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Notepad++ open in new instance because I use multiple desktops

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  • B
    Brent Riggs
    last edited by Jan 12, 2023, 4:30 PM

    I need notepad++ t open in a separate instance each time I click the taskbar icon

    I use multiple desktops in Windows 11, and currently if I click Notepad++ from a desktop, it jumps to the desktop where it is already open…

    I need to have Notepad++ opened and separate on each desktop as I used it for different projects on different desktops…

    P 1 Reply Last reply Jan 12, 2023, 4:59 PM Reply Quote 0
    • P
      PeterJones @Brent Riggs
      last edited by Jan 12, 2023, 4:59 PM

      @Brent-Riggs ,

      Notepad++ doesn’t have that feature, though you could read the FAQ to see where feature requests go.

      Alternatives / workarounds:

      • Always Open New Instance option: might be too far in the multi-instance direction, but it would accomplish your goal
      • use Open Session in New Instance option, and a separate session file for each of your projects
      • have shortcuts on your desktop with the -multiInst option, and use that to start your new instance on each desktop
      • use Move To New Instance and then move that instance to the right desktop

      References:

      • https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/preferences/
      • https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/session/
      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • A
        Alan Kilborn
        last edited by Jan 12, 2023, 7:45 PM

        I’m sure there are several open issue requests for multiple desktop support.
        Please seek them out and add your thoughts to one or more of them, rather than creating a new (basically duplicate) issue.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
        • A
          Aryan Firouzian
          last edited by Jul 4, 2024, 8:04 AM

          One silly solution would be to drag a tab out off the notepad++ window, and then drag it to other desktop. That way you have two different notepad++ instances in different desktops

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • E
            ElectroLund
            last edited by May 20, 2025, 2:11 PM

            I agree, would be an excellent feature. I have the same workflow: multiple Win10 desktops, have NP++ open in lots of them, opening new text files throws me over there.

            But changing NP++ behavior to open new instances each time would not work for me either, as I have scripts that I run which open mutliple files that I do want grouped together in one instance of NP++.

            An easy solution to me would be a command line switch that forces the opening of a file into a new NP++ instance. Then I could chose which files to start a new one.

            P 1 Reply Last reply May 20, 2025, 2:21 PM Reply Quote 0
            • P
              PeterJones @ElectroLund
              last edited by May 20, 2025, 2:21 PM

              @ElectroLund said in Notepad++ open in new instance because I use multiple desktops:

              An easy solution to me would be a command line switch that forces the opening of a file into a new NP++ instance. Then I could chose which files to start a new one.

              you mean like the already-existing -multiInst option, which does exactly that?

              (Though if you do use -multiInst, I recommend also using -nosession, otherwise it will open your whole existing session plus the new file(s) in the new instance)

              so if you use notepad++ -nosession -multiInst a.txt b.txt c.txt , it will open those three files to a single new instance, separate from any notepad++ instance already running.

              I believe this accomplishes your goal (though maybe not the original poster’s goal)

              M 1 Reply Last reply May 20, 2025, 11:59 PM Reply Quote 2
              • M
                mkupper @PeterJones
                last edited by May 20, 2025, 11:59 PM

                @PeterJones Something I have thought about on and and off but never put down on paper to see if there are logic flaws is a mechanism for people to define instances using a keyword that’s on the command line.

                Let’s say I have three projects, apple, banana, and strawberry.

                If I run Notepad++.exe -instance apple then Notepad++ will look to see if there is already a copy of Notepad++.exe running that was started using -instance apple and if so passes the command line off to that running instance.

                This would allow for moving instances to different desktops or monitors.

                I have not thought through the session.xml file but suspect the safe course would be for Notepad++ to create and maintain a session-apple.xml file.

                If the config.xml file is also per-instance then you can park the instance on a desktop or monitor and that will get saved to config-apple.xml.

                Instances would be much like running several portable copies but with the benefit of being able to define which instance I want to open a file in when using the command line.

