@PeterJones said: PeterJones said: I assume the Search++ syntax would be the same Per the Search++ announcement, it can do the numeric calculations that were first developed for Columns++. I should update the FAQ soon… I recommend waiting on that update. Search++ is not “production ready” yet. People shouldn’t be using it at present unless they want to be beta testers. Once I reach a 1.0 release I’ll make a serious effort to avoid changing things that people would expect to stay the same, but right now, anything could be changed at any time. Numeric expressions in Search++ do not have quite all the features of numeric expressions in Columns++; in particular, the history options (using the values captured or computed in a previous match) aren’t supported in Search++, and the exprtk return statement isn’t supported. However, I think all the features directly cited in the Math FAQ are included. The reg(1) syntax still works, but in Search++ you can use $1 as well. However, a quirk is that since Search++ doesn’t have the persistent Decimal separator is comma option of Columns++, it’s necessary to use regc(1) or $$1 for European-style numbers with periods and/or commas. Finally, Columns++ can only work on the active document. Search++ has a Find in Files option, but Replace in Files has not yet been implemented. So if your guess was correct and @neculai-i.-fantanaru wants a regular expression because it must be applied to many files at once, @thomas-knoefel’s MultiReplace is the best choice among presently-existing options. Oh, and MultiReplace has recently added an option to use exprtk formulas as an alternative to its Lua syntax.

@guy038 Hello @guy038, Thanks for this thorough test, and no, you didn’t do anything wrong. Your investigation uncovered two separate behaviors in the code: Binary Files: MultiReplace “Find in Files” currently skips binary files, while native N++ searches every file it lists. That accounts for most of the gap in your USB drive numbers. I’ll look at how to make this configurable and more transparent. UTF-16 Bug: There is indeed a bug in how “Find in Files” handles UTF-16 encodings compared to “Find in Docs” and “Replace in Files”. This most likely explains the missing files in your smaller Test folder too. Since the forum isn’t ideal for sharing files and tracking bug fixes, I have opened a GitHub issue for this here: https://github.com/daddel80/notepadpp-multireplace/issues/133 I would gladly take you up on your offer to share the E:\Test folder contents so I can verify the fix against them. Could you please attach that folder as a zip or provide a link in the GitHub issue? Thanks again for your time and for helping to polish the next release candidate!

Hello, @coises, @thomas-knoefel and All, @Coises, you said : So I’m wondering, if you happen to remember, whether you tested in the order you listed, or whether you happened to test Search++ first? Well, since my previous tests were done in July 18, 2026, I don’t remenber exactly the way I used but I suppose that I first tested the native N++ search ! Thus, I decided to conduct a new series of tests. Of course, the results of the entire scan of my D: USB drive, are slightly different. Luckily, the number of matches and files containing the Fi string are identical between the Search++ search and the Notepad++ search IMPORTANT : I updated Search++ to the last 0.6.5 version, before all these tests So, this time, I first use the Search++ Find in Files dialog : I stop and re-start my W11 laptop I pluged my USB key I start N++ I ran an entire scan of my D: USB key for the Fi string, using the Search++ plugin => I got 27,081 matches in 841 files of 1,772, in 2m 10s I close N++ I unpluged my USB key I stop and re-start my W11 laptop I re-pluged my USB key I start N++ I ran an entire scan of my D: USB key for the Fi string, using the native Notepad++ search => I got 27,081 matches in 841 files of 1,772, in 1m 21s As you can see, no real difference between these tests and those of July 18 ! On the other hand, this time, the results obtained with the MultiReplace plugin are completely different. After a complete re-start of my machine I ran an entire scan of my D: USB key for the Fi string, using the MultiReplace plugin => I got 18,767 hits in 726 files in 1m 05s. Most of non text files are not scanned at all ?! I don’t understand these huge differences ? I first suspected that I allowed this option in MultiReplace settings : File Search : Skip files larger than but this option is not set ! Thus, right after this post, I’m going to post to @thomas-knoefel for possible information ! Remark that this present post is saved on a different USB drive to avoid future changes regarding the number of matches of the Fi string ! To end, @coises, you said : In any case, after weeks of running in circles, I think I will soon give up the fight to optimize performance and see what else needs work. I totally agree with this wise statement !! Best Regards, guy038

@guy038 I can creat a Python script :) but the beauty and art was finding a solution just with regex.

