Notepad is a horrible text editor which I wouldn’t use even for quick note-jotting. I have replaced Notepad with Notepad2 as it has the necessary features which were missing from Notepad, and more. It also features syntax highlighting to make simple coding tasks (such as whipping up your own Outlook signature) easier on the eyes.
So how do you replace Notepad with Notepad2?
- Download the zip file from the Notepad2 site and extract it into a folder.
- (Win XP) Create a batch file with the below in it, and save it to the folder in which you have extracted Notepad2 (batch file code credited to Allen K.):
ren notepad2.exe notepad.exe
ren %windir%\notepad.exe notepad.exe.old
ren %windir%\system32\notepad.exe notepad.exe.old
ren %windir%\system32\dllcache\notepad.exe notepad.exe.old
copy /y notