I really don’t understand why linenumber is on by default!

Because lots of users like it tha way. (It’s really useful for programming, which is a major use of Notepad++.)

This is a pain in the &% to find where the setting has been moved

Because looking through a few panels of settings is so horrible. Or, gasp, you could read the user manual that’s linked from the ? menu. If you go to the “Editing” section of the preferences in the user manual: go to the “preferences” page and Ctrl+F to find the word “Number”. A few hits down (currently the eighth hit); or, if you remembered that it used to be called “display line number”, you could search for that, the first answer would literally be the new location.

Anyone wants it can go find it and enable it

The same argument could be made that “anyone who doesn’t want it can go and find it and disable it” – with everything else in your argument being used identically for the opposite desire. The designer of Notepad++ made a choice years ago on that, and would need a compelling reason to change the default (especially because all the people who were used to years of Notepad++ having the line number on by default would be seriously put out by the line numbers not being on by default, and they would complain a lot louder than you)

And BTW, we’re all just fellow users of Notepad++ here, so yelling at us (and yes, on the internet, ALL CAPS and Exclamation! Points! is yelling) will do you no good. (Actually, yelling at the developers would do you no good, either. Because that’s an awful way to try to convince them to bend to your will.)

@Bernard-Barton-Jr ,

It moved to Settings > Preferences > Margins/Borders/Edge (because it affects the line number margin, and because the Editing preferences were too full) in v7.9.2, as documented in the user manual

Got it, thank you!

It moved to Settings > Preferences > Margins/Borders/Edge (because it affects the line number margin, and because the Editing preferences were too full) in v7.9.2, as documented in the user manual