@webfork: Yes, that solved it. I just copied the plugin folder from the old Notepad++ to the new one. Good for me i kept a backup.

Peter202: the settings are written to "Explorer.ini" and "Favorites.dat" in the \plugins\Config folder. Try copying those over from the old version.

How do you migrate the settings for the portable Notepad++ when upgrading? I copied the new files over the old ones and now my saved favorites from the Explorer plugin are gone.

@ripu: The 'doLocalConf.xml' is now included in the extracted folder.

Ok, by default it's not stealth. (from a comment above) Create a blank file with name "doLocalConf.xml" in the extracted folder and it becomes stealth. Someone should add this to the description.

Why it's no longer stealth? Mine is not storing settings in appdata btw.

Notepad++ @ v6.7.5

Dunn: I have a ton of weird config requirements like that -- I'm sure it'll help someone. Thanks for sharing.

Because they are my computers and I run them the way I want and because I have zillions of shortcuts in PowerPro that date back to the age of Windows NT which I don't like to be forced to change.

And, of course, I run everything as administrator, but the point of my post is that Notepad++, when installed in Program Files, refuses to store its stuff in its own dir and keeps using %APPDATA% even if you run it as administrator. The only way to keep it in its folder is running it in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode.

Recently I've got a new computer and, as usual, just rared my apps and extracted them in the usual Program Files location only to find that Notepad++ was not actually portable and was storing its settings in the system's %APPDATA% folder.

Googling a bit, I have found that the doLocalConf.xml trick was being ignored since 2010's 5.8.3 version when these 2 conditions are met:

1) Running under Windows Vista and upper versions.
2) Running from a "system folder" (i.e., Program Files).

I've found that such limitation can be overcome by setting Notepad++ executable to run in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode. I've been running it that way for more a month and have not found any downsides, and I'm running it with loads of plugins enabled. That's under a Windows 7 x64 machine (with UAC disabled).

@ smaragdus: See my todays update.
Updated just 7 min after your comment, but thanks ;)

Notepad++ 6.6.9 released.

When updating npp which XML files have to be updated from the installer and which ones can be retained ? I normally use npp.*.bin.minimalist.7z. When extracting files from the archive, I always have that doubt. For e.g., I have modified contextMenu.xml so I think I can retain that file but what about the other XML files ? Thanks.

I get an unexplained exception when launching Notepad++ 6.1 Unicode on WinXP SP3 32-bit. If NppExternalLexers.dll is removed from the plugins folder, the exception no longer occurs.

@clod, nevermind, you're already a member I see :P

@clod

http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2095

@clod, please join the forum and submit it there.
Good suggestion btw, I'll check it out.

@Deeproad You're absoluetely right. In fact, I'd wanted to take my words back for some time now as I noticed most of that 12MB download is the user manual and localization. I played around with NPP and it's actually a very nice and powerful editor and not-at-all that bulky. (though I'm not sure I'm sold on the plugin system but that's just a personal preference that might change)

@Quilan: The N++ minimalist package it's just 2,5 MB.

Yeah, it's got lots of bells and whistles but most of them are not that useful and it's too big anyway (12MB? pffffft... if I wanted emacs I know where to download it).

For people who prefer it more lean and mean SciTE is a better choice, IMO.
It comes in a single exe at around ~600k. Supports multiple documents, code folding, syntax highlighting, autocomplete, insertion of code snippets ("abbreviations") and much more.

Yes, the initial settings using (old school, Real Men(tm)) config files instead of point-and-click can be a PITA at first but it's VERY powerful and after that hurdle it's a smooth ride...

For anyone having trouble installing the spellchecker Aspell, it's really simple.

1.Go to the link provided in the program http://aspell.net/win32/

2. download the program AND the dictionary you want to use.

3. Install them both, then go to the installation folder (program files) and copy Aspell folder into the same folder as your portable version of Notepad++

4. Start the notepad++ and go to the menu item Plugins > Spellchecker > How To Use. You'll be asked to define the relative path. Type the following "Aspell\bin"

5.Restart Notepad++ and it works fine. Feel free to uninstall Aspell from your machine too.

