thanks, and sorry for the typo.

%ProgramFiles(x86) or %ProgramFiles … %ProgramFiles(x86)\Notepad++\gupOptions.xml…

You seem to be dropping the closing % from Windows variables recently. It should be:

%ProgramFiles(x86)% or %ProgramFiles%… %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Notepad++\gupOptions.xml…

it’s necessary to open notepad++ elevated as administrator, due to the permissions required for %ProgramFiles(x86) or %ProgramFiles, to save the changes to e.g. %ProgramFiles(x86)\Notepad++\gupOptions.xml lies.

our apologies, if we did not mention this, and that it is a bit confusing, as the proxy settings panel will not throw a permission warning, but just exit without modifying gupOptions.xml.

many thanks and best regards.

Thanks for sharing. I never actually used that just know that the setting is there but never tested if it is working.

After manually creating the missing gupOptions.xml file with the proxy address, it would then show up in the “Set updater Proxy …” location. I could then also install plugins after that as well.

Thought I’d pass the info along to anyone else requiring the use of a proxy that wasn’t sticking in the setting.

You can now do it directly from Notepad++.
Go to the help and about menu - ? and you’ll see Set Updater Proxy ....

BR

…
If you install plugins manually you need to create separate plugin folder per plugin,
So you need to have D:\tools\Notepad++\plugins\PluginXName\PluginXName.dll

Thanks @pnedev , this helped.
For anyone else who’s got the same problem - notice that the folder name should be exactly the same as the DLL name (as actually mentioned in the quote above)

Thank you, I appreciate your kindness ;)

Since here we are getting quite a lot “I-cannot-install-plugins” kind of help requests recently perhaps it will be good to make pinned thread

good idea, i second that.

This will save us (you mainly as I don’t frequently answer) a lot of time answering the same questions again and again.

maybe not hyper-frequently in the past, but very active and always very useful as well as productive … and you are more active lately, which i personally encourage and enjoy a lot ;-)

I suppose if Plugin Install Problems FAQ thread is written Don can pin it so it shows in the very beginning of Help Wanted and Plugins Development.

@PeterJones , @guy038 and me have started a little brainstorming discussion about that >>> here <<< and guy has some ideas to improvements, which we can do autonomously.
you are very invited to join with anything that’s on your mind … or just for the fun of it ;-)

I would also suggest a small addition to Notepad++'s future versions - on startup to check the plugins folder for any DLLs. If such are present to show message saying that those are not supposed to be there and will not be loaded.

a request for the old plugin manager was submitted.
Remove the “Plugin Manager” plugin on Notepad++ 7.6.x and above due to incompatibility. #5409
i chose the removal option, fearing that a message will be clicked away and ignored by many users.

What do you think?

i’m completely with you.

Just curious why this did not cause any problems in the past…

because the old “plugin manager” from david bruderstein automatically used the proxy settings from the windows internet options (microsoft internet explorer lan settings).

There was a one-time setup cost

You are right, after the initial setup is done, it gets no-brainer. I will definitely try it out in the new setup, soon my machine is getting EoL and I will anyway need to install all the software again…

@Meta-Chuh

In this case it wouldn’t have made any difference, but initially I wouldn’t loose all of the plugins because of failed update! And yes, our proxy do require credentials… At least github and sourceforge are not blocked.

Thanks again, guys!

Since here we are getting quite a lot "I-cannot-install-plugins" kind of help requests recently perhaps it will be good to make pinned thread in https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/category/4/help-wanted and https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/category/5/plugin-development shortly describing the most common problems and solutions. Something like FAQ. This will save us (you mainly as I don’t frequently answer) a lot of time answering the same questions again and again.
I suppose if Plugin Install Problems FAQ thread is written Don can pin it so it shows in the very beginning of Help Wanted and Plugins Development.

I would also suggest a small addition to Notepad++'s future versions - on startup to check the plugins folder for any DLLs. If such are present to show message saying that those are not supposed to be there and will not be loaded.

What do you think?

