How to Create New Files on Windows

There are many ways to create files on a personal computer running the Windows operating system. How to do it will vary depending on the file you want to create, but usually you just need to open an application in the Start menu and use the tool to create the desired file type. You can also create empty files in File Explorer. This article will show you how to create files on Windows.

Table of Contents

Using File Explorer

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Open File Explorer

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. File Explorer has an icon that looks like a folder with a blue clip. You can see it in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen or in the Windows Start menu.

You can also open File Explorer by pressing ⊞ Win + E on your keyboard or right-clicking on the Start menu and choosing File Explorer .

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Go to a folder or the Desktop. In File Explorer, you can quickly access several folders in the menu on the left. Usually it includes several folders like Documents, Desktop, Music, Images, etc. You can click any folder to go to it. You can also double-click a folder in the main File Explorer window to open it.

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Go to the directory where you want to create the file. You can click folders on the left side of the screen. After opening a folder, you’ll see what’s in that folder on the right.

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Right click in the empty space to the right. Do not click on any files or folders located in the folder you just opened. A pop-up menu will be displayed.

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Hover the mouse pointer to New . A sub-menu will be displayed to the right of the pop-up menu.

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Select a program or file type. The submenu on the right will display a list of popular and frequently used programs and file types. Click the file type or document you want to create.

Example: If you want to create a text file, click Text Document .
Notepad can be used to create many types of text files. You can even use it to write programming code, HTML, and more.

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Type a name for the newly created file. When creating a new file, you will see a default name highlighted in black. Type a new filename to change the default name.

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Double-click the file to open it. This is the step to open the file with an application that edits that file type.

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Edit files. Use the tools available in the application to edit files. For text files, you just need to type on the keyboard. Other applications will have specialized tools to edit the corresponding file type.

For example, an image editing program will have tools for drawing, correcting colors, and selecting parts of an image.
Video editing program will have tools to import (import) video and audio, cut, merge video and audio.

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Click the File menu. After editing the file, you need to save it. The location of the save button may vary from app to app, but in most apps it’s usually located in the bar at the top.

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Click Save or Save As . Clicking “Save” will overwrite the changes to the existing file, and clicking Save As will create a completely new file with a different name and format (if desired).

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Select file type. If you click Save As and want to specify the file type, select the desired type from the “Save As Type” menu near the bottom of the window.

For example, MS Paint allows you to save image files as JPEG, PNG, BMP or GIF.
To edit the file type in Notepad, select All files as the file type and replace the .txt extension with the desired extension.
Example: If you want to save the file as HTML, replace .txt with .html .

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There are many other file types such as .bat for batch files, .css for CSS files, .py for Python files and .cpp for C++ files.

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Click Save . This is the step to save the file as the file type you have selected.

Use apps in the Start menu

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Click the Start button

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. If left as default, this button is located in the lower left corner of the Windows taskbar. When you click it, you will see the Windows Start menu.

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Click an application. Windows has many pre-installed programs. You can use Paint or Paint3D to create and edit image files, and use Video Editor to create and edit video files. You can use Notepad to create text files. You can also use installed applications such as Microsoft Word , Adobe Photoshop , or third-party media file editors. Select the application to create or edit the desired file type.

If you don’t see the app you want to open in the Start menu, type its name into the search bar in the lower-left corner of the screen to search.
You can download and install many free programs to use in place of paid programs. For example, Libre Office is a free program that can be used as an alternative to Microsoft Office, and GIMP is a free alternative to Photoshop. There are also many free video editing programs like Shotcut and Openshot.

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Create and edit files. Depending on the type of file you want to create, you may need to click the File menu and select New to create a new blank file. After creating the file, use the tools included in the application to create and edit the file.

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Click the File menu. The location of the menu may vary depending on the app, but you’ll usually see a menu bar with a File button at the top.

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Click Save As in the menu.

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Type a name for the file next to the word “Filename”. This is the step that causes the file to be formatted on the computer.

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Select the file type in the “Save As Type” menu. Many applications allow you to select the desired file type to save the file as. For example, in Photoshop, you can decide whether to save the image as a PSD (Photoshop), JPEG, PNG or GIF file.

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Click Save . This is the step to save the file with the filename and file type you selected.

Steps

Using File Explorer

Use apps in the Start menu

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