Notepad++ { v8.6.8 } - Need Guidance to Publish Notepad++ to multiple users with Specific User's Config. but not on %appdata% { Cloud Option is not so fesible }

[kavish jha]

Notepad++ { v8.6.8 }
Hello Community,

I am in Need of your Guidance to Publish Notepad++ to multiple users with Specific User’s Config.

We are going to Install Notepad++ in a Windows Server - " A1 " on a Shared Folder.
This Shared Folder will be accessible to other Windows Servers " A2, A3, A4 " --> Where Multiple users will login and access Notepad++.

In Normal Situation - If Users access NPP they will have there Specific User’s files stored in %appdata% of Windows Servers " A2, A3, A4 ".

In Cloud & Link Situation - If User mentioned an Specifc Path, It will Create a " Cloud " Folder with " Choice " file and Path mentioned in the Installation Directory of Windows Server - " A1 ".

I cannot go fo any of these 2 solution, I am looking for an Solution Where I can Design or Specify User’s Specifc Configs, which cannot be modified by other users but not Tempory Folder like %appdata% { because it will be remover after sometime }

I have also tried to Set an Cloud Path like " Windows Server - " A1 "\Notepad++%USERNAME% " but NPP cannot accept Variables.

Question :-
How we specify an Specific Path for all Users
For Ex :- " Windows Server - " A1 “\Notepad++\usernpp”
{ I can then play with Security Rights of Windows }

Thanks in Advance :)

[PeterJones]

@kavish-jha ,

I’m a little confused by some of your description, so sorry if I’ve misinterpreted things.

AppData, Cloud, -settingsDir, and doLocalConf are the only four solutions I know of. You are rejecting AppData (for reasons of being “temporary”, which doesn’t make sense to me, but I am sure you know the details of your system more than I can guess from a brief description); you are rejecting cloud data because you cannot put %UserName% variable in the path; presumably doLocalConf won’t work for you, because you don’t want everyone storing their settings in the same app directory.

But some comments from me:

Idea 1: -settingsDir might work, if you can create their shortcut and/or batch file that launches Notepad++: you could have that run "\path\to\notepad++.exe" -settingsDir="Windows Server - A1\Notepad++\%UserName%\" to launch Notepad++. As long as they always start Notepad++ with that shortcut/batch, rather than running notepad++.exe directly, it would get its settings from the right place. (If you have context-menu commands in regedit, you could maybe even edit the registry so it always includes the -settingsDir argument in the registry calls as well)

Idea 2: Since the Cloud Directory won’t allow variables, could you have a script that runs when a user logs in that creates a junction? You could make the junction always named Windows Server - A1\Notepad++\ActiveUser , but it would point to the Windows Server - A1\Notepad++\%UserName%\ , so you could set Notepad++ up to always look at Windows Server - A1\Notepad++\ActiveUser , and the login script would take care of making sure that always points to the user’s actual preference directory.

Idea 3: Instead of having a script creating a junction and using Cloud Directory, you could have a script which copies Windows Server - A1\Notepad++\%UserName% to %AppData%\Notepad++ , and then a log-off script that copies it back the other way to save their settings long-term – so even if the %AppData% is “temporary” over the long-haul, it will exist while the user is logged in, and thus you can just have Notepad++ look in %AppData%\Notepad++ as normal.