NotePad2 – Replacement for Windows NotePad
I installed Notepad2 today, which was the first of Scott Hanselman’s “The Big Ten Life and Work-Changing Utilities” from his list of Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for 2005
Notepad2 (Scite also uses the codebase) – A great text editor. First class CR/LF support, ANSI to Unicode switching, whitespace and line ending graphics and Mouse Wheel Zooming. A must. Here’s how to completely replace notepad.exe. Personally I renamed Notepad2.exe to “n.exe” which saves me a few dozen “otepad”s a day.
Features:
- small, fast and free
- Customizable syntax highlighting:
- HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, VBScript, ASP, PHP, CSS, Perl/CGI
- C/C++, C#, Java, VB, Pascal, Assembler, SQL, Python, NSIS
- INI, REG, INF, BAT, DIFF
- Drag & drop text editing inside and outside Notepad2
- Basic regular expression search and replace
- Useful word, line and block editing shortcuts
- Rectangular selection (Alt+Mouse)
- Brace matching, auto indent, long line marker, zoom functions
- Support for Unicode, UTF-8, Unix and Mac text files
- Open shell links
- Mostly adjustable
I ran the Notepad2.reg that was included which appears to have made notepad2 into the context menu. I also found a way to replace notepad with notepad2. I made a batch file with the following commands:
copy /-y notepad2.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\dllcache\notepad.exe
copy /-y notepad2.exe C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386\notepad.exe
copy /-y notepad2.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\notepad.exe
copy /-y notepad2.exe C:\WINDOWS\notepad.exe
Then I saved it as notepad2-notepad.bat and ran it. It prompts for overwrite for each file (just to be safe). If you don’t hit Yes fast enough it you might have to do it over since Windows tries to keep you from ‘accidentally’ replacing a system file.
Cool. That looks a lot like a program I use at work called Textpad. I’ll have to check it out.
Comment by Pat — June 25, 2005 @ 9:51 am
I use Notepad++ : http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/ which is small, fast as notepad, and it supports MDI and syntax folding.
Comment by Jhonny 5 — February 4, 2006 @ 6:35 pm
I use Notepad++ to replace Notepad : http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/
The reason I use Notepad++ (but not notepad2) is its MDI (Multi-Document Interface just like firefox).
To replace your notepad by notepad++, you have to :
Copy notepad.exe which comes with this package into 3 directories (in given order) :
i. c:\windows\system32\dllcache ii. c:\windows\system32 iii. c:\windows
When you replace notepad.exe in c:\windows\system32 and c:\windows, a “Windows File Protection” message box appears, click Cancel. Then another message box appears, click OK.
Now Notepad++ is your default Notepad.
Comment by Bertrand HAMON — March 4, 2006 @ 2:33 pm
when i try to replace the nopetad++ from windows and system32, i get that message. I press cancel, then at the second one ok. I’ve got this error
Can u help me ?
Comment by problem replace — September 14, 2007 @ 10:48 pm
you should replace the notepad++ from launcher download 17.5 MB not. this will solve the problem .
Thanks
Comment by Hamdy Mohamed — February 13, 2008 @ 4:17 am
Based on suggestions here I have been using Notepad++ too. May have to write up a new post. I use NotePad++ to edit my AutoIt3 scripts (hmm another needed post).
I found a instructions at Chewybyte.net that updates the auto-completion and keyword features in Notepad++ to the latest version of AutoIt as well as adding a plugin allowing execution of AutoIt scripts from within the Notepad++ editor.
Comment by YeOleImposter — November 15, 2008 @ 11:46 am