How to make Notepad++ default for Windows 10?

Pericles Christofilopoulos

I would like to know how to make Notepad++ the default program for Windows 10. Thank you in advance!

PeterJones

I would like to know how to make Notepad++ the default program for Windows 10

I hope you don’t mean “make Notepad++ the default program for all file types in Windows 10” – I would hate to have .bat automatically edit instead of running, or .xlsx files open up as gibberish in Notepad++ instead of opening in my spreadsheet program, or …

If you mean “make Notepad++ the default program for a given file type in Windows 10”, that seems a much more reasonable request. There are multiple ways to try, depending on how you like doing things, and whether Windows 10 is feeling in a cooperative mood.

In Windows Explorer, right click, and **Open With…*, setting it as the default for that extension. This will often work, except when it doesn’t. (Sometimes, conflicting background Windows settings will mean it won’t find Notepad++ , even if you navigate right to notepad++.exe; and sometimes, Windows refuses to save that)
Open Notepad++ as Administrator, then Settings > Preferences > File Association, and use the -> button to register Notepad++ with the selected file extension(s)
Use the registry
There are some who like to trick Windows into running Notepad++ anytime that windows would try to run notepad.exe – enough that there’s a section in the usermanual about it … but using the registry to trick Windows into thinking it’s launching a different program seems a foolish thing to do (and seems to me a feature that could be abused by hackers), when you can use the registry to teach Windows to do the right thing

Personally, plaintext files are the only file type I associate with Notepad++; everything else, I use the Windows RightClick > Edit with Notepad++ entry that you can get when you install Notepad++ (or can manually install).

Here are some other posts on similar queries I have participated in; these other topics might help you with problems you run into while fighting the quagmire that is Windows 10 File Association:

That’s about a year’s worth. Probably far enough back in my search.