Solution for " Windows notepad corrupted by notepad++"

JimFingDandy

Re: Windows notepad corrupted by notepad++

Mike,
The Notepad++ 8.6.3 installer does in fact hijack the operation of Window’s Notepad.exe.

I run a windows 7x64 machine and here’s what I found in about 30 seconds using Nirsoft’s RegScanner:

It tells Notepad++ to redirect Notepad to itself. There are two registry keys and here’s what they are:

#1 [HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe]
“Debugger”=“C:\Windows\NotepadStarter.exe”
“Notepad++”=“C:\PROGRA~1\NOTEPA~1\notepad++.exe”
“readme”=“call NotepadStarter.exe instead of original notepad.exe! To disable this option just remove notepad.exe entry”

#2 [HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe]
“Debugger”=“C:\Windows\NotepadStarter.exe”
“Notepad++”=“C:\PROGRA~1\NOTEPA~1\notepad++.exe”
“readme”=“call NotepadStarter.exe instead of original notepad.exe! To disable this option just remove notepad.exe entry”

and the both tell you how to fix it. Just refresh the registry and it will work.

PeterJones

@JimFingDandy ,

You are incorrect. I have run the Notepad++ v8.6.3 installer, and do not have those registy settings that you mentioned. Nor do I have a c:\Windows\NotepadStarter.exe executable in my filesystem.

But since your screenshot shows c:\Windows\NotepadStarter.exe, I am wondering whether at some point, you installed the “plugin” called NotepadStarterPlugin

If you look at that plugin’s repo, changing those keys in the registry is exactly what it claims to do.

update: Also, if you had read the full discussion that you linked to for your reply, you would have seen that the NotepadStarterPlugin was already identified as the likely culprit 7 years ago.