I like this program. It's nice for editing XML files which can be hard to read. The colour coding helps out a lot. The search/replace is very powerful too. This program is also nice for editing .INI files. Good work.

Their our people hoo don't care about speling, but I am not won of them.

What's the point of spellcheck for a program like this if it can't be used portably, like the rest of the application?

I can't understand why it has to be complicated.

This is really best Programming note pad for the begginer but also experts. I always love to use this one for my programming.

Thanks Notepad ++

hey carbonize:
I'm pretty sure his homepage is *joking* about it being "green"! If I recall correctly, the page itself has been the color green for a long time, and maybe this is a new comment mocking the whole fake "green" thing we're being inundated with. Anyone who read 1984 and remember NewSpeak will realize the insanity around us. However, if Don actually means what the joke says, then heaven help us all!

I've used a number of these Notepad replacements and love notepad2. Not only do I run it as a portable version, I've replaced my Windows Notepad with Notepad2 as my default (it's very easy to do).

To get the same look every time just make sure the ini is in the same directory you load the exe from.

@James - This is hardly meant as a replacement for Windows Notepad. For that I would recommend something like EditPad Lite or any of the other very basic notepad style text editors. Notepad++ is more for programmers/scripters same as others of it's ilk like UltraEdit, PSPad and EditPad Pro.

I still prefer PSPad to Notepad++ but maybe that's just me. PSPad just feels more contained and has a lot of useful tools such as colour picker, colour translator and so on. Also the crap on the Notepad++ homepage about it being a greener program is a load of horse manure and it's website looks crap if you have JavaScript disabled.

This is a brilliant replacement for regular PC users who frequently jot notes down on the windows notepad.

I just wanted to add that like others, the option to add an extension on saving files (instead of having to type it out manually) would be a valuable addition to the program. After all, the application seems to be otherwise very much geared towards minimizing repetitive inputs.

At least choosing a file type in the Save as... dialog should then append the extension.

But this is great work, thanks to all who have contributed to putting it together.

tried many editors like pspad etc. this one ROCKS! the "smart highlight" is a KILLER feature.

with that said, it is by far my favorite editor when it does work.

recent version 5.5 has been crashes pretty frequently, i updated from an older version that occasionally had memory leaks that lead to high CPU usage, but that was less aggravating then crashing!, thankfully data was saved, seems to occur just after a save, very odd.

The author don't seem to know what "Unicode support" means. In year 2009 this program is still not capable of using Unicode characters [that are outside the current session ANSI character set] by simply typing them from keyboard - it displays (and actually enters) question marks instead.

Cristi

I wish it had drop and drag between Light Explorer and FTP_synchronizer Plugins. Other than that, I keep buying editors and then coming back the NP++, uhmm, I guess I support other software guys - oh well. And by the way, I did donate heavily to NP++ too.

It would be nice if someone would provide a few different varieties of download of Notepad++ that already has certain plugins installed. Its a waste of time to always have to download and manually install plugins. Especially Hex-Edit and XML Tools plugins.

This is a terrific editor. I love this editor. It would certainly be nice to have syntax highlighting for FORTRAN 90. With existing highlighting based on FORTRAN 77, it seems bit weird! I am even ready to help in this regard if I can.

Got it working.

Need to copy the aspell-15.dll from bin folder of the Aspell installation directory into C:\Windows\System32.

Restart N++ and all is good.

Running N++ on WinXP (work demands this). Unable to load EN dict files.
1) Run Aspell-0-50-3-3-Setup.exe and install in N++\plugins. 2) Run install of dict files aspell6-en-6.0-0.tar.bz2 to N++\plugins\aspell6-en-6.0-0.
3) Restart N++
4) Go N++ menu plugins spellcheck. Get msg Aspell or Dict are missing.
Had this working on same box but forced to reimage. What is wrong?

