@Cletos ,

Depending on what version of Notepad++ you were running, and what’s happened since you last opened Notepad++:

Exit Notepad++ Use Windows Explorer to go %AppData%\Notepad++ You will have session.xml and hopefully a file called session.xml.inCaseOfCorruption.bak . Rename session.xml to session.after.xml Rename session.xml.inCaseOfCorruption.bak to session.xml

Depending on the state, and how little you’ve done since you had the problem, and what version of Notepad++ you are running, that backup session might contain the ~100 txt files.

If not (if there’s no session.xml.inCaseOfCorruption.bak , or if the copy there was written after your session got messed up), there is nothing we can do for you, as the backup session isn’t there. (Hopefully, those 100 txt files were all real files, not new 1 … new 100 with no saved changes ever – if they were, you can look in the backup subdirectory, but again, no guarantees the files are there).

As a reminder to all readers of this Topic, the Community Forum is “The Community of users of the Notepad++ text editor”, as it says in the footer of every single page here (emphasis added). As such, this is just users, talking about Notepad++ and helping each other other. Feature Requests are not tracked here. So all of these “I cannot believe it’s still this way” are effectively just complaining to other users; if that’s theraputic to you, fine; but it won’t tell the developer how many people are interested in that feature being implemented, so it’s just spitting in the wind, so to speak.

We have a FAQ that explains where the Feature Request tracker is. And you could search there (in both open and closed requests) if you want to find the official issue(s) tracking such a request, and see how the developer has responded to such requests, if at all.

@Diederik858 said in I don't want grouped files when I open the download folder in Windows 11.:

When I open the file explorer from Notepad++, I don’t want to have grouped files (day, month, etc.).

When you open the file explorer from Notepad++, you are being directed into a Windows application, the Explorer. And, as such, it follows the Explorer settings for how any individual directory should look. It is exactly identical to you using Windows’ Win+R key and launching explorer "%UserProfile%\Downloads"

As such, you would change the Explorer settings for the Download directory the same way you would from any explorer window (Explorer’s Sort > Group By > (None)) – but this isn’t Notepad++ advice, this is general Windows advice; as such, a Notepad++ forum isn’t the best place for further discovering Windows Explorer features.

@PeterJones said in Make notrepad++ default:

It seems a mixed bag: wanting it as system default, associated with lots of file types, and using the Shell Extension, but not wanting to “install” it. It might help us give you better advice if you explain what parts of the “install” that you are opposed to. Is it just storing the settings in %AppData% that you don’t like? Or is there something else? The installer can install into any directory, not just Program Files; the installer can choose to not use %AppData% (as long as it’s not installed in Program Files); the installer automatically registers the Shell Extension for you.

Thanks for all the patience and instruction. I studied those data transfer tutorials, and I “think” I got it right. A little complicated because in Portableapps, in some cases there are up to three iterations of the same file in separate locations. So far, it looks and behaves like the Portableapps.

Is it just storing the settings in %AppData% that you don’t like?

I know the best way to do things is the install. I like to keep things simple. I have very limited space on my OS partition, so I like to keep things as simple as I can by going portable whenever possible, and locating elsewhere. It also makes things easier if you must do an image restore.

That said, considering what you have advised, I think I will do the install. and avoid storing the settings in %AppData%.

After the installation now that I have the working portable version. can I move it to the install directory, mindful of the fact that there will be files in that directory that must retained? Or is it not that simple?

Hi, @jak and All,

Refer to this post :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/105114

BR

guy038

@Claudia-Svenson said in How to set "UTF-8 WITH BOM" as default Encoding even for old but changed textfiles?:

This would be a great convenient enhancement feature.

Natively, there is no such feature (and it’s not likely to happen, IMO).

Using a plugin, it’s doable. For now, it requires using a not-yet-released version of the EditorConfig plugin, but they are supposedly eventually going to release a new version with all the features/fixes from the last 6 years.

EditorConfig plugin should be able to handle the charset attribute. But the version available in Plugins Admin is still 6 years old, and does not include that attribute. They merged the PR that implemented charset in 2023, but have not done a release since v0.4.0.0 in 2019. (In October 2025, they put in an Issue to encourage themselves to do a release, but there’s still apparently a showstopper preventing them from moving forward.)

I just forked their repo, and did a build based on their most recent codebase; I call that “0.4.0.1”, so that there’s something to distinguish it from the official version. For a couple of months from 2026-Mar-30, GitHub should have some artifacts of my v0.4.0.1 build.

