<![CDATA[How to prevent auto syntax highlighting for files with xml tag in first line?]]>I often need to edit a file that has 20,000 tags. Notepad++ hangs for 10 seconds on opening that file because it reads from the first line:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

then automatically applies XML syntax highlighting, and this process is super heavy and slow for that file.
I need to empasize: Notepad++ is detecting XML because of the first line. It’s not due to file extension. File extension is XSPF and this doesn’t matter. I can rename it to .js and Notepadd++ still applies XML syntax. In the same way, if I keep .xspf and just remove the first line, then Notepad++ opens the file without any formatting (and all slowness goes away!).

So my question is how to prevent this. I need to open this file as “Normal text”, without any formatting.

This is not caused by XML Tools, this happens even without any plugin.

Also I don’t know why Notepad++ is so inefficient with XML files. SciTE opens the same file instantly, with syntax highlighting and fold marks.

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/22658/how-to-prevent-auto-syntax-highlighting-for-files-with-xml-tag-in-first-lineRSS for NodeSat, 11 Jul 2026 14:00:22 GMTWed, 02 Mar 2022 08:16:02 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to How to prevent auto syntax highlighting for files with xml tag in first line? on Wed, 02 Mar 2022 10:34:09 GMT]]>Answered on GitHub.

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/74761https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/74761Wed, 02 Mar 2022 10:34:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How to prevent auto syntax highlighting for files with xml tag in first line? on Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:57:30 GMT]]>@pintassilgo ,

Maybe you should. I never saw that behavior when I was trying to read just text, but then again, I didn’t rename the ext .xml. :)

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/74758https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/74758Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:57:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to How to prevent auto syntax highlighting for files with xml tag in first line? on Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:32:27 GMT]]>I just realized that the first line

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

is what’s causing the bug.

If I remove that line, but rename the file to .xml so that Notepad++ will sill open it with XML syntax highlight, the file opens instantly.

So it’s not that Notepad++ is unable to properly handle XML files. It’s just that the first line is triggering some strange bug.

Should I report this?

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/74757https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/74757Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:32:27 GMT