Notepad++ release 8.9.8

Danny Duplechian

@donho I began seeing this message pop up

Why is it suddenly concerned about my network path? And why would it expose my login information, and to who if im in a trusted network from a trusted PC?

asapuntz

@Danny-Duplechian From my cursory reading of the change logs, there is a lot of new security-related functionality, specifically related to NTLM authentication.
I’m NOT an expert, but npp is now checking with you before accessing non-local paths, in an attempt to determine what should (not) be trusted.
These non-local paths may appear in your .npp-session file, among others.
If these reads are done on untrusted servers, your “NTLMv2 hash” may (will?) be sent and possibly used against you.
If you recognize the server, click Load or Always load.

Ivan Bútora

After updating to 8.9.8, the “Plugins Admin” selection has disappeared under the “Plugins” menu.

PeterJones

@Ivan-Bútora ,

When you ran the installer, did you turn off the following checkmark?

You need to have Plugins Admin enabled (checkmarked) in the installer to have it in the Plugins menu when you run. If you run the installer again, you can turn it on when you get to that step in the installation.

(Also, if you shared your ?-menu’s Debug Info, we could have seen whether it said WinGUp: present or not – because without WinGUp, the Plugins Admin won’t work. That would’ve been removed by uncheckmarking both Plugins Admin and Auto-Updater in the list of checkboxes from the screenshot.)

Ivan Bútora

@PeterJones

Sorry for not providing complete info.

I did have the Pugins Admin checked during installation (I usually install a new version with the same options as the previous version).

Here is the debug info:

Notepad++ v8.9.8 (64-bit)
Build time: Aug 23 2026 - 17:22:44
Scintilla/Lexilla included: 5.6.6/5.5.3
Boost Regex included: 1_90
pugixml included: 1.16
nlohmann JSON included: 3.12.0
Path: C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Command Line: “C:\Program Files\Notepad++\change.log”
Admin mode: ON
Local Conf mode: OFF
Cloud Config: OFF
WinGUp: present
disableNppAutoUpdate.xml: absent
Periodic Backup: OFF
Placeholders: OFF
Scintilla Rendering Mode: SC_TECHNOLOGY_DEFAULT (0)
Multi-instance Mode: monoInst
asNotepad: OFF
File Status Auto-Detection: cdEnabledNew (for current file/tab only)
Dark Mode: OFF
Display Info:
primary monitor: 1920x1200, scaling 100%
visible monitors count: 1
installed Display Class adapters:
0000: Description - NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030
0000: DriverVersion - 27.21.14.6140
OS Name: Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
OS Build: 7601.24544
Current ANSI codepage: 1250
Plugins:
ComparePlugin (2.0.2)
ElasticTabstops (1.5)
HexEditor (0.9.14)
mimeTools (3.1)
NppConverter (4.7)
NppExport (0.4)

PeterJones

@Ivan-Bútora ,

Everything there looks good so far, so nothing there. That makes me think it’s the Mark of the Web.

Exit Notepad++.

Open up Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files\Notepad++ . Right click on notepad++.exe, do Properties, and make sure the bottom of the General tab doesn’t have the “unblock” checkbox:

if it does, checkmark it, and choose Apply / OK

Then go to c:\Program Files\Notepad++\Plugins\Config, and do the same right-click Properties > General check on nppPluginList.dll. (Since Notepad++ runs, but the Plugins Admin doesn’t show up, this is most likely. I just started with the exe to be methodical.)

Then also check c:\Program Files\Notepad++\updater\gup.exe , just to make sure it will update properly in the future.

If that works: then, in the future, if you manually ran the installer exe , you might want to check for the “unblock” on the installer before you do – I think if you unblock that, it will then not block the exe/dll that it installs. Similarly when downloading the zipfiles, unblock the zipfile, and everything you extract will inherit being unblocked.

Ivan Bútora

@PeterJones

Thanks for the tips.

None of the .exe files had the blocks.

I ran the update manually and how finally the Plugins Admin option has shown up.

I was wondering whether there was some change in nppPluginList.dll that might have been incompatible with my OS (Windows 7). But it seems everything is OK for now.

MeSun310918

@donho

Scenario: Company computer, Windows 11 24H2 OS build 26100.9106.
I can´t save files to C:\Users\USERNAME\OneDrive - COMPANY\Documents after updating - worked before without any problems with older versions.

Error popup: “This file cannot be saved and it may be protected. Do you want to launch Notead++ in Administrator mode?” (see screenshot below)
Windows Security kicks in saying “Protected folder access blocked” - blocked by “Controlled folder access”.

What works:
I can use standard Notepad to save files to that location.
From notepad++ I can save to location C:\Users\USERNAME\OneDrive - COMPANY\Desktop.

Does Notepad 8.9.8 needs to be allowed in Windows on protected folders?

xomx

@MeSun310918

Your issue doesn’t belong to this thread.
In this case, Windows already told you all you need to know - most likely your company set that restriction via a domain policy for this specific folder in question, so you must go to the Windows Settings > Privacy & security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Ransomware protection > Manage ransomware protection, and set the notepad++.exe app to be allowed there.

after updating - worked before without any problems with older versions.

Maybe your previous N++ version was older than v8.8.7, where the N++ digital signature changed (new certificate).

What works:
I can use standard Notepad to save files to that location.

Yes. All the Microsoft own binaries (digitally signed by MS) are allowed by default.

MeSun310918

@xomx said:

Maybe your previous N++ version was older than v8.8.7, where the N++ digital signature changed (new certificate).

This explains a lot. Thanks.