Notepad++ 7.6 & new Plugins Admin

Maxim KP

Hello, When does this bug with plugin will be fixed?
We cannot manually change the directory of the plugins for 100 pc’s we need so that notepad++ still check in program files directory for the plugin directory.
It should be a quick fix for you guys.

dinkumoil

@Mihai-Ungureanu

What do you mean with

I cannot control the plugins in any way.

I guess you updated to Notepad++ v7.6. This version provides no ability to manage plugins (browse list, install, update, uninstall) for portable versions. I assume the PortableApps version relies on the official portable version, thus it lacks the features of plugin management too.

But you can continue to use your already installed plugins. Since Notepad++ v7.6 changed the directory structure required for plugins the program doesn’t load them currently.

I’ve digged in my desk for an USB stick with PortableApps v14.4.1 (it’s rather old but I guess its directory structure has not changed). In this version Notepad++ plugins are installed in <Drive>\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++\plugins. There you will find some DLL files whose names should be similar to the plugin names you know from the Notepad++ user interface.

You need to create a separate directory for every plugin as a subdirectory of the plugins directory, which has to be named exactly like the plugin’s DLL file, except the .dll extension. In this directory you have to move the DLL file itself and all other files and folders which are related to the plugin. There might be also files/folders in PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++\plugins\doc related to the plugin, in this case it is importand to create a doc directory inside the plugin’s own directory and move these files/folders from plugins\doc to plugins\<plugin-name>\doc.

But it is still not guaranteed that all plugins will function properly after doing that, it depends on how a plugin assembles the access paths to its companion files. You have to play around with every plugin to test if everything works properly. If you find a regression (e.g. help or manual doesn’t open, missing icons, errors when starting Notepad++ mentioning a special plugin) try to copy back the related files/directories to their original location. Additionally you should contact the plugin author to request an update that adopts the new plugin hosting model of Notepad++.

dinkumoil

@Maxim-KP

This behaviour is not a bug but it is a decision of the developer of Notepad++ to change the program’s behaviour.

I understand that it is annoying to reconfigure a whole company’s PC (and I’m also not a big fan of these changes ) but you have no choice.

I recommend to wait with that until the next release of Notepad++ because the location to store plugins will get changed once more, but finally, to the %ProgramData% directory, see here.

Mihai Ungureanu

@dinkumoil

Thanks for your answer. However I do not have time for this. I also uninstalled and re-installed NPP so my old plugins are gone now, I will look eventually to one of my backups. I was under the assumption that the new plugin manager is actually better even if maybe not all the plugins are here yet. if the new manager does not allow plugin management as you say, then the new feature is largely inferior to the old one.

For the moment I will uninstall the portable version and install the normal one, hoping you will fix this in the near future. In the meantime I will try to find different portable editors.

I appreciate however your work, keep on doing great things. However I insist on having portable versions on my pcs.

Galen Tackett

@donho The installer for 7.6 requires UAC elevation, and since I’m not an administrator, I can’t install Notepad++ 7.6 even for just myself. I thought this was possible with installers for earlier versions? Or was I mistaken?

I tried unzipping the .7z archive. I can certainly run Notepad++ from there, but the Plugins Admin is missing so I can’t install any additional plugins.

Is there some other way to install, that will allow me to use the Plugins Admin?

Guillaume Bloss

Hello,

as already said, I’d add once more that N++ should be able to manage both 32and 64b pluggins and probably also local and user plugin folder, as for some reason some people who want to use the portable version may not want plugins to be created in a user folder.

For the 32/64b version as already said, sometime you want to use 32b version for plugins and sometime the 64b version for large file (even if very large files may not be opened with N++ …)

the probleme here with the new version is user should make a choice between large file or plugins.
Of course this issue will probably disapear when plugins will be available in both 32 and 64, but not now.
So maybe the right choice would be to work on converting plugins to 64b, some of them are really useful (like compare and XML …)

dinkumoil

@Galen-Tackett said:

The installer for 7.6 requires UAC elevation, and since I’m not an administrator, I can’t install Notepad++ 7.6 even for just myself. I thought this was possible with installers for earlier versions?

Your are mistaken. The installer of Notepad++ required admin rights in previous versions too. This is a Windows restriction and can not be changed as installers copy the installed EXE file to a subfolder of Program Files or Program Files (x86) which are OS protected locations.

