Underline N on Windows context menu

[GrampaWildWilly]

Not sure how useful this is but the newbie FAQ says to do this:

Notepad++ v8.5.3 (64-bit)
Build time : May 15 2023 - 06:09:36
Path : M:\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Command Line : “Q:\MyRexxTools\Alarm Notification.txt”
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : ON
Cloud Config : OFF
OS Name : Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
OS Build : 7601.24563
Current ANSI codepage : 1252
Plugins :
DSpellCheck (1.4.24)
mimeTools (2.9)
NppConverter (4.5)
NppExport (0.4)

I have somehow lost the underline under the N in the context menu entry that reads:

Edit with Notepad++

I’ve done something but I don’t know what. Until a few days ago, popping up a context menu & then typing n always got me the Notepad++ entry. Then I could hit Enter & my file would open in Notepad++. Now when I type n, it takes me to an entry named:

Send to

Which cascades out this long menu I have no interest in. But this entry does have the n in Send underlined.

I did find a post in here that let me find the entry in the registry where the “Edit with Notepad++” string is defined. But if that registry entry defines the underline character, it wasn’t obvious to me where it did that. But that’s a big if, I think.

So, much obliged if anybody can restore my underline.

[GrampaWildWilly]

I’ve done a bit of Google searching & I’ve discovered that the entry in the registry is supposed to look like this:

Edit with &Notepad++

The ampersand identifies the letter that gets underlined. Thing is, the ampersand is present in the relevant registry entries. Entries. Plural. I’ve discovered there are 2 registry entries in which our string occurs. They both have the ampersand. One is in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT & the other is in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

I also searched my registry for both “send to” & “se&nd to” with the thought that I would take the & out of those entries. But I didn’t get any hits for that. I did find some occurrences of “send to” but they weren’t for the context menu entry.

Stumped Я Moi.

[Alan Kilborn]

@GrampaWildWilly said in Underline N on Windows context menu:

in the context menu entry that reads:
Edit with Notepad++

This feature has undergone vast changes recently in order to work with Windows 11. Perhaps something has been broken for Windows 7. If so it is not likely to be fixed, as Windows 7 is not actively supported by Notepad++.

[GrampaWildWilly]

@Alan-Kilborn
Oh great. I can’t say I’m hugely surprised. Still, the business of underlining is an operating system feature, not an application feature. As far as I can tell, the & business in the registry is still the way it works in the newer Windows, & my W7 still has the & in the relevant places my registry. It’s curious that any application changes here would affect this operating system feature. In any case, I get that W7 is an antique platform & I’m unlikely to get any love here. Thanks for responding.

[GrampaWildWilly]

I’ve done a little experimenting. I tried moving the &, like this:

Edit with Notepad&++

But the underline didn’t move and + didn’t work as the shortcut.

I noticed, however, that e worked as the shortcut. Sometimes. See, a lot of menus already have an entry that says simply Edit. It has the E underlined. But that entry launches Notepad (yuck). But some menus don’t have an entry for Edit. On those menus, e does open the file in Notepad++ even though its E is not underlined. I did try doing this:

&Edit with Notepad++

But that did not cause the E to be underlined. It also did not stealth-add e as a second occurrence of the e shortcut on menus that also contained Edit. The underlines are regularly not unique on menus. You just have to type the shortcut again then hit Enter, instead of just typing the shortcut & that’s enough to activate that menu entry.

So I guess I have half a solution, a workaround that works sometimes. I suppose that’s better than nothing.