@donho Reported to both sites per your request to help keep the community safe.

@Jacopo-Remondina , I am still not sure what you want for FOLDING and what you want for KEYWORD and what you want for DELIMITER and what you don’t want detected at all. But at this point, I’m guessing that what you want is too complicated for the simplistic keyword/token matching used for UDL. For FOLDING, it’s designed to either match spaces-not-needed so the open/mid/closing all don’t require spaces, or to match spaces-required so the open/mid/closing all do require spaces; it is not meant to mix, so that the open doesn’t require spaces but the close does. The easiest workaround is what you already know: enumerate them all. I don’t think you’re going to find a better solution.

“400k severly wounded ukrainian soldiers”, sorry.

@Safe-Tex Firstly, the question of Palestine is not the subject here. Secundly, you can’t know Alan Kilborn’s opinion about Israel, Palestine, and the conflict which opposes them. Lastly, the reliability of sources as Fox News or the Times of Israel don’t have any impact on the reliability of ruSSian sources, which are usually putin’s way to spread his bullsh*t deceitful propaganda (so yes, ruSSian site => lies).

@Afik-Gilboa said: both of them have the “run as administrator” unchecked. so any ideas why it keeps opening in admin mode? apparently everything running as administrator here, not sure why but it’s everything… I recognize the symptoms - you probably have turned off the Windows UAC completely somehow and at the same time the account, you are logged in, has the administrator rights (then everything launched will have the admin rights as default). Check your Registry for EnableLUA REG_DWORD 0x00000000 in: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] (click on Windows Start, start typing “Reg” there, click on the Registry Editor (System) app offered and navigate there to the hive path above) If there is that 0x00000000 (OFF), change it do 0x00000001 (ON) and restart your PC.

@KRadiants said: 1: False on both counts. Here is an example line <attribute id="Selectors" type="LSString" value="SelectSkills(ed664663-93b9-4070-a54b-3c7b19c0e7b4,3);SelectSpells(61f79a30-2cac-4a7a-b5fe-50c89d307dd6,2,0,BardCantrip,,,AlwaysPrepared);SelectSpells(dcb45167-86bd-4297-9b9d-c295be51af5b,4,0,BardSpells);SelectEquipment(aab8c5b5-eacf-4867-8e5f-bd4de3a9132e,1,BardInstrument);SelectAbilityBonus(b9149c8e-52c8-46e5-9cb6-fc39301c05fe,AbilityBonus,2,1)"/> There is a blank before, and sometimes there is something before and/or after it Otherwise, this is correct. OK, so in this example you want to end up with: <attribute id="Selectors" type="LSString" value="SelectSkills(ed664663-93b9-4070-a54b-3c7b19c0e7b4,3);SelectSpells(61f79a30-2cac-4a7a-b5fe-50c89d307dd6,BardCantrip,,,AlwaysPrepared);SelectSpells(dcb45167-86bd-4297-9b9d-c295be51af5b,BardSpells);SelectEquipment(aab8c5b5-eacf-4867-8e5f-bd4de3a9132e,1,BardInstrument);SelectAbilityBonus(b9149c8e-52c8-46e5-9cb6-fc39301c05fe,AbilityBonus,2,1)"/> ? If that’s correct, try the same expression I suggested before, except remove the ^ from the front: Find what: (SelectSpells\([\d\-abcdef]+),\d+,\d+ Replace with: $1

