I had the same problem.
The Nvidia driver modify the registry, and the solution is to apply a .reg again.

REGEDIT4

;This Registry file corrects the problem described in MS KB Article Q180257
;"New Command Missing in Windows Explorer"
;Please read the article first, and back up the Registry before applying.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New]
@="{D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719}"

Just to make sure, do I copy all of the contents from REGEDIT4, to the last line with the @, and save that as a .reg file?

The whole thing, including the regedit4 line.

It's a header that tells regedit that this is a .reg file, and what version of the semantic is used to parse it.

1REGEDIT4
2
3;This Registry file corrects the problem described in MS KB Article Q180257
4;"New Command Missing in Windows Explorer"
5;Please read the article first, and back up the Registry before applying.
6
7[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New]
8@="{D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719}"

Sorry, I forgot the quote 😀

Well, I made a .reg file, pasted the contents, and merged it into the Registry, and restarted my computer. No difference, I am afraid to say.

EDIT:

I suspect the NVIDIA driver could be re-modifying the context menus and such on start up, as a part of NVIEW or whatever the heck it is, though I'm not 100% sure if that is the case, or if this is behavior than can be disabled if it is the case, as I've largely left the control panel thing alone.

Does it work before you reinstall the driver ?
Maybe clean the driver install with Driver Cleaner ?

nali wrote on 2026-03-19, 21:22:

Does it work before you reinstall the driver ?
Maybe clean the driver install with Driver Cleaner ?

Tried all of this. Uninstalling the driver, and then applying the reg file and rebooting. Nothing. Used Driver Cleaner, restarted, then applied the reg file, and restarted. Nothing. Hell, I even removed the iTouch software I marked as suspect, and still, the reg file doesn't work. Sorry for my irritated tone. Not mad at you or anyone, aside from the OS itself. I've legit had to re-install this dang OS close to 10 times this month, due to various issues, and it's honestly driving me insane.

Strange ...
It seems to be a quite common issue, I had it and this reg fixed the problem.
For sure it's annoying.
It took me a lot of reinstall too before I found the correct combination of drivers for my K6 😀 And not even sure yet it's reliable ...
Could it be just a stupid typo or file format ?
If you search "D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719" there's a lot of articles about this. Some will have a .reg ready to download.

nali wrote on 2026-03-19, 22:22:

Strange ... It seems to be a quite common issue, I had it and this reg fixed the problem. For sure it's annoying. It took me a l […]
Show full quote

Strange ...
It seems to be a quite common issue, I had it and this reg fixed the problem.
For sure it's annoying.
It took me a lot of reinstall too before I found the correct combination of drivers for my K6 😀 And not even sure yet it's reliable ...
Could it be just a stupid typo or file format ?
If you search "D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719" there's a lot of articles about this. Some will have a .reg ready to download.

I did some searching of that value, and soon came across this site: https://www.marvswindowstips.com/windows_explorer.htm

It's meant for XP, but has instructions for doing this manually. I decided to give it a shot, and, well, it worked! Meaning that registry key was just somehow not merging, despite windows saying it was... Not sure what the heck that's all about, but, it's back now! Time to reinstall those graphics drivers and the iTouch drivers. If the issue happens again, I know what I need to do. Thanks all for the help!

EDIT:

If anyone is coming here later, I can verify for 100% that this is some weird fault of the NVIDIA driver. I still had to do that thing where I installed it once, and then re-installed it (because, when you first install the drvier, changing the resolution and color is broken, and doesn't set right. On reboot, it is bugged, and applications like HxD will have errors that normally shouldn't happen. For some reason, uninstalling the driver and then re-installing it, will actually have the card be at the resolution and color depth you tried to set earlier, AND, there is no more random crashing with stuff like HxD, with that horrible runtime error that I can't recall, off the top of my head), and after doing that, and checking the registry, the New key, and it's Default value, were outright missing, and I had to recreate them manually. They are there upon reboot, so I assume the installer for some reason... removes it, probably by accident. Will need to keep an eye on it and see if it goes away again.

I had a similar problem on a Win98SE tower at my mother's house, and when I uninstalled the RAM drive, that part behaved better. I don't know what's causing your problem, though. Try DriverGuide.com and a different version of the driver. It was reliable to me a long time ago.

