Replace Microsoft Notepad With Something Better
You might want to replace the default text editor application that is included with the Microsoft Windows operating system because it, notepad.exe, has some intentionally imposed limitations that are inhibiting as well as technical problems with the program.
Problems with Microsoft notepad.exe
- forced insertion CR CR LF characters at wrap points.
- arbitrarily adds .txt extension, sometimes appended to an existing extension (ie: autoexec.bat.txt)
- only opens small text files. Notepad can only open files that are smaller than 64 KB.
- does not print tabs properly. tab characters that occur at the beginning of a line are not rendered to printer.
- tab spacing problems in editor as well as other formatting issues.
UNIX uses LF (line feed) while Macintosh previously used CR (carriage return) and Microsoft uses CRLF (\r\n). Windows notepad.exe puts a CRLF behind every line break even if the text file previously had only LF or CR. Also, notepad.exe will not properly render text files without the CRLF "The Microsoft Way" format.
"NOTEPAD.EXE Has Encountered a Problem and Needs to Close" - this happens sometimes when you attempt to open a text file that is too large for notepad.exe, such as web programming you may be doing.
Ironically, the old Windows 3.1 operating system was actually equipped with a more functional version of notepad.exe, that was updated for Windows 95 with the current more restricted "The Microsoft Way" version.
Wordpad (wordpad.exe or write.exe) and Microsoft Word are the replacements for notepad.exe Microsoft suggests. These are not text editors, they are full Word processors. A true text editor saves no font or formatting information, only pure text characters, tabs, and wrap control.
Plain Text Editor - notepad.exe and software discussed here are plain text editors.
Contents
Recommended Alternatives
Metapad
Metapad is the most "direct" replacement for MS notepad.exe because it looks and feels just like MS notepad.exe (no new interface shock.) It is as though someone took notepad.exe and fixed it, then improved it.
A small, fast and completely free text editor for Windows (95/98/NT/XP/Vista/7) with similar features to Microsoft Notepad but with many extra (and rather useful) features. It was designed to completely replace Notepad since it includes all of Notepad's features and much, much more.
Metapad is what Microsoft notepad.exe should be. You can delete Microsoft notepad.exe completely off your system, rename metapad.exe to notepad.exe, and not lose any functionality, while gaining everything Microsoft neglected or limited. Metapad has functioned flawlessly for many developers and end users for a very long time, and is HIGHLY recommended as an excellent program.
Metapad is 100% free to use. If you have ever considered donating money to free software, this one deserves it.
Criticisms of Metapad: No RegEx support and no spell checker. If Metapad supported RegEx, and there was a spell checker plugin, then Metapad would receive a full 5 star rating.
Notepad2
A fast and light-weight Notepad-like text editor with syntax highlighting. This program can be run out of the box without installation, and does not touch your system's registry. Scintilla based.
This text editor has an interface and functionality that should appeal to web developers and for scripting.
Notepad++
Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.
Scintilla based just like Notepad2. This is a GPL free and open source program, which is always positive. Has not been tested and reviewed at this time.
TextPad
Comes with an array of unique features that are especially useful for programming tasks such as a group of simple formatting tools such as indenting, line numbering, character transposing, and condition-based word wrapping. TextPad works best for programmers and other people who need a full-featured tool for plain text.
TextPad is not freeware or shareware. The trial version is fully functional. If you keep the software the developers want you to pay $27.00.
Vim Improved for Windows
For those familiar with LINUX / UNIX this is the popular text editor with the added functionality that the vi editor lacks. Commands and functionality are different from notepad.exe, so unless you are familiar with Vim commands you may find there is a learning curve when using this text editor. Once you learn vi/vim you will rejoice in a new world of functionality you never though possible with a text editor, especially when it comes to RegEx (Regular Expressions.)
WinVi
UNIX style vi editor in GUI interface. Not fully Vim functional.
Replacement Instructions
Brute Force Replacement in Windows 2000
If you delete notepad.exe in win2k the os will restore it, even replacing a substitute you may have used. Navigate to the C:\WINNT\System32\dllcache folder and remove notepad.exe, replacing it with the substitute. The exe and dll files in the dllcache folder are were Microsloth is getting the backups from when it restores apps such as notepad. Remove also notepad.exe from c:\WINNT\System32 and c:\WINNT to replace with your substitute. Lastly, tell the Windows File Protection to get lost, it will detect that you have just replaced one of it's "vital system files". Do not insert the Windows CD or it will restore the plain old limited notepad.exe note: hide protected operating system files must be enabled to do this.
Brute Force Replacement in Windows XP
Similar to the Windows 2000 instructions above. Keep in mind that Microsoft service packs may create an additional cache copy of the default Windows notepad.exe file.
Delete locations for notepad.exe System File Protection cache:
- For Windows XP before Service Pack 2:
- C:\WINDOWS\System32\dllcache
- For Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later:
- C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386
Batch File Method:
Crease a batch file called runme.bat and add the following (yes with Windows notepad.exe, argh!) rename your notepad replacement to notepad.exe and resides in the directory where you run the batch file.
copy /-y notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\dllcache copy /-y notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 copy /-y notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32 copy /-y notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS
Windows Vista
Take ownership of the old notepad.exe with takeown /f c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe
takeown /f c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe cacls c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe /G <USER ID>:F copy /y notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32
takeown /f c:\windows\notepad.exe cacls c:\windows\notepad.exe /G <USER ID>:F copy /y notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS
Windows 7
Open an Elevated Command Prompt by clicking All Programs (in Start Menu) and Accessories, then right-click Command Prompt and click Run as administrator. Use the takeown command as described for Windows Vista.
For Windows 7 64 bit add the following additional 3 lines to the above.
takeown /f c:\windows\SysWOW64\notepad.exe icacls c:\windows\SysWOW64\notepad.exe /grant administrators:f copy /y C:\notepad.exe C:\Windows\SysWOW64
Alternative method - manually take ownership of notepad.exe, remove, and replace it...
Works on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1
Because of the new TrustedInstaller in Windows 7 8 and 8.1 you may have to take some extra steps to remove the old notepad.exe from your computer. Read and follow the steps in [Working Around TrustedInstaller] if you are having trouble claiming ownership of the notepad.exe file. Also, if you find that you are having difficulty finding notepad.exe then do a search for notepad.exe after you change the folder permissions to show hidden and system files.
- Press CONTROL-R and type "explorer.exe" and press ENTER.
- On the left pane locate and click "Local Disk (C:)"
- Upper right of the file explorer window is a search box with the text inside "Search Local Disk (C:)"
- Enter "notepad.exe" and search
- Right click on each result that is an actual path on the C: drive. There are many results and not all are actual files, some are hive entries. We are only concerned with the files named notepad.exe which should be in the Windows folder.
- For each occurrence of notepad.exe you will have to (1) manually take ownership away from TrustedInstaller, (2) change the permissions on the file to Full Control, and (3) delete the file. Do this one at a time for each occurrence of notepad.exe.
- Now copy the replacement notepad.exe (metapad or whatever) into c:\windows and c:\windows\system32
This completes the alternative manual replacement method. It is a lot more work now to accomplish this thanks to TrustedInstaller which we trust to install only the crap Micro$oft forces on us!