@PeterJones, many thanks to Your reply. This workaround works perfectly. I searched for this workaround (because I expected that anyone wouls have the same needs) but wasn’t successful - searching for a solution to a problem can be a frustrating experience if you don’t use the right search term(s) — which, of course, you don’t know yet at that stage…

@saintleningrad-prog said: Select text, or place the cursor inside a ^^…^^ tag, press Ctrl+Shift+E Just a head’s up: that’s the same default key combination that decodes HTML entities when HTML Tag is installed. Since plugin commands are mapped in alphabetical order, and the most recent mapping prevails, having both installed will silently block the EncTag’s plugin shortcut from functioning: [image: 1787355567929-enctags-v020-shortcut-conflict.png] One more thing: the text you are passing to the About message box (here) contains the literal Unicode character U+2013: EN DASH. Since the Unicode literal is inside a character string, the compiler interprets everything between "..." as if it were encoded in the operating system’s default, single-byte code page (usually Windows-1252 on English- or European-language PCs). When shown, the emdash becomes the string of nonsensical bytes \xe2\x80\x94: [image: 1787355726977-enctags-v020-mojibake.png] You just need to escape the Unicode literal, i.e., "Ctrl+Shift+E \u2013 ..."

@André-Programmeren said: As far as I remember I stopped and re-started Notepad++ Notepad++ saved it’s current language for that file (plain text) in the session config, then used that saved session config when you restarted. (This is a critical feature when one extension can have multiple meanings, and you have overridden the default language for a particular file) OTOH, if you close the file, Notepad++ discards meta-information, like what language was previously served, and so re-applies its internal rules and will see the UDL extension when you re-open the file.

I simply don’t have the mental space to go through all these documents and give them names and save them and do all the things. I will get there eventually. Then you will likely lose data. But I also observe that my friends are in the same boat, whenever we need scratch space to write something down, we double click on an empty place on the tab bar, a new tab appears, then data is written and pasted and so on… And then click Ctrl+S and save to a meaningful location, while it’s still fresh in your mind. It’s really easy to add that to your mental workflow. I have many old notepad++\backup folder strewn all over the place Crazy. Those are temporary backup folders, and if you’re keeping them as long-term storage, you are asking to lose data. It is a huge burden to handle and search these. When I need to search my stuff I use Voidtools Everything Why not first, copy all except the active (2026-08-19) backup directory, copy them to a known folder in one location – if you need to, make it a hierarchy, like c:\some\path\old-npp-unsaved\, and then have 2022-08 and 2022-12 and 2026-03 and 2024-01 as subdirectories, if you want/need to keep them separate; or, since every file has the datestamp in it already, just put all the contents of each of those in the same c:\some\path\old-npp-unsaved\ … Then, when you need to search your old backup archives, they are in one easy location. And you can just use Notepad++'s built-in Search > Find in Files, with Directory = c:\some\path\old-npp-unsaved\ and ☑ In all subfolders, then just enter your search term in the FIND WHAT box. But getting back at the current matter, I would like to see more of my tabs, on more than one row but not see all of them at once, which blots out all the reader space. So put in a feature request, as described in our feature request FAQ. I was just warning that it might be harder than you think, or there might not be anyone wanting to do it. But since @thomas-knoefel seems to have an idea for an implementation, then there’s likely to be a PR sometime soonish after you put in the feature request, and then it can quickly get reviewed by the developer. It might even make it into v8.9.9 (it’s too late for v8.9.8, since that’s in Release Candidate), but that means it might actually make it soon. https://superuser.com/questions/153109/is-there-a-way-to-manage-tabs-efficiently-in-notepad [image: 1787241672999-4cb4cf53-2459-4854-bdea-040b96b9ef5d-image.jpeg] I tried finding this in my installation but could not figure it out. Seems that it is buried somewhere in the menus, which would make making a habit of using it difficult. The SU answer was originally from 2010 2013, and then edited in 2015, so the description is confusing, especially in 2026. The Session Manager that they mentioned is not “built in”, it is a plugin. Notepad++ has simplistic native sessions, but nothing to the capability of the Session Manager that they were talking about. To install it, the “Plugin Manager” that was described in 2015 hasn’t been compatible with Notepad++ since v7.6 in 2019. Looking at questions and answers from a decade ago aren’t necessarily going to work in modern Notepad++. Instead, that old plugin manager tool was replaced with the builtin Plugins Admin instead in 2019. And the Session Manager plugin that the ancient SU answer referenced does still exist: you can install it using Plugins > Plugins Admin One thing I really which is to also have the ability to have multiple notepad++ window, like multiple firefox windows. That feature has existed for more than a decade (as I said here, just yesterday – why are people just now discovering the multi-instance capabilities, when it’s essentially always been a part of Notepad++). As was said in yesterday’s conversation, you can drag a tab out into empty space, and it will create a new instance; or, not mentioned yesterday, you can use the right-click context menu on a tab then Move Document, or equivalently use View > Move/Clone Current Document…, to then pick Move to New Instance, and it will open a new Notepad++ window. Or at least have floating notepad++ window with just one tab. This would make my life easier organizationally ! Saving files would make your life easier. The thing I find is that if I have something to write, and it’s urgent, I can’t give it a title, a filename or save it, I have a hard time explaining why those extremely easy things are so hard for me, but I simply cannot. You can, actually. It might take a little retraining, but even an old dog can learn new tricks. The ability to “just write” is probably one of the thing I love the most about notepad++ and I wish it were even easier to “sprawl” even more but that it would help me with staying organized without me having to start organizing it. Hopefully, your AI will be able to help you… though I am doubtful of it. Still, I highly recommend setting up true backup, version control, and a saving system going forward, otherwise you will lose data, and there’s nothing that Notepad++ can do to save you from your current risky behavior. Good luck.

