someone was sufficiently annoyed by the inability to secure active-but-volatile settings (prone to being lost on a power outage) that they provided a script to execute a quit-restart cycle

Specifically, in Notepad++ Restart Shortcut Key discussion.

execute a quit-restart cycle… which should be a built-in user command

I haven’t checked but there must surely be an open feature request about this. Anyone know?

I don’t believe the is an official feature request for that. You could create one…

or use them only if you really know what you are doing, and understand their limitations

Yep. And as I recall, someone was sufficiently annoyed by the inability to secure active-but-volatile settings (prone to being lost on a power outage) that they provided a script to execute a quit-restart cycle… which should be a built-in user command, especially since the functionality already exists – we see it used reliably with version updates as well as with plugin installs.

I haven’t checked but there must surely be an open feature request about this. Anyone know?

Ah… multi-instances… which is what you are getting when you “drag the tab to an empty space on screen”…

When you do what you’ve described, Notepad++ starts up another instance of itself, but that instance only has the settings that have been saved to disk that last time N++ was exited. Your newly created macro has not yet been saved to disk, so the new instance of N++ doesn’t know about it yet. Even though you “saved” your macro, Notepad++ keeps it only in its memory until such a time as you exit the program.

You must restart after creating (and “saving”) a macro for your described workflow to be successful.

BTW, IMO multi-instances of Notepad++ are somewhat evil. My advice is to not use them, or use them only if you really know what you are doing, and understand their limitations.