I know the unhandy shortcut combo in Explorer to create a new text file: ALT+F+W+T

But what if I'm on the desktop, there is no explorer. How can I directly create a text file on the desktop?

As I said: Windows 7. Maybe Windows 8 has finally implemented a better shortcut?


Ah I forgot the menu key to the right side of the space bar... you can hit Menu key + W +T.

But would be cool, if there are other ideas.


It is possible to create a batch file that does this for you.

The batchfile would contain the following:

echo. >> "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\New text file.txt"

When you doubleclick the file, it will create a new textfile. If you click it again while one already exists by that name, it will do nothing.

If you then create a shortcut to this batch file, you can assign a shortcut key to it.

Optionally, you can do the following:

set /p newfile=Please enter the name of the new textfile:
echo. >> "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\%newfile%.txt"

This will ask for the name of the file before creating it.

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