OR I should say, how could any coder choose a non-tabbed interface over a tabbed interface when choosing a text editor.

Not to mention the other features like those mentioned above
multi-language syntax highlighting, auto-completion, regular expression search/replace, macro recording and playback

How can anyone attempt to compare notepad++ to notepad2, One of the most used features of any text editor is non-existent in notepad2. TABS, how can a coder of any kind work with an editor that does not allow you to have multiple documents open in a tabbed interface?

But it does have features like 'Transparent Mode', oh so useful

ASK THE PROGRAMMERS - this is not the place to do it! They don't read here! Ask on the damn site which makes the program if you have problems with all kinds of crap. This is just for the portable related items.

Any application saving out a file without assigning an extension is sloppy programming as windows and any non-au fait user is left in the dark with what kind of file it is, YES windows does not display the file extension by default BUT it does use it........

I have the same problems as Gmacri and I will skip unicode as I simply have no need for it, until some plugins finally get updated but with everything new release of notepad++ plugins that worked for prior ansi versions of notepad are no longer compatible, and notepad just crashes! I find it best to leave notepad++ vanilla plan if you plan on updating it frequently.

Now there are 2 versions: UNICODE and ANSI.
The problem (at least for me)to migrate from ANSI to UNICODE are the plugins, many of them works only in ANSI version.
But if you go to the plugins download page, there is no something that serves to indicate what plugins are working in Unicode version, so you don't know what plugin is working in Unicode.

So my question is this:

¿What plugins are working in unicode?

And: ¿can the authors indicate in the web page what plugins are working?...

Best regards

I love this app, but with the latest release now none of my plugins function, such Compare. Has anyone else experienced this. They all report as incompatible.

Just tried it again now it's in the 5's. I still return to PSPad and I will give my reasons below.

Notepad++:
Excellent syntax highlighting (although this is due to the component used and not the writer of Notepad++)
Good FTP client although I believe this was also written by someone else.

I find Notepad++'s options are a pain and it's hard to change things quickly until you are familiar with it. Also whilst it has auto complete it doesn't come close the PSPad's two methods of auto complete.

PSPad:
Easy to use with several things being changeable by clicking the status bar
Two methods of auto complete. 1 (Ctrl + J) just puts in the function/tag/attribute name and the other (Ctrl + Space) not only puts the function in but also a description of what attributes it takes.

PSPad's FTP can be a pain at times though and it's highlighting has quirks.

A Notepad++ portable edition is a MUST on all PCs I use!

I can't get the Spell Checker to work, though. Can anyone walk me through its installation? I need it for portable use.

I use it for do a coding. Very useful.. Had no problem yet..

I've tried both the .zip and the PortableApps versions and both seem to have the same problem: they crash when changing fonts or programming languages. So, if I try to change the default front from Courier to Linedraw and save the settings, it crashes. If I click Languages and select PHP, it crashes. If I open a PHP file, yep, crashes. The thing is, it only started doing it recently. I used an old version, pre-5.0, and it worked fine, but when I upgraded it started in with this behavior. The thing is, downgrading didn't fix anything. I really love this piece of software and it saddens me greatly to not be able to use it :/ Has anybody had a similar experience? Any fixes or wworkaround?

I followed the instructions given on:
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/download.php
to replace notepad with notepad++

I copied/replaced notepad.exe in the following:
c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386
c:\windows\system32\dllcache
c:\windows\system32
c:\windows

With notepad++ (which I renamed to notepad.exe)

I also changed the registry
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Notepad++

to


\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Notepad++
DEFAULT = C:\Program Files\Notepad++ v5.0.3

However - when I open a txt file, I get the following messages:

1)
Load lans.xml failed!

2)
Load config.xml failed!
Do you want to recover your config.xml?

3)
Load stylers.xml failed!

4)
Can not load the dynamic library

5)
Scintilla.init is failed!

6)
Notepad++ will attempt t save any unsaved data. However, dataloss is very likely.

etc - etc

Have I done something wrong?

