From the Windows 95 that was released decades ago to Windows 10, almost everything has changed – even the Internet Explorer is now being replaced with brand new Edge browser. But if there is something that has stayed the same more or less, it is the Windows Notepad. Sure there are minor differences like adding support for unicode, but it has kept the overall interface from the old days. Due to this reason and the lack of support for other advanced features, many people, including me, choose to use advanced text editors like Notepad++. But you still have to launch Notepad++ manually to open and edit files. What if you could replace Windows Notepad completely with third party text editors like Notepad++?
Actually is is very simple thing to do through the help of Notepad Replacer. This simple tool comes in form of an installer and during the installation you have to specify the full path and location of the third party text editor. You should be careful to choose a text editor that supports unicode and all the files that Windows Notepad can open or edit. In my case, I am using Notepad++, but there are some others like jEdit, Bluefish Editor, UltraEdit etc. The effect is that no matter how you try to launch Windows Notepad – through Start menu, though Run dialog, through shortcuts, through command line interface – it launched the third party program instead.
The Notepad Replacer does not make changes to the system files or changes the file permissions. This is what makes it very convenient way to replace Windows Notepad without actually deleting or overwriting any of the Windows Notepad related files. At any later stage, if you want to re-assign Windows Notepad as the default text editor, then you can simply uninstall the Notepad Replacer program from your Windows PC.
You can download Notepad Replacer from https://www.binaryfortress.com/NotepadReplacer/.