation of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010.

Remember to back up the .docx key by exporting it to a safe folder so that you could have it if necessary.

I opened the registry to – HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.docx

Steps creating keys are done on the left window pane in the registry.

1)     Below the .docx key I create the first key that was missing by right clicking on the “.docx” key then go down to New, then left click on Key and name it “OpenWithList” without the quotes.

Inside of that key is the automatically created String Value (default)  REG_SZ   (value not set)

2)     Inside of the “OpenWithList” create the second key. Right click on the “OpenWithList” key then go down to New, then left click on Key and name this new key “WordPad.exe” without the quotes.

Inside of that key is the automatically created String Value (default)  REG_SZ   (value not set)

3)     Right click on the “.docx” key then go down to New, then left click on Key to create the third key and name it “Word.Document.12” without the quotes.

Inside of that key is the automatically created String Value (default)  REG_SZ   (value not set)

4)     Right click on the “Word.Document.12” key then go down to New, then left click on Key to create the fourth key and name it “ShellNew” without the quotes.

Inside of that key is the automatically created String Value (default)  REG_SZ   (value not set)

The next thing to do is to create a string value newly created “ShellNew” key but this is done in the window on the right side.

5)     Left click on ShellNew in the left window to select the key. Now in the window on the right side; Right click in the empty space go to New then select String Value. Name the new string “NullFile” without the quotes, Type is REG_SZ Leave the data empty.

6)     Lastly, in the left window left click on key .docx, In the right side window make sure that the data of the (Default) string is Word.Document.12 – To change it, doubleclick on the string named (Default) , a window will open up and you change the data value to Word.Document.12 (My data value was “docx_auto_file”)

You are done. Close the registry.  Test the right click context menu now.

I hope that this will help some people.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-10-29T00:21:29+00:00

    I am running MS Office Home & Student 2007 with Vista Business (32 bit).  When using my right click menu in Explorer or on the desktop, it allows me to open most all MS Office apps (Excel, PPoint, Notepad, Contact) but not the most commonly required: Word.

    Is there a fix for this problem?  What can I do to rectify it?

    Thanks

    Is this tutorial relevant ?

    http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/microsoft-office/add-wordexcel-97-2003-documents-back-to-the-new-context-menu-after-installing-office-2007/

    For the benefits of others looking for answers, please mark the suggestion as Answered if it solves your problem.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-11-07T20:58:31+00:00

    Hi and thanks for the suggestion.  The article relates primarily to getting Word 97-03 back onto the right click menu after Office 2007 installation.  I followed the instructions and it worked for 97-03, so this is 66% of a resolution :o)

    Before I launch into the rest, please excuse me if the language I use is not very clear. I am not a SW developer and I really couldn’t tell a registry key from marshmallow!

    What I really wanted was to get Word 2007 onto the right click menu. I have looked at the registry entries for .docx in the same way as is in the tutorial you suggested, but found the entries were already the same (structure) as I had used to correct the Word 97-03 problem.

    I also compared the .docx registry entries with .xlsx and .pptx and found these latter two had keys which differed from that for .docx

    .xlxs   was in the form   “computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.xlsx\Excel.Sheet.12\ShellNew” with a key entry “FileName  REG_SZ      excel12.xlsx”

    .pptx was in the form “computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.pptx\PowerPoint.Show.12\ShellNew” with a key entry “FileName  REG_SZ      pwrpnt12.xlsx”

    However .docx was in the form

    “computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.docx\Word.Document.12\ShellNew” with a key entry “NullFile  REG_SZ           ”

    I tried changing the .docx registry entries to be in a similar form to .xlsx and .pptx (changed the key to “FileName  REG_SZ      winword12.docx”) but it didn’t help.

    Based on my research this seems to be a fairly common bug and I am surprised there is not a standard fix.

      Any further suggestions please?

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-11-07T21:33:23+00:00

    Please read the following tutoial carefully. It gives you a zip file for registry fix. Inside the zip-file there is a .Reg file for Add Word 2007 (.docx) entry to New menu.

    http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/add-word-97-2003-entry-to-the-new-menu-after-installing-word-2007/

    Reg Files

    Inside the Zip file, there are three other .REG files. Here is a description of each file.

    Filename Description
    doc-add-shellnew.reg Add Word 97 – 2003 entry to New menu
    doc-remove-shellnew.reg Remove Word 97 – 2003 entry from New menu
    docx-add-shellnew.reg Add Word 2007 (.docx) entry to New menu
    docx-remove-shellnew.reg Remove Word 2007 (.docx) entry from New menu

    For the benefits of others looking for answers, please mark the suggestion as Answered if it solves your problem.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-11-08T13:04:36+00:00

    Hi again,

    Tried the suggestion and although all went without problem, there still was no change :o(

    I have since downloaded and tried "Shellnewhandler" http://sourceforge.net/projects/shellnewhandler/

    Interestingly the config screen of this utility shows the Microsoft Word Document as configured and available but it does not appear on the right click menu.  I tried disabling and enabling various right click menu entries with the utility and they all come and go as expected... except new Word Document.

    I think there must be something going on that is separate from the Shellnew entries???

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