Thanks

SlowLearner

The other 'User Comments' that I've put in were for v4??.
However, I can still say that it's the best one i've used and i still have it set as the default text editor for Window$.

The only worry i have is that they are bringing out upgrades quite often. But then, if they're improving it, what's the problem?.

I get that a lot of people don't like when it saves with a default extension, but there are a lot of people, myself included, that wish it would (I use it with txt files 99% of the time). What would it hurt to have an option to allow it if desired, or disable it for those that don't want this functionality?

I posted a comment earlier but now that i've been using Notepad++ for some time, i have to say to all users of ANY text editors:- Forget all the others, Notepad++ is the only one you'll ever need. This one's worth paying for, so make a donation and show your appreciation.

It is the best text editor I have ever seen for its support for many languages. It's text highlighting is one of its best features. Its color picker plugin is useful for web designers.

I have used Notpad++ and love it's syntax highlighting. I don't use code folding so that is irrelevant to me. Yet I always return to using PSPad even with it's buggy highlighting and FTP. The reason is I just find PSPad better laid out and easier to use. Plus it has a better auto complete or rather two different styles of auto complete.

This is so good that i've replaced the window$ 'Not_pad' with it.
I have to say that all the features are excellent, one feature that is invaluable is the Hex 'switch' so i can view/edit files without starting up my external Hex Editor.

saving with default txt extension sucks.

you can always associate unknown file types with notepad or notepad++ to handle files for which you forget to append filenames...

a better solution would be to detect which syntax highlighting is being used for the active tab and suggest default extension but not impose...because...

... if i am not wrong...it is very much possible to have a php powered website with the php files having a custom extension different from php (like qjq maybe?).

I love Notepad++ but one thing I noticed is that its implementation of regex is not fully perl-compatible. For instance, it will not support \b, lookaround, ... , etc.

@ a. - inner pieces of code rewrting > a few buglets fixes.
@ agedc - happy to see you too are facing 2008 the right way

Eh gads!! I wish authors would be consistent with their changelogs, I downloaded v4.8 a few days ago and version (4.8.1) comes out with the same changelog from 4.8! So what has changed?

You mean people still use Windows? I say this in jest, but truth be told my wife and Mom are the only two close family members, friends, or associates of mine who still use windows in their personal lives. That being said I could have used Notepad++ back in the day and will be putting it on both my wife's and Mom's computers for when I have to use/repair/troubleshoot them. This is a great site and most of the software I've seen here is pretty impressive considering the price. Site Admins - Thank you for keeping it up and running. @j_sk - You are absolutely right. If we don't like what's available we are free to act to change what's available by upgrading, switching, or rolling our own.

N++ author Don Ho has released one of the best editor. Up to you to manage with your extensions. Up to you too to upgrade old Windows Me system.
Up to you to choose another editor.
Up to you to write your own...

4.8.1 is out. And to trow in my two cents, I like the fact that it does not save with a default file extension.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=95717&package_id=102072

Just installed notepad portable and gave it a try on a WinMe system. It opens a nice splash screen and that's all. Quite useless app this way!

Try SciTE. It is completely portable though it does not mention that. Once you tweak certain properties you will love it. I used to be a big fan of Crimson Editor. Notepad++ is too big but pretty

Thanks Meter! Worked like a charm.

Man! That took almost no time at all. (See above.)

"harrybharry" wrote back to say that, "If there exists a (0kb) doLocalConf.xml file in the Notepad++ diectory, it will not use %APPDATA%, else it will."

In other words, the solution is simple: After you decompress the .zip archive, create a blank file called doLocalConf.xml in the same folder as notepad++.exe. I have tried this on v4.7.2 and it seems to be working.

When I look back on my v4.6 install, I see that there is already doLocalConf.xml file there, so I suspect that this file was left out of the archive for this release.

Poo! Version 4.7.2 has added a "recovery system" that appears to insist on loading config files, etc. from "C:\Documents and Settings\[USER]\Application Data\Notepad++" and if it doesn't find them there it will let you know and then copy in some default files there. (Previously, it would use the config, etc. files found in the application's root directory.) This behavior, while robust for "normal" installations, really pushes the limits of "portable".

