User Manual has been updated: Renamed header to “shortcuts.xml Security” and includes mention of Macros as well: https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/config-files/#shortcutsxml-security added Macros Security on the macros page: https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/macros/#macro-security added a paragraph linking to the “shortcuts.xml Security” page in the Running External Commands page: https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/run-menu/#security-is-your-responsibility

@Coises said: What is really means is, when Notepad++ opens an existing file that contains only ASCII characters, it should treat it as UTF-8 rather than as ANSI. Yeah, so for example: “Treat ASCII-only files as UTF-8 (instead of ANSI)” or something similar could be a more clear wording for the option. Which, for me, raises the question: Why is this only available when UTF-8 is the default encoding for new files? It would add a bit more flexibility to the user, but on the other side it seems very unlikely to set this option if you don’t want UTF-8 as default. So I guess it could be a preventative measure that the user doesn’t set any confusing options.

@Krzysztof-Blachnicki said: I deleted ExtSettings.ini (which was 0 byte) and… It works again. Maybe it’s n++ fault, but… For other plugins settings aren’t gone and when files are 0b they don’t cause glitchy behaviour. I’d bet it’s rather a problem with this particular plugin. If deleting the ExtSettings.ini caused the problem to go away, then I am confident it is the plugin, not Notepad++ itself, that is the culprit. The question is what now? Whom I can ask for reaction? Report the problem to @dinkumoil , the author of the plugin => https://sourceforge.net/projects/extsettings/support

1.2.2 Syntax highlighting PowerShell Improved absolute, relative, quoted and unquoted paths colors [image: 1785402977913-paths.png] Improved variables interpolation colors [image: 1785402952228-interpolation.png] [image: 1785402954396-interpolation4.png] Added colors for expressions $(..), ${..} Added registry hives colors (HKLM, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, …) Fixed syntax highlighting Fixed variables colors inside paths and quotes Fixed excessive colors of variables, keywords, and functions enclosed in quotes Fixed unexpected sc.. and vk.. colors in AutoHotkey code Disabled colors for variables inside single quotes ' ' (because single quotes prevents var. interpolation)

@BlackX777 , That was brought to the developer’s attention in the repo issues last week. Unfortunately, take-down requests can take time.

@Elayne-T , Do you have your ?-menu’s Debug Info? Do you have plugins in Notepad++ that might be doing something in the background? (Maybe a plugin has popped up a dialog, but because they didn’t code it right, the dialog doesn’t go in fron of Notepad++'s always-in-front.) Do you have a file open that requires Admin privileges to write/save? If so, maybe Windows has popped up the UAC, but it didn’t get to take your full screen like it normally would (the UAC shield icon would be on your taskbar if it’s an issue with the UAC) Do you have anything other than Notepad++ and your browser running? Do you have any applications like AutoHotKey, which assign global hotkeys that maybe it’s interpreting some sequence of keystrokes you are using to Does your browser have any extensions/plugins that might be trying to steal focus away from Notepad++? It will be easier to replicate and find if you give as many details and pieces of relevant information as possible, otherwise something as nebulous an unrepeatable as this is going to be difficult to find. update: one more idea: in the older posts, they mentioned that they’d click in Notepad++ to activate, then after a few seconds of typing, the focus would be lost. Is that the case for you? If so, did you leave the mouse pointer somewhere over the Notepad++ window when you started typing? Or does the mouse pointer start drifting off accidentally (maybe you bumped the mouse while typing, or it gets shaken while you type fervently)? Or does the mouse pointer get moved off intentionally (for example, when I was experimenting with always-on-top, I would move the mouse pointer back over the Chrome window, then use the scrollwheel to scroll the browser tab without clicking in the browser). If your mouse pointer is back to being over the browser (or some third app), maybe something in that other app grabs focus when you leave your mouse lingering over it (I know that some linux GUI will give apps focus whenever the cursor hovers over them, even if they haven’t been clicked to the foreground… maybe some other app – your browser or something else – has given itself such a feature, even on Windows.)

Corrupted Session Starting in Notepad++ v8.6.5, it will store session.xml.inCaseOfCorruption.bak next to session.xml, and will automatically use that if session.xml is corrupted. However, if you ever find that you open Notepad++ (especially after an update or a system crash) and find that the files opened weren’t in the same state as when you let them, you can try this procedure: Exit Notepad++ Windows Explorer, go to %AppData%\Notepad++ (or in your appropriate config-file location if you aren’t using AppData for config) Rename session.xml to session.xml--keep Copy session.xml.inCaseOfCorruption.bak to session.xml Run Notepad++ → If it’s now showing the right copy of your files, great! If not, exit Notepad++, delete session.xml, and rename session.xml--keep back to session.xml .

I found a plugin that solves this problem. https://github.com/numbereleven-a/NotepadPP_AltShiftMenuFix

@PeterJones said: @Kiichiro-Matsushita, welcome to the Notepad++ Community. You said: I tried tinkering with the Style Configurator, to no avail… You don’t tell us which theme you are starting with. You don’t tell us what you tried in the Style Configurator. One would think if you really wanted help, you would give us more to work with. That said, I will give the following advice: How do I change those? Using Style Configurator, after you’ve set your theme, you can choose the Global Styles in the first column, and choose the Current Line Background settings (second column) to change the “you are on this line” highlight; for “you have selected this text”, you need to edit the Selected Text Color (again, second column). Please note for these two settings, Style Configurator only pays attention to Background Color – the foreground color and bold/italic/underline settings are ignored. … Good luck. I had the same issue, this answer worked! Appreciate your time & input

@guy038 has given a good example here also: https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/27611/is-there-a-way-to-find-both-alphabets-with-and-without-accents-at-the-same-time-when-searching

For anyone who wants to get rid of that annoying “This file has been modified… Do you want to reload it…” prompt/dialog box, do the following: Go to Settings Click Preferences Click MISC. Under “File Status Auto-Detection” click Disable from the drop-down menu Close

Ah ok. So just noticed this has been implemented after updating to 8.9.7. How do I get around the dialog coming up “security information for shortcuts.xml is missing in config.xml” when I deploy this to multiple computers? I have a “master copy” of a portable installation on a network drive, then update that whenever a new version comes out. There is a batch file on a “client” PC that basically copies that folder from the network drive to a local drive on the client. So every client, whenever they first use a macro, gets this warning and has to validate the shortcuts.xml file. How do I stop this from happening, i.e. how can I make the shortcuts.xml file “trusted” in the master copy on the network drive, so it appears trusted on any other client that happens to download it?

because it appears those actually return from the enum UniMode, which is enum UniMode {uni8Bit=0, uniUTF8=1, uni16BE=2, uni16LE=3, uniCookie=4, uni7Bit=5, uni16BE_NoBOM=6, uni16LE_NoBOM=7, uniEnd}; according to the source code. In N++ commit 8149f72 in v8.8.8 (Nov 2025), uniCookie has been renamed as uniUTF8_NoBOM inside the N++ source. Thus, I just put in PythonScript Issue #421 to request that there’s a BUFFERENCODING.UTF8_NOBOM, either as replacement or alias of the old meaninglessly-named BUFFERENCODING.COOKIE … I don’t know if it will happen, but at least the request is in. :-)