@Galen-Tackett said:

I tried unzipping the .7z archive. I can certainly run Notepad++ from there, but the Plugins Admin is missing so I can’t install any additional plugins.

Currently the portable versions of Notepad++ (from ZIP or 7z file) don’t include Plugin Admin. This may change in the furture. Currently the only way to use plugins with portable versions is to install them manually.

dinkumoil

@Guillaume-Bloss said:

…this issue will probably disapear when plugins will be available in both 32 and 64

There are already 64 bit plugins available (for about to 1.5 years). The 64 bit plugin manager is obtainable here, take PluginManager_v1.4.12_x64.zip. Please note: Plugin Manager is currently only usable with Notepad++ versions prior to v7.6 since the location where plugins have to be installed has been changed in this version.

N++ should be able to manage both 32and 64b pluggins and probably also local and user plugin folder

I’m afraid that you will never get this features. I would appreciate them too but @donho , the developer of Notepad++, has decided to simplify things and to reduce the number of installation variants.

Evgenii Puchkaryov

Same issue as @gurikbal singh mentioned. Plugins Admin is not visible anywhere either.
Also if I copy all plugins to the LOCALDATA location, it does not help at all.
I had to go back to 7.5.9 and restore the shortcut for my specific command that used a plugin.
I am on Windows 10

Max Brante

@Meta-Chuh said:

@Max-Brante

they don’t get ignored, but most of us are already tired of repeatedly posting the steps and reasons again and again

Sorry, I was a bit frustrated not being able to use a tool that I really like when I was not able to manage my plugins…

But , anyway thanks for the answers, I got it working at last.

Ahmet Gökalp Ergeç

Hi @donho,

Thank you for NPP.
After I moved to NPP 7.6 and New Plugins Admin, some how I had JSON Viewer 1.24 and JSON Viewer 1.32 together.

In new Plugins Admin, I selected the v1.24 and clicked on Remove button.
Strangely Plugins Admin wiped out the plugins folder.

Thanks to I was working in a virtual machince I was able to roll back to a snapshot.
In case you can’t reproduce the issue I have a copy of the plugins folder.

kind regards
Gökalp

Andrej Ličar

Here’s a powershell module to help with the update of the plugins:

https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/IIT.UpdateNppPlugins/1.0

all it takes is a plugin folder and the rest will be done automatically

install:

open powershell window
Install-Module -Name IIT.UpdateNppPlugins

run:
Update-NppPlugins -Path “C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\Plugins”

in fact the path can be any path, a ProgramData or any other custom installation path.

donho

@Andrej-Ličar said:

Here’s a powershell module to help with the update of the plugins:

https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/IIT.UpdateNppPlugins/1.0

Does it work with Notepad++ v7.6 or v7.6.2 ?
For v7.6.2, please check https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/16645/new-plugins-home-where-notepad-will-load-from

Gian Matteo

After installing the 7.6.x version over the old previuos one, I had to create a folder for each plugin file and put each one into its specific folder

andrecool-68

@donho I greet you!
Is it possible to make the preview window of installed plugins not a hard size, inconvenient viewing of a window … as was done in the old plugin manager.
Imgur

senselocke

I found a fix, at least for my PC. On a Win7x64 system using 32-bit N++, I had the same problem with every post-7.6 version I had installed. None of them ever had the Plugins install correctly. I got it working, finally, with 7.8.9, but it’s likely the same issue as prior versions. I’m replying to this because it seems to have the most information/discussion.

The problem was that the GUP.exe file in the notepad++/updater/ folder wasn’t ever starting. I watched my Task Manager and checked windows error logs… it never started. So I had a hunch, anc ran the GUP.exe program directly, and Windows popped up its UAC nag window ('Open File - Security Warning). I unchecked “Always ask before opening this file” to clear it with the UAC, clicked ‘Run’, and it showed the standard Notepad++ Available Update message. I clicked ‘no’.

I then re-opened Notepad++, used the Plugins Admin to install a plugin, and it WORKED. Hopefully this will help others with the same problem, which was (for clarity) that selecting to install a plugin through the ‘Plugins Admin’, click ‘Yes’ to restart, and NPP closes but never re-opens on its own. When opened manually, nothing was installed.