I posted a message to the developer's NP++ forum regarding the issue in the hopes that maybe it will be fixed on the next release.

If you are looking for a totally portable (but alas not stealth) version, download v4.6.

Just downloaded the zip file, extracted the files and launched from a USB pen drive just as suggested-- could not find the updated cfg settings after I changed them, and then a search on C:\ gives a new folder in the Application Data folder with 6 new files in it: config.xml, contextMenu.xml, NPPTextFX.ini, session.xml, shortcuts.xml and stylers.xml ... am I missing something here?

I's not muh easier to use than notepad. I got rid of it in favour of Notepad2

Notepad2 is the best freeware editor. I was using Notepad++ for awhile before a fellow developer told me about Notepad2. For what I need, Notepad2 is far superior. It's small, simple, fast, and straight-forward. Check it out... http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html and best of all, it's completely portable - all you need is the program and the ini file. Peace.

@Aaron. On one side open your notepad++ "paf" folder.(Created in X:\PortableApps).
On other side open the last updated notepad++ zip version.
Overwrite updated fles from zip file to the same in your notepad++PortableApps folder. Easy and practical to stay updated while keeping your PortableApp Notepad++ specific launcher and folder tree. Enjoy!

The first unicode-able editor I came across with the very simple option:
"UTF-8 without BOM"
If you're a web-developer/programmer working in UTF-8, that's a definite pre. A very nice editor. Some menu's are indeed rather "filled" for my personal taste, but the unicode sans-BOM is the best there is.

@PatDeLux, Notepad2 is listed here: http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=649.

I used it for some time, but found the menus too "filled" of unnecessary things.
I now use flo's freeware notepad2 which is just fantastic.
I even copy/paste my vba code in it for color code priting with line numbers.
I do not understand why it is not listed here.

I wish there is an option to save TEXT files with TXT extension automaticaly :(

I miss that option VERY much!

Other than that, this is very nice program!

Oh, yeah, it can not open files with unicode names :( Just say that file does not exist?!?!?

I love it .... but .... it always and i do mean always locks up if i ctrl+f to find something .... is it just me ?

Different tasks require different tools. When developing software, you want syntax highlighting, automatic indentation, line numbering, etc. When writing a letter, memo or web page, you want long paragraphs to be nicely word wrapped and you want to use a nice proportionally spaced font.

Many advanced text editors only cater to programmers. They can only use fixed-width fonts and have limited word wrapping capabilities. That is fine when you are programming. But it is silly to waste time on an advanced text editor that cannot handle all your text editing tasks. The reason why many programmer's editors have no or limited support for proportional fonts and word wrapping is that those features are difficult to combine with programming features.

i don't see what all the fuss is about, saving a file without an extension. it's what i wish more editors would do. it drives me nuts when i'm working on .rc files and 'save as' to find many editors blithely append '.txt'. So, well done Notepad++. yeah , it ain't a bug, it's a feature as far as i'm concerned.

Saving without extensions is not a bug. By default, windows hides the extensions of most filetypes, such as .txt.
Note, that Notepad++ is geared towards programmers and coders.

Windows by default hides the extensions of known filetypes, like txt. It even hides them while renaming the file, making changing the extension much more difficult, as you have to go through the settings and enable showing the extensions for .txt (or, all files).

Notepad++'s "bug" fixes this annoyance by not adding an extension. If you forget to add ".html" to a file while saving, all you have to do is rename it, and add a ".html", rather than deal with windows settings.

@James Belcrovner, technically is it not really a bug, it's simply not implemented, but this is by far not the only weak point on Notepad++. If you try to open a file by choosing the file type .txt, there are dozens of file extensions you can imagine, except .txt, and under "Normal Text File" is only .ini, .inf, .reg and .url to find, but not .txt! May be Notepad++ is for programmers an alternative, as an exchange for M$-Notepad it is still several basic functions missing and it's usability is in this way limited.

