<![CDATA[Opening file with command line in an existing instance]]>I want to open a file via command line in cmd to an existing instance. I know I can set setting to default(mono-instance) in preference settings -> multi-instance setting. But I don’t want to use mono-instance normally, I only want to use mono-instance via cmd.

So is there any possible way to open file in as existing instance with cmd?, while multi-instance setting is on “always in multi-instance mode”.

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/24846/opening-file-with-command-line-in-an-existing-instanceRSS for NodeTue, 19 May 2026 09:11:01 GMTMon, 21 Aug 2023 14:49:08 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Opening file with command line in an existing instance on Tue, 22 Aug 2023 11:11:10 GMT]]>@PeterJones Oh my gosh, that’s all I needed. Thank you so much, I made batch file also, it makes me so comfortable.

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/88817https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/88817Tue, 22 Aug 2023 11:11:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Opening file with command line in an existing instance on Mon, 21 Aug 2023 15:15:40 GMT]]>@Eli-Grey said in Opening file with command line in an existing instance:

there any possible way to open file in as existing instance with cmd?, while multi-instance setting is on “always in multi-instance mode”.

No, but the opposite is easy: if you normally have notepad++ in mono-instance (via the settings), opening a single time in a separate instance from the command line is easy (with the -multiInst -nosession command line arguments)

But, I suppose, if you have the normal settings (stored in %AppData%\Notepad++) with multi-instance enabled, you could run from the command line using an alternate settings directory. So

  1. Copy %AppData%\Notepad++\config.xml to some alternate directory (I will use the example c:\usr\local\apps\npp\altSettingsDir\config.xml)
  2. Edit that new config.xml, and <GUIConfig name="multiInst" setting="2" to <GUIConfig name="multiInst" setting="0" . Save
  3. From command line,
    • notepad++ change.log will open change.log using the normal multi-instance rules
    • the alternate notepad++ -settingsDir="c:\usr\local\apps\npp\altSettingsDir\" change.log will use the alternate config file location, and thus not use multi-instance mode, and it will pick one of the already-open Notepad++ instances for editing the file

If you like that, you could set up a batch file in your path npp-mono.bat, which would call @notepad++ -settingsDir="c:\usr\local\apps\npp\altSettingsDir\" %*, so that you wouldn’t have to type that long -settingsDir argument every time.

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/88790https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/88790Mon, 21 Aug 2023 15:15:40 GMT