@goma-2000 , Your most recent post just quoted previous, not saying anything new. Were you meaning to say something?

@Coises Thankyou so much, I had two question marks near the end of the code block I was replacing with that I hadn’t escaped, so the code got cut off there. I’d blindly assumed NPP’s find and replace didn’t care about escaping because the code is full of all manner of forwardslashes, colons, and angle brackets and they posed no issue.

@dcog989 Thanks for this - if you have any tweaks or updates you’ve made since this comment, let me know!

@LiivaneLord said: I have noticed that I can now take tab and drag it outside window to make new instance of notepad++. Thank you. That’s not a new feature in v8.9.7. It’s been there a long time (as long as I can remember *). There is only 2 bugs - I cant drag modified file and I cant drag new file from scratch. That’s inherent to the design (and nothing new, so not a regression, and thus shouldn’t be in the Release Announcement anyway) To drag a file to a new instance, there needs to be an underlying file on the filesystem, with all the bytes that you want to open in the new instance, because what Notepad++ does is it launches a new instance of the executable, then uses the internal “file > open” command to read the original file off the disk, then closes the old copy from the old instance of Notepad++. If there wasn’t a file on the disk, there would be nothing for the new instance to read; and if there are unsaved changes, then those changes would not be saved to the disk yet, so the new instance couldn’t read those. To protect you from losing all the unsaved text that you’ve already typed, Notepad++ doesn’t activate the “move to new instance” feature when you try to do it with unsaved changes (whether in a new # document, or in an existing file with unsaved edits). The behavior you described is thus “working as designed” to keep you from unexpectedly losing your data, and thus not a bug (and definitely not a regression). *: update: yes, I tried back to v8.0 in 2021 and even v7.0 from 2016, and I could drag a tab from the tabbar to a new instance, even from the 2016 version of the application. Having proven it worked that way a decade ago, I can confidently say that this is definitely not a new feature. since this is not a new feature, and the problems you are describing are neither a problem with a new feature nor a regression in an existing feature, and they don’t belong in the “Notepad++ release 8.9.7” announcement, this question and reply have been forked to a separate “help wanted” topic.