Exit Notepad++ Go to https://github.com/pryrt/npp-editorconfig-plugin/actions/runs/23767310769#artifacts and download the right artifact for your machine (most likely the one ending in --x64). Unzip, and copy the DLL to c:\Program Files\Notepad++\Plugins\NppEditorConfig\NppEditorConfig.dll create .editorconfig file at the top of your document structure (like c:\users\username\.editorconfig), populate it with:root = true [*.bat] charset = utf-8 [*.py] charset = utf-8 [*.txt] charset = utf-8-bom [*.ps1] charset = utf-8-bom The next time you save a file with one of those extensions (as long as it’s in the same folder as the .editorconfig file, or a subdirectory of that folder), it will use the charset indicated when you save the file in Notepad++

(GitHub will remove those artifacts sometime in the next few months. If EditorConfig hasn’t done an official release since then, and the files are gone, feel free to ping me here, and I can trigger a new build to GitHub)

@mapsonx said in Toolbar button names:

Settings > Preferences > Backup > ☑ Enable session snapshot and periodic backup

That setting kinda represents the journey of discovery for me, who, is certainly a novice, and has been reminded regularly of my level of ignorance when it comes to an impressive tool like Notepad++. Obviously, the way manifested itself didn’t make sense to me, never seeing that effect before elsewhere.

That setting has nothing to do with toolbar buttons. If you just brought this up as an example of things that you didn’t understand but are learning the utility of, fine.

If you think that this affected your toolbar buttons in any way, shape, or form, you will need to explain what you think changed, and prove to yourself that it does change it by doing screenshots before and after toggling that option (and paste them here if you think it does prove your point).

since some other text editors do have such a feature.

What text editors do you think have this feature that you want? What setting in that other text editor do you change to get things to go from “normal” to “what you want”? If you give us that, (including “before” and “after” screenshots) we might be able to figure out what feature it is you really want, and be able to better answer you as to whether or not it can be done in Notepad++.

(I mentioned screenshots a couple of times. If you use Alt+PrintScreen or the modern Win11 Snipping Tool equivalent, you can just paste the image directly into your reply here, making it simply a matter of Ctrl+V to embed the image. But screenshots showing what it is you want would be really helpful for us to understand you.)

@PeterJones

Thank you many times!

@PeterJones

Thanks for your reply. I will give your solution a try as a Macro learning experience. Maybe I’ll find other uses for it.

But, I just came up with a different solution:

I like Notepad++ so far, so I used the preferences to set Notepad++ as the default for a small number of file types I use occasionally. I renamed the extension of the file I use as my daily journal/log from .txt to my initials .th. I used the file properties to open that file with Windows Notepad.

It’s working well for me. I can use my journal/log with Windows Notepad, and everything else uses Notepad++.

@dfs ,
We could go a step further and lament that it would be nice if the entire graphical environment of NP++ could be contained in one dialog setting, and then when we switched between Light or Dark, the environment would change all the UI references:

Settings->Preferences...->Dark Mode,
Settings->Style Configurator...->Style:, and the
Settings->Style Configurator...->Select theme:

…could be coordinated to make just switching between Dark Mode and Light Mode change them all, accordingly. As it is, I’m glad to have just found out that the Dark and Light language files can automatically change by setting that one switch in the dark mode file @PeterJones mentioned, and that automatically chooses the correct code coloring file for the environment (Dark/Light) chosen.

@Dervars14 Just checked and unfortunately the undo, ^Z, does not work. This used to be a more common occurance in the old days, Prior to Windows 7 and back in the DOS days, there was no checking to see if wanted to keep a file, it just got overwritten even if a totally different file, but just had the same name. The way we used to get around this is with a recovery program. The good thing is for a long time, whenever you save a file, it actually saves it to a different area of the dirve, precisely for this kind of incedent.

First important thing is don’t do any work on that drive, if the data is still there, it is not protected, the more you use the computer, the more likelihood those clusters of the drive will get overwritten.

I don’t think Windows has any internal programs, other than the Recycle bin, which is no use here, as overwritten files aren’t placed there. There is a free program called Recuva, from Piriform, the same people that do CCleaner. If possible, try and download this on another computer to a USB drive, as I said, the more work you do on the drive, the chance of losing the data.

The other good thing with using another machine, is you quickly play around with recuva, it is very basic program, the results are in table form, so easy to rearrange. You can save any detected files to the USB drive as well. If you get the file back, then just replace the current one. And this is the way to all learn to do backups more regularly, which reminds me.

@PeterJones

I will try with v8.9.3-RC and v8.9.1,

regarding my last question it’s with v8.9.2,

“create new” works fine with old name, it’s the “save as” function which shows that behavior : “can’t use a name preivously used” (i wasn’t enough precised in my question, sorry).
Note : if i well understand the way notepad++ works at closing : “save as” should not be used,

I will have a try with the portable version of v8.9.3-RC,

Again thanks for the help,

@Võ-Văn-Hiếu said:

It seems that when I select all the text (which should exceed that default number), the box stays checked even after I stop selecting.

