Shortly after associating Notepad++ with .txt files, I noticed that the Text Document option had disappeared from the Windows Explorer menu. Using regedit, I took a look in the Windows registry:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt

The first thing I noticed was that the registry key was actually .TXT instead of .txt. Not only that, but the contents of the registry were not at all what they were supposed to be:

  • Default was set to Notepad++_file
  • Notepad++_backup was set to textfile
  • ShellNew was set to Nullfile

This key obviously belongs to Notepad++ or one of it's plugins. However it is completely unnecessary to associate Notepad++ with the creation of text files in Windows Explorer's New context menu. Fortunately there is a very easy and quick fix.

IMPORTANT: Always have recent a backup before making any changes to the Windows registry. A mistake can result in Windows failing to work correctly or even starting up again.

In my case, right-clicking on the .TXT key, renaming it to .TXT2 and pressing F5 immediately revealed the original .txt key.

If it doesn't for you, you can re-create it by copying and pasting the following as text file into Notepad or Notepad++ and saving it as fix-new-text-document.reg. Last, double click on the file to import it into the registry. Windows will likely ask you to confirm that you really want to do it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt]
"PerceivedType"="text"
@="txtfile"
"Content Type"="text/plain"

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