Editing the Shortcuts File

[D. Kirkpatrick]

Notepad++ 8.9
Windows 11 25H2

In the past I have been able to edit the Shortcuts file to add in a preferred web browser (Vivaldi) for launching an HTML file to review. However with this latest version there doesn’t seem to be a way to do this?

When I added in the appropriate line to the XML file and saved it nothing happened and the pull down menu did not change. I know there is a copy in %appdata% but that also had my changes. Still… the program did not seem to see it.

How does one add-in a preferred browser to the Shortcuts XML file?

[PeterJones]

@D-Kirkpatrick said in Editing the Shortcuts File:

However with this latest version there doesn’t seem to be a way to do this?

Nothing has changed regarding shortcuts.xml in the last many versions.

I know there is a copy in %appdata% but that also had my changes.

It depends on your settings, but the %AppData%\Notepad++\shortcuts.xml is the normal first place that Notepad++ will look.

if that’s not working for you:

1. confirm you follow the normal incantation for editing config files (ie, close all N++, open just one, edit file, save, exit and restart N++ to allow the change to take effect)
2. if that doesn’t work, grab ?-menu’s Debug Info and share it with us
3. share the actual XML snippet from the right shortcuts.xml file, so we can look to see if we can tell what’s wrong

---

update: I just re-read your post, and noticed:

When I added in the appropriate line to the XML file and saved it nothing happened and the pull down menu did not change.

You have to exit Notepad++ after saving, then restart the application. Notepad++ doesn’t just re-parse shortcuts.xml when you save it, so the menu won’t change by just hitting save on the file.