I’m not quite sure what your meaning is here, but…

…and I presume that when you say “default number”, you mean 1024…

The In selection checkbox isn’t truly dynamic; it isn’t going to change while you are selecting text. It only changes when you invoke search, and here are some examples of that:

input focus in the editing area and you press Ctrl+f input focus in the editing area with Find window also visible, and you use the mouse to activate the Find window

@PeterJones
hello and Thank You…
I think I had read all of the references you posted, and must have misunderstood everything.
(sigh) I’m feeling so old (LoL)
just used your example and it worked perfectly
…
well, except I next will want to enter an exception for cases of a period before the first carriage return.
I think I know how to get that working, now that you’ve given me a great direction.
Again, Thank You!

@PeterJones said in Is There a Way to Prevent Pasted Text from Spreading Out with Rows of Spaces?:

Or, since you said,

there aren’t any unused ones available under Plugins > Customize Toolbar

- I assume this is the one where you say, "there aren't any unused ones available". I cannot imagine that you've _actually_ enabled another couple-dozen buttons from its list, so that there are no other "available toolbar buttons", as that toolbar would be so full as to be unusable. On the other hand, that's the only thing I imagine that you _could_ mean by such a sentence.

Yes, all of the Old Large Legacy Icons are in the Current toolbar buttons box. After checking them, I decided that I might use all of them in the future.

Well, with all of that said, thanks for being patient and hanging in there through all of this. I have everything working, including adding a new icon to the toolbar. And thanks for the updated scripts.

I hope this thread serves many others.

Hi, @b, @peterjones, @coises and All,

Let’s consider the Spanish word comparación and its various forms below, pasted in a new tab :

comparación cömparÅciõn ＣömꝕarÅcⓘoñ ȻOℳₚA⒭ⱯℭᴵꝊᵰ ƆºᶆⱷǞℝȺꜿᵼᴓɲ ɕƢꟽⓟǻꝝⱭƆⅈᴗN

Note that I have deliberately exaggerated the shapes and modified the case of the possible characters !!

If you do any of the six N++ searches, below, against the six lines in the new tab, you’ll see that ONLY the two first regexes, which refer to standard equivalence clases, can find all the lines.

SEARCH (?=[[=c=]])\X(?=[[=o=]])\X(?=[[=m=]])\X(?=[[=p=]])\X(?=[[=a=]])\X(?=[[=r=]])\X(?=[[=a=]])\X(?=[[=c=]])\X(?=[[=i=]])\X(?=[[=ó=]])\X(?=[[=n=]])\X

SEARCH (?=[[=c=]])\X(?=[[=o=]])\X(?=[[=m=]])\X(?=[[=p=]])\X(?=[[=a=]])\X(?=[[=r=]])\X(?=[[=Å=]])\X(?=[[=c=]])\X(?=[[=i=]])\X(?=[[=õ=]])\X(?=[[=n=]])\X

SEARCH (?=[[=Ｃ=]])\X(?=[[=ö=]])\X(?=[[=m=]])\X(?=[[=ꝕ=]])\X(?=[[=a=]])\X(?=[[=r=]])\X(?=[[=A=]])\X(?=[[=c=]])\X(?=[[=ⓘ=]])\X(?=[[=o=]])\X(?=[[=ñ=]])\X

SEARCH (?=[[=Ȼ=]])\X(?=[[=O=]])\X(?=[[=ℳ=]])\X(?=[[=ₚ=]])\X(?=[[=A=]])\X(?=[[=⒭=]])\X(?=[[=Ɐ=]])\X(?=[[=ℭ=]])\X(?=[[=ᴵ=]])\X(?=[[=Ꝋ=]])\X(?=[[=ᵰ=]])\X

SEARCH (?=[[=Ɔ=]])\X(?=[[=º=]])\X(?=[[=ᶆ=]])\X(?=[[=ⱷ=]])\X(?=[[=Ǟ=]])\X(?=[[=ℝ=]])\X(?=[[=Ⱥ=]])\X(?=[[=ꜿ=]])\X(?=[[=ᵼ=]])\X(?=[[=ᴓ=]])\X(?=[[=ɲ=]])\X

SEARCH (?=[[=ɕ=]])\X(?=[[=Ƣ=]])\X(?=[[=ꟽ=]])\X(?=[[=ⓟ=]])\X(?=[[=ǻ=]])\X(?=[[=ꝝ=]])\X(?=[[=Ɑ=]])\X(?=[[=Ɔ=]])\X(?=[[=ⅈ=]])\X(?=[[=ᴗ=]])\X(?=[[=N=]])\X

In constrast to the last release of the Columns++ plugin, independant of Scintilla and doing true UTF-32 searches, which is able to match the six lines of our example, whatever the regex used among the six regexes above !

This example clearly demonstrates that it’s possible to perform a search without considering case and/or accentuated characters with the v1.3.1 release of Columns++ plugin ;-))

Best Regards,

guy038