Settings, preferences, auto updater; I would need to change that across 100+ servers… Use powershell (or whatever other IT tools you have access to) to edit config.xml on all those servers with one simple script to change <GuiConfig name="noUpdate" .* autoUpdateMode="[01]">.*</GuiConfg> to <GuiConfig name="noUpdate" .* autoUpdateMode="2">no</GuiConfg> We have already made the decision that asking is important enough to be the default, can we go the next step and just do it in the background and not interrupt work flow getting it done? That’s the idea behind the silent-at-exit, which mostly doesn’t interfere at all. There also exists the MSI installer now, which allows IT departments to better control the install process – I don’t pretend to understand its benefits or how to use it to the full effectiveness, but I’ve been told it makes corporate environments easier or more convenient. One of its options is NOUPDATER=1, which allows you to completely turn off auto-updater on the installed Notepad++, which then means that the corporate scripts are in charge of running the MSI from the central location on your schedule, rather than allowing each of the 100+ servers to decide it’s time for them to update on their own schedule, breaking users’ workflows. Edit; what is being discussed here is the “tyranny of the default”. The vast majority of users are going to leave it default so for that audience is it better to have a workflow with some interruptions or a workflow that doesn’t interrupt them and leads them to a hopefully more secure installation? And the majority of single-user environments can click Yes (silent) once every couple of months. And if they set it to on-exit rather than on-startup, it shouldn’t even need to ask them to close Notepad++. One extra click every month or two doesn’t seem too onerous to me. YMMV. “hijacking the open tab of the thing you were working on” and “just not on the active tab for that View” sounds like the same thing with different words to me. Sorry, since you were using your own terminology, rather than Notepad++'s terminology, I thought you were describing a situation that didn’t exist, and was correcting that. If you’re using different terminology, that’s fine, but don’t be surprised when people misinterpret you. I disagree that the change.log tab being put in front of your active tab once every few months is a horrible thing, but each person has their own frustration points. As you presumably saw when you created your account and read the “Read this before posting”, this is a Community of Notepad++ Users, so if you want something to change in the product, rather than just talking about it with other users, you would have to follow our easily-findable links to the GitHub issue tracker, and put in requests (after verifying that those requests don’t already exist, opened or closed).

@PeterJones said: Okay, when I try that in the VM firefox, then it does switch to light mode, and the value in Local Storage changes from darkTheme=screen to darkTheme=none. Thank you for testing and confirmation. It’s good to hear, that it is not a specific misbehaviour on my side which I am unable to solve, but more a general issue. Nevertheless, since I learned to live with it, it doesn’t bother me too much. If it ever gets fixed some day, I’ll get used to it too. ;-)

@PeterJones, thanks! It was indeed a fair amount of work. To your question: database IDEs like DataGrip, DBeaver, SSMS or MySQL Workbench do offer visual help, but mostly in a different direction. They show execution plans (how the database runs a query) or let you build queries visually, and they usually need a live database connection. My motivation came from my own work in data warehouse projects. It’s not unusual there to inherit SQL statements spanning several pages, undocumented and unformatted. My first step was always to format them, which already helps a lot to understand what’s going on. The Navigator is the next step: a visual map of the structure, especially for those “monster SQL statements”, right inside the editor, with no database connection needed. “Premier SQL development tool” is a bit much :-) but for reading and understanding large SQL in Notepad++ it should help a lot. @Lycan-Thrope, good description, that’s exactly the idea: understanding and documenting an existing statement rather than generating one. And no, it isn’t limited to Standard SQL. The Navigator visualizes the result of the formatter, so it works with every dialect the formatter supports (30+, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, Snowflake and more). For now it shows SQL statements and DDL. If you run into a statement it doesn’t break down correctly, I’d be glad to get a sample.

@T.I-Digital-Solutions , These super-generic “what’s your workflow?” posts come up every once in a while. Maybe you should try to search up the older ones – they follow almost exactly your wording, so they shouldn’t be hard to find. I don’t seem to remember the original poster coming back and learning anything from them, or even interacting again in most cases, so I don’t know that there’s really much point to them. But since you ask, UDL and built-in syntax highlighting are non-negotiables, and I like the regex-based s+r (though I don’t need the complicated expressions that so many people ask us to make for them). As far as plugins go – for automating stuff for myself, PythonScript and NppExec and QuickText (I set up most of my workflow stuff ages ago, such that I don’t do anything new with those plugins, really… they just sit in the background making my life easier without me thinking about them anymore.) But really, context-less questions like this are meaningless. What features, plugins, etc, would help you depend completely on what you do in Notepad++. If you never touch HTML, then someone saying all their favorite XML/HTML plugins would not help you one whit.

Hi @Karen3D — one more angle worth checking, specific to the Windows 11 update scenario: session.xml is only written when Notepad++ exits cleanly. Windows updates are notorious for restarting the machine and killing running apps before they can save, so the session file can end up out of date or empty even with “Remember current session for next launch” ticked. A couple of quick checks that fit an IT-managed work laptop: Close Notepad++ yourself before restarting or shutting down, and confirm in Task Manager that no notepad++.exe process is left hanging around. A leftover process can hold on to the old session. Open a couple of files, close Notepad++ normally, then check the timestamp on session.xml in %AppData%\Notepad++. If it has not been updated, the write itself is being blocked — roaming profiles or redirected folders on corporate machines are a classic cause. If your files live on network drives, make sure the drive mappings are unchanged after the update. Notepad++ quietly skips files it cannot find at start-up. Worth ruling these out before going any deeper.