I absolutely vote thumbs-down on Notepad++ because it has a major bug that the program's author, Don Ho, refuses to fix. The bug causes the following problem: when saving a new document, your new document is saved without any extension. So, for example, if you create a new plain-text document, it is saved without the ".txt" extension, and therefore it is saved by Windows as an unknown file type, which Windows will not know how to handle when you try to open it. There is a work-around for this bug, but the work-around is a time-consuming hassle that you must remember to do (and probably won't remember to do) every time you save a new document.

Here is a link to a bug report about it (on an official Notepad++ web site):

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1340765&group_id=95717&atid=612382

Scroll to the "Followups" section at the bottom of that formal bug-report page, and you will witness Don Ho blatantly refusing to fix this major bug. And what reason does he give for not fixing it? He says it's too much "coding effort". Well, it's too much user effort for me to tolerate this horribly defective program. Goodbye to Notepad++; I never want to touch it again.

By the way, Notepad++ Portable has the the same major bug. I am disappointed to see John Haller, who otherwise has a reputation for high-quality reliable software, promoting this fundamentally flawed program. After all, what is more fundamental than saving a new document?!

Does anyone have a solution to this problem?

http://sourceforge.net/forum/message.php?msg_id=4100406

Figured out the color_picker.dll location (use this directory):
C:\Program Files\Notepad++\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++\plugins

Just deleted the zip version, and installed the PortableApps.com version. Also downloaded he usermanual help file in .chm and the color_picker.dll file ... forgot where to unzip those files (where to place them). Actually, I don't know where to place them in the PortableApps.com version. Would someone please educate? Thanks.

PortableApps.com has a Portable Notepad++ that solves the registry problem and other minor bugs to make it portable. :)

Absolutely the best free and open source editor on the planet!!! I've tried tons of others but nothing compares to Notepad++
The only thing I'm missing is a parameter where you can define the path where the backup-files are stored. I'm not so happy with the "nppbackup" directory that is created everywhere. I'd rather have all my backups in one place.
For the rest : this editor is even better than a lot of commercial editors on the market!

to M: You can set additional extensions via the interface.
Go to
Preferences >> Style Configurator
Select the language you want to use
Now, there's two fields below the language selector, "Default Ext" and "User Ext". Add your extension (space seperated, no dots) into the "user ext" box.

For example, if you want to edit RSS feeds, the end result will look something like this:
Default Ext..........User Ext
xml xsml xsl + rss atom

Now, all .rss files and .atom files will use the XML highlighting/folding rules.
Cheers!
Dan

This editor has a lot of promise, the only thing stopping me from making it my primary editor is the fairly clunky external program execution handling. Even with the NPPExecute plugin its just not as smooth to run your compiler as so many other editors.

The best text editor. I love the foldig, syntax highlighting and utf-8 support.

The problem with this program is that it doesn't remember which language format the tab was made in, so if I save and close and then open it, I have to tell it which language each part is in again.

for Hackepeter: you can select columns when you press cntrl + alt (did you need more advanced column features?)

for me the problem is: I can't manage to use a good syntax highlight for pl/sql, and folding mode (i.e. with a panel with a tree structure for functions and procedures in packages, like with Toad)

The only thing I miss is a colum mode switch...

Great editor! I start to use it as default editor.
But may be this info will interest you:
notepad++ 3.9 try to write link to itself in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Notepad++_file\shell\open\command when i open config window first time.

I love Notepad++. I've tried a dozen other alternatives, including textpad, context, etc, but I keep coming back to Notepad++. Thanks for the site and the program!

I've been using Notepad++ for a while, and it's great.

You can use it for anything. I can write HTML pages, CSS sheets, Python scripts, and regular files.

Great program.

The best freeware text editor I’ve found so far. I use it daily.

I have used several editors like this, NoteTabLite, SCiTE, and another I can't think of. This is my current favorite. It's just the right amount of the right features. I love that it's portable. Love the site btw.