PSPad is a very useful text editor and code editor for all sorts programming languages. I first started using it for coding PHP scripts many many years ago and have been using it for editing the web related files such as stylesheets, HTML documents and so on. But it is not limited to editing website related files only, it supports syntax highlighting for a number of programming language files such as C/C++, Visual Basic, Fortran etc. Furthermore, you can create your own syntax highlighting rules for any other language that is not already supported.
A few months ago, we published how you can integrate Notepad++ with different types of files and how to replace Windows Notepad with Notepad++. In a similar manner, you can integrate PSPad with different types of files and add it to the right-click context-menu for all file types in Windows File Explorer. Here is how:
- Right-click on PSPad shortcut or PSPad.exe itself and select Run as administrator. Running with administrator access allows it to easily add Windows Registry.
- In the PSPad window, click on Settings in the menubar and then select Program Settings.
- In the Program Settings window, select System Integration from the left side list.
- Make selections for all the options for integration such as Open Text Files, Registry in System context menu, Link on Desktop etc.
- Click on the Apply button.
- If you want to registry a particular file type such as TXT, then select Registered File Types from the side list. Then add a new extension and click on the Register all button.
If in the future you want to remove PSPad, you can undo all the steps you have taken in this process to free up the file associations and system integration.
If you have never used PSPad before, you can try it from http://www.pspad.com/en/.