Problem with inactive/unavailable Plugins Admin

[andrecool-68]

@PeterJones said:

When you ran the installer, did you turn off the following checkmark?

How do I change this setting in the portable version?

[PeterJones]

@andrecool-68 said:

How do I change this setting in the portable version?

There is no such setting for portable. The normal portable (not the minimalist) comes with the nppPluginList.dll in the right place, so Plugins Admin should just work.

If it does not, you probably left the Mark of the Web on either that DLL or on GUP.exe. I explained how to check (and clear) that in my post above.

If that’s not it, but you’ve been using the same portable directory for a long time, and have just been extracting the new exe with each update, it may be that your GUP is old enough to not have the right security handoff with notepad++.exe any more: make sure you’ve extracted the most recent GUP and nppPluginList from the newest portable zip (and removed the Mark of the Web).

(To do either of those last two paragraphs, Notepad++ must not be running.)

If you need more help, create a new Topic, as the problem you are having does not appear to be a regression, and shouldn’t be part of this Announcement.

[andrecool-68]

@PeterJones said:

If you need more help, create a new Topic, as the problem you are having does not appear to be a regression, and shouldn’t be part of this Announcement.

I can’t ask questions on the site github.com and I don’t understand what to do about it:
https://i.imgur.com/EnMge5h.mp4
This question of mine is not related to this topic, but I already don’t know what to do.

[PeterJones]

@andrecool-68 ,

I wasn’t saying to use GitHub. I was saying to create a new Topic here, in the Community Forum. I just moved your post and the replies to a new Topic, so you don’t have to create a new Topic any more. Just answer in reply here, not in the Announcement topic.

[PeterJones]

@andrecool-68 ,

So I have no clue why GitHub isn’t letting you type, as shown in your video. It might have something to do with you using the onscreen keyboard instead of a physical keyboard. There’s nothing I can do about that.

But let’s get back to your Plugins Admin issue. (At least, I am assuming you have an issue with Plugins Admin, since you were asking how to change that installer option when using Notepad++. The only reason I can imagine that’s what you are asking for is because you were seeing Plugins Admin not being there in the menu.)

You claim you have a portable version. So that means it’s at some path like c:\myportable\notepad++\ (that’s the path I will use for my examples)

0. Exit all copies of Notepad++
1. use Windows Explorer to go to c:\myportable\notepad++\
2. right click on notepad++.exe,
   • select Properties,
   • be on the General tab (which is the first tab you should see).
   • Look at the bottom.
   • Does it have the “Unblock” checkbox at the bottom, like in the following screenshot?
     
     • If so, click the checkbox and choose Apply then OK
3. use Windows Explorer to go to c:\myportable\notepad++\updater\
4. right click on GUP.exe,
   • select Properties,
   • be on the General tab (which is the first tab you should see).
   • Look at the bottom.
   • Does it have the “Unblock” checkbox at the bottom?
     • If so, click the checkbox and choose Apply then OK
5. use Windows Explorer to go to c:\myportable\notepad++\plugins\Config\
6. right click on nppPluginList.dll,
   • select Properties,
   • be on the General tab (which is the first tab you should see).
   • Look at the bottom.
   • Does it have the “Unblock” checkbox at the bottom?
     • If so, click the checkbox and choose Apply then OK

Now, run Notepad++ again. Plugins Admin should show up in the Plugins menu

If it does not, you need to do the following:

• Share your ?-menu’s Debug Info
• Share a screenshot of your Plugins menu
  • not a movie
  • please do a normal screenshot, so you can paste it right in your post, so we can see it withouth going to an external website who exists solely to show us ads we don’t want.
  • it should be something like this:
    
• Share your directory listing (either a screenshot or the output of the dir command) for each of the three directories mentioned in my initial steps 1, 3, 5

[andrecool-68]

@PeterJones
Did a clean install on a virtual machine with Windows 10

Notepad++ v8.9.8 (32-bit)
Build time: Aug 23 2026 - 17:20:01
Scintilla/Lexilla included: 5.6.6/5.5.3
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:
Admin mode: ON
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: 1920x1007, scaling 100%
visible monitors count: 1
installed Display Class adapters:
0000: Description - VirtualBox Graphics Adapter for Windows 8+
0000: DriverVersion - 5.2.44.0
OS Name: Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 (64-bit)
OS Version: 21H2
OS Build: 19044.1288
Current ANSI codepage: 1251
Plugins:
mimeTools (3.1)
NppConverter (4.7)
NppExport (0.4)