Good news !
Some drivers for those cards and other early GF are a pain ...
Especially on Win98.

I don't have a W98 with the NVIDIA driver ... possible work around: ?

- You can create a folder from within the MSDOS prompt.

- Create an empty folder at the root, then cut/paste it to make a new empty folder anywhere.

A pain from DOS ...

nali wrote on Yesterday, 00:59:

A pain from DOS ...

Yep... but do-able, and you only have to do it once. After that you can Copy/Paste it anywhere you want, anytime you want.

And you only have to Copy once/sessiom, then you can Paste as many times you want. Not as easy as rightclick->New->Folder, but for most it will be more desirable than Command: cd location ; md newdir ; exit

Don't get me wrong, you will definitely want to figure out how to properly fix the isssue, this is just a suggestion on a way to work around it.

In fact it's been fixed, read above.

glad its fixed but wow that Q180257 dates back to late 90's and applies to windows Millennium too.

Shadic95 wrote on 2026-03-19, 22:32:

I did some searching of that value, and soon came across this site: https://www.marvswindowstips.com/windows_explorer.htm […]
Show full quote

nali wrote on 2026-03-19, 22:22:

Strange ... It seems to be a quite common issue, I had it and this reg fixed the problem. For sure it's annoying. It took me a l […]
Show full quote

Strange ...
It seems to be a quite common issue, I had it and this reg fixed the problem.
For sure it's annoying.
It took me a lot of reinstall too before I found the correct combination of drivers for my K6 😀 And not even sure yet it's reliable ...
Could it be just a stupid typo or file format ?
If you search "D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719" there's a lot of articles about this. Some will have a .reg ready to download.

I did some searching of that value, and soon came across this site: https://www.marvswindowstips.com/windows_explorer.htm

It's meant for XP, but has instructions for doing this manually. I decided to give it a shot, and, well, it worked! Meaning that registry key was just somehow not merging, despite windows saying it was... Not sure what the heck that's all about, but, it's back now! Time to reinstall those graphics drivers and the iTouch drivers. If the issue happens again, I know what I need to do. Thanks all for the help!

EDIT:

If anyone is coming here later, I can verify for 100% that this is some weird fault of the NVIDIA driver. I still had to do that thing where I installed it once, and then re-installed it (because, when you first install the drvier, changing the resolution and color is broken, and doesn't set right. On reboot, it is bugged, and applications like HxD will have errors that normally shouldn't happen. For some reason, uninstalling the driver and then re-installing it, will actually have the card be at the resolution and color depth you tried to set earlier, AND, there is no more random crashing with stuff like HxD, with that horrible runtime error that I can't recall, off the top of my head), and after doing that, and checking the registry, the New key, and it's Default value, were outright missing, and I had to recreate them manually. They are there upon reboot, so I assume the installer for some reason... removes it, probably by accident. Will need to keep an eye on it and see if it goes away again.

Thanks for sharing the fix! Just for posterity, is this what you ended up using to fix the missing "New Folders" option under Windows 98? It seems to be the same one mentioned up thread so just wanted to check

New command missing in Windows Explorer

After you install Internet Explorer with the Windows Desktop Update component, the New command may be missing when you click the File menu in Windows Explorer you right-click the desktop Go to:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ Directory\Background\ shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\ New], and change the default value to {D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719}

Re: Windows merging .reg and reporting success despite no change - that's normal. The success message just means "I installed the registry keys/values" but no guarantees anything actually checks or uses those keys! Haha

DaveDDS wrote on Yesterday, 00:24:

I don't have a W98 with the NVIDIA driver ... possible work around: ?

- You can create a folder from within the MSDOS prompt.

- Create an empty folder at the root, then cut/paste it to make a new empty folder anywhere.

Nice, good points. Even when something is horribly broken in Windows, it's always useful to know another way to get it done while you search for a fix :D

nali wrote on Yesterday, 02:38:

In fact it's been fixed, read above.

Good to know ... I had just been "skimming" the thread and didn't pick up on the solution, especially since I though I saw other posts offering suggestions after it.

And... I find it almost always good to provide extra information in threads where the original issue has been overcome. I don't know how many times I've been searching for a solution to something and often come across threads about things that are close enough to be relevant. even it the final fix isn't.