Search++ Config save prompt when exiting after multi-instance

M Andre Z Eckenrode

I’ve been meaning to try out your Search++ plugin, and have gotten as far as installing v0.6 a week or two ago, though I don’t think I’ve done much more than look through the help and settings, and I may have even changed one or more settings from the default configuration, but no actual searches that I recall, so far. However, I am noticing an annoying behavior when exiting Notepad++ after having been using multiple instances of it. It’s pretty common for me to have at least two instances of NPP open, usually on two different desktops under Windows 10 x64. The second instance is normally opened with command line options -multiInst -nosession, and I always exit it before exiting the primary instance. but every time I try to exit the primary instance after having exited the secondary, the following message appears in a Yes/No dialog:

“It looks like the configuration file for this plugin was edited during this session.
Do you want to save the current configuration settings? (If Yes, the edited file will be overwritten.)”

That happens every time for me, even though I haven’t consciously edited the configuration file since shortly after I first installed the plugin. Any ideas?

Debug info, in case it’s useful:

Notepad++ v8.9.7   (32-bit)
Build time: Jul 14 2026 - 01:11:31
Scintilla/Lexilla included: 5.6.4/5.5.1
Boost Regex included: 1_90
pugixml included: 1.16
nlohmann JSON included: 3.12.0
Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Command Line: D:\Users\MAZE\AppData\AutoHotkey\AutoHotkey.ahk
Admin mode: OFF
Local Conf mode: OFF
Cloud Config: OFF
WinGUp: present
disableNppAutoUpdate.xml: absent
Periodic Backup: ON
Placeholders: OFF
Scintilla Rendering Mode: SC_TECHNOLOGY_DIRECTWRITE (1)
Multi-instance Mode: monoInst
asNotepad: OFF
File Status Auto-Detection: cdEnabledNew (for current file/tab only)
Dark Mode: OFF
Display Info:
    primary monitor: 1920x1080, scaling 100%
    visible monitors count: 1
    installed Display Class adapters: 
        0000: Description - Intel(R) HD Graphics 620
        0000: DriverVersion - 31.0.101.2140
        0001: Description - NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
        0001: DriverVersion - 30.0.15.1169
OS Name: Windows 10 Enterprise (64-bit)
OS Version: 22H2
OS Build: 19045.7548
Current ANSI codepage: 1252
Plugins: 
    BetterMultiSelection (1.5)
    ColumnsPlusPlus (1.3.1)
    ColumnTools (1.4.5.1)
    ComparePlus (3)
    DSpellCheck (1.5)
    ExtSettings (1.3.1)
    HTMLTag_unicode (1.6)
    mimeTools (3.1)
    MultiClipboard (2.1)
    MultiReplace (6.0.0.36)
    NppCalc (1.5)
    NppConverter (4.7)
    NppExport (0.4)
    NPPJSONViewer (2.2)
    NppTextFX (2.0.3)
    NppXmlTreeviewPlugin (2)
    PreviewHTML (1.4.5)
    PythonScript (2.1)
    RegexTrainer (1.2)
    Search++ (0.6)
    SessionMgr (1.4.4)

Coises

@M-Andre-Z-Eckenrode said:

However, I am noticing an annoying behavior when exiting Notepad++ after having been using multiple instances of it. It’s pretty common for me to have at least two instances of NPP open, usually on two different desktops under Windows 10 x64. The second instance is normally opened with command line options -multiInst -nosession, and I always exit it before exiting the primary instance. but every time I try to exit the primary instance after having exited the secondary, the following message appears in a Yes/No dialog:

“It looks like the configuration file for this plugin was edited during this session.
Do you want to save the current configuration settings? (If Yes, the edited file will be overwritten.)”

I see. I put in the code for that as a general thing I use in my newer plugins, so that if you ever want to edit the configuration file, you don’t have to use something other than Notepad++, or fuss around copying or renaming, to do it.

But I didn’t think of your case. With multiple instances of Notepad++, both copies use the same configuration file. The configuration file keeps track of many things besides settings: history of what was used in the find and replace boxes, position of the dialog; I’m pretty sure that it always gets rewritten on every run.

So the instance you close first writes to the configuration file, then the instance you close next sees that the timestamp on the file is different than the one it recorded when you opened it, and warns you that you have to choose between losing whatever changes you made to it (in this case, in the other instance of Notepad++) or losing whatever changes you made in this instance.

Sorry about that. I really just didn’t think of people using two or more instances of Notepad++ and how this would interfere with that. I’ll work out a way to let you disable that feature/aggravation.

Thank you for giving Search++ a try!

Coises

@M-Andre-Z-Eckenrode:

Thank you for reporting this. I never use multiple instances, so I never noticed it. It certainly is annoying.

Search++ version 0.6.3.1 should fix this without you needing to do anything. As is the case for Notepad++ itself and most plugins, only the configuration current in the last instance of Notepad++ to close will be saved.

M Andre Z Eckenrode

@Coises

You’re welcome, and thank YOU for promptly creating the new version, and for your plugins in general to begin with! The new one lets me exit without incurring any dialog.