But really, compare that to the ~5hr delay you just experienced between when you first joined this conversation, and when you confirmed that networking/Proxy settings were the cause of your difficulty.

maybe this was my bad, as i could have saved @schwaben-github a few hours, if i wouldn’t always be offline for so long ;-)

@schwaben-github

i usually suggest the portable versions as well, for peter’s reasons, but in this case, if it is really an existing proxy, i guess it wouldn’t have made much of a difference if portable or not (at least not for using the built in plugins admin).

ps: let’s hope your proxy doesn’t require credentials, or blocks downloads from github, sourceforge, or other sites that might be disallowed by a policy.

Your solution is very interesting, but it’s also a bit time intensive

There was a one-time setup cost, but it was probably less than half an hour of work for me. But really, compare that to the ~5hr delay you just experienced between when you first joined this conversation, and when you confirmed that networking/Proxy settings were the cause of your difficulty.

(And the only reason I evaluate and keep so many versions of Notepad++ is because I frequent this forum, and often need to test alternate versions to figure out why a user is having the problem they explain. Otherwise, I tend to not upgrade unless there’s a good feature/bugfix reason for me to.)

Indeed, I didn’t consider the fact that I need to configure Proxy! As soon as I got home and plugged the machine into my home network, I could install plugins whichever I wanted!

@PeterJones , the moment you wrote “can you show us a dir C:\Program Files\Notepad++ and…” it was the moment you confronted me with markdown for the first time… I’m happy that at least something came out, but next time I’ll know!
Your solution is very interesting, but it’s also a bit time intensive. But you are right, the mess with my plugin installation started after an update unintended erased all the plugins I was using! That’s why I will consider your solution sooner or later.

Thanks again!

![](https://i.imgur.com/V454gzT.jpg)
![](https://i.imgur.com/lQB8ao8.jpg)

(notice that you have to give the full real URL to the jpg/png/gif, not just their short https://imgur.com/V454gzT URL, which is imgur’s display-page-with-ads – ie, HTML – not an image that can be embedded in a post)

I see , which shows you are in the c:\program files\ hierarchy

and , which shows that you tried to put a 32-bit DLL in that hierarchy.

You quoted above that your OS is a 64-bit Windows 10, so the c:\program files\ hierarchy is where 64-bit programs go, and c:\program files (x86)\ hierarchy is where 32-bit programs go. If you download the 32-bit DLL and try to place it in c:\program files\notepad++\plugins\ComparePlugin\ComparePlugin.dll, it will not work, because the 64-bit Notepad++ executable cannot recognize a 32-bit DLL, and the error message told you as much.

even if I use both 32-bit Npp and plugin!

Unfortunately, you said that, but didn’t show that circumstance in any of your screenshots. That makes it hard to analyze what went wrong with that attempt.

@Meta-Chuh is probably on the right path for your failure when you used Plugin Admin.

However, when I got tired of fighting UAC at work (they not only have UAC, but watchdog software which makes me give a reason whenever I try to elevate a task), I gave in and switched to purely portable versions. I put them in my c:\usr\local\apps\ hierarchy, and I have multiple versions under directories named liked npp32.7.6.3 and npp64.7.6.3. Once I decide I’m going to switch to a version as my primary Notepad++, I copy it to \usr\local\apps\notepad++\ . I have all my file associations (in regedit’s HKCU\Software\Classes) pointing to \usr\local\apps\notepad++\notepad++.exe, so whatever version I put in that path will be my default/normal version. I have no difficulty using Plugin Admin to install plugins in that portable version. The only two “downsides” of the portable are that settings are in the portable directory rather than %AppData%\Notepad++ (which I do consider a downside), and not having auto-update on Notepad++ (which isn’t a downside to me; I prefer deciding when to update a tool like this, rather than letting the tool’s author force it down my throat).

it’s a company machine I’m using and obviously UAC prevented the installation of plugins (Unknown software…), even when I tried starting the Notepad++ in Admin mode (with nagging UAC, of course…)!

in your case trying 7.6.3 or 7.6.4 will not make a difference.

if you know your company’s corporate proxy ip and port, you will have to set them at the menu:
? > set updater proxy as seen at the screenshot below, to use plugins admin to install any plugins.

but this will only work, as long as your proxy/corporate firewall does not require credentials, as this is currently not supported in notepad++.