                P 1 Reply Last reply May 21, 2025, 7:30 PM Reply Quote 2
                • N
                  notdodgeball
                  last edited by notdodgeball May 21, 2025, 5:18 PM May 21, 2025, 5:11 PM

                  what you describe seems to me what is already somewhat possible with the openSession parameter, using it like:

                  notepad++.exe -multiInst -openSession apple.xml
                  

                  then managing those instances as sessions (apple.xml, banana.xml, strawberry.xml)

                  Righ now the problem is that, independently of the opened session, when you close notepad++, session.xml file is updated (and only this session).

                  So if you have multiple instances, then each one will update session.xml upon closing.

                  This disregard of openSession I never fully understood, as to me it should behave much like you just described. And although I understand it’s not completely useless the way it works now, it could be much more.

                  In this regard, this -instance parameter you speak of could be a alias (combined flag) for -multiInst -openSession with the opened session being “saved”. I assume the monitor it was last used with can also be saved.

                  M 1 Reply Last reply May 21, 2025, 9:15 PM Reply Quote 2
                  • P
                    PeterJones @mkupper
                    last edited by May 21, 2025, 7:30 PM

                    @mkupper,

                    If the config.xml file is also per-instance then you can park the instance on a desktop or monitor and that will get saved to config-apple.xml.

                    Even better: in the multi-instance settings, there could be an “embed config in non-default session file” checkbox, and if that’s checked, then when you are dealing with a non-sessions.xml session, it could store that session’s configuration in the same file as the rest of the session; that way, the configuration is tightly coupled to the session itself (and it would solve the problem of having to separately track an alternate-config.xml location). Not that I think such a feature request would be implemented, but I think it’s a good idea. ;-)

                    @notdodgeball ,

                    This disregard of openSession I never fully understood, as to me it should behave much like you just described

                    I concur. Has anyone ever asked for (specifically) not touching sessions.xml when -openSession/File > Load Session… is active?

                    N 1 Reply Last reply May 26, 2025, 2:29 PM Reply Quote 0
                    • M
                      mkupper @notdodgeball
                      last edited by May 21, 2025, 9:15 PM

                      @notdodgeball said in Notepad++ open in new instance because I use multiple desktops:

                      This disregard of openSession I never fully understood, as to me it should behave much like you just described.

                      I regularly use, or perhaps abuse, -openSession. A whie back I created a batch file, nplist.bat, that extracts file paths from a text file and generates a session.xml file. It then runs Notepad++.exe with -openSession. While I could have just run Notepad++.exe and passed the file names directly to it. I created nplist.bat because I wanted something that allowed me to open thousands of files at once. I did not think thousands of files would fit on the command line and was not comfortable with starting Notepad++.exe thousands of times and having those pass the file name on to the running copy of Notepad++.exe.

                      Notepad++ must already have some sort of inter-process communication (IPC) that allows a newly loaded copy of Notepad++.exe to tell the main running instance of Notepad+exe to come to the foreground and to open one or more files.

                      That means I should be able to create an run-npp.exe that implements the -instance logic I proposed earlier. The easiest way to define and separate instances of Notepad++ would be to use portable copies. I’d put them in

                      • c:\npp\apple\Notepad++.exe
                      • c:\npp\banana\Notepad++.exe
                      • c:\npp\strawberry\Notepad++.exe

                      This allows each instance of Notepad++ to live in its own world. This assumes that whatever IPC Notepad++ uses is something that allows for multiple copies of the .exe to run at the same time and for an external app to talk to them. If, for example, Notepad++ is using a named pipe with a fixed name then only one copy can own the pipe.

                      What want is the ability to tell an already running instance of Notepad++.exe to open a file. For example, I want to open fruit.txt in Notepad++ and want to use the banana instance of Notepad++.exe to view or work with this file.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • N
                        notdodgeball @PeterJones
                        last edited by May 26, 2025, 2:29 PM

                        @PeterJones said:

                        I concur. Has anyone ever asked for (specifically) not touching sessions.xml when -openSession/File > Load Session… is active?

                        No, not really, its a shame.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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