'Microsoft Access Database' persists in 'Create New' Explorer menu after deleting .accdb ShellNew registry key

Question

After deleting ShellNew, the menu option throws me into Access and shows the 'create new file' window.

I want to remove the entry "Microsoft access database" from the 'create new' menu in Windows Explorer. The problem is that after deleting the entry, instead of creating a .accdb file, the option opens Access and the windows to create a new database. I want to completely remove the option from the context menu.

I want to unclutter my "Create New" context menu. I am removing entries by accessing HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT in the Windows Registry, finding the corresponding filename extension and removing the key "ShellNew".

• music2myear: What do you mean by "the menu option throws me into Access"? Your title sounds like you may want to remove a context menu entry: why context menu, where? But the body sounds like you want it to do something different. Please use a few more words and clarify what you're actually asking.
• Lupilum: @music2myear I want to remove the entry "Microsoft access database" from the 'create new' menu in Windows Explorer. The problem is that after deleting the entry, instead of creating a .accdb file, the option opens Access and the windows to create a new database. I want to completely remove the option from the context menu.
• music2myear: Please use the EDIT button below your question to correct your question so that this is more clear.
• music2myear: Also, what method did you use to remove this entry, and is there a particular reason you wish to remove this?
• Lupilum: I want to unclutter my "Create New" context menu. I am removing entries by accessing HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT in the Windows Registry, finding the corresponding filename extension and removing the key "ShellNew".

Answer 1

You will have to actually delete two registry files because both *.accdb and *.mdb are Microsoft Access Database file formats.

You can delete the two registry keys with the following commands in elevated command prompt window:

reg delete "HKCR\.accdb\Access.Application.16\ShellNew" /f
reg delete "HKCR\.mdb\ShellNew" /f

Probably also a good idea to restart explorer.exe which you can do with:

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe & start explorer.exe

Answer 2

I was trying to figure this out all morning, digging through Regedit for hours trying to locate the value for Access Database. Unfornetially, there were 2 instances of it in my "Create New" context menu as well and this post finally helped me locate the last of the Microsoft Office Context Menu Vermine! For those who may still need help in the future, here is the location of all the Microsoft Office "Create New" Context Menu Shortcuts in the Registry:

Access:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.accdb\Access.Application.16\ShellNew]
Word:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.docx\Word.Document.12\ShellNew]
PowerPoint:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pptx\PowerPoint.Show.12\ShellNew]
Publisher:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pub\Publisher.Document.16\ShellNew]
Excel:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx\Excel.Sheet.12\ShellNew]
Lastly, The Second Instance of Access:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mdb\ShellNew]

If you delete all the ShellNew folders your Create New context menu should be looking fresh in no time.

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Answer 3

I'm guessing there's more than one Access-related ShellNew entry.

You should search the HKCR for all instances of the key ShellNew and see if any are in other Access-related file-types.

Just as a test now I deleted the following key in my registry:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.accdb\Access.Application.16\ShellNew

And the entire entry disappeared immediately from my right-click-New context menu.

• Lupilum: I already removed that one, no effect. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Access.* have "shell" and "New" -keys, but there are no ShellNew keys.

Answer 4

I got this issue recently, there are 2 "Microsoft Access Database" in my CreateNew menu. And i found a good freeware to solve that problem.

You can download ShellMenuNew at nirsoft.net:

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shell_menu_new.html

Just unzip and run it. After running this small tool, you can see every single file type in the CreateNew menu, just choose everything about MS Access and disable that (by pressing the red button in the toolbar).

If you don't want to download anything, for this certain situation, you can delete this registry key (backup first):

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mdb\ShellNew

This is the ShellNew entry of ".mdb" type, same as the ".accdb" one, is used by MS Access.

• Lupilum: I have deleted the key. Nothing changed. That is why I asked this question.
• deluxghost: @Lupilum In your question, you said you just deleted the ".accdb" entry, not the ".mdb" one
• Lupilum: Now I have deleted the .mdb key and rebooted multiple times, but nothing changed. But after this failed, the checked again what the menu item does, and now it actually creates a database in the folder instead of opening Access. And now I found ShellNew in the .accdb key. After deleting that, the menu item has disappeared. These changes may have to do with using CCleaner which checks the registry.
• Sly_cardinal: "New Access Database" was still in my context menu after deleting the entry under .accdb. Deleting HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mdb\ShellNew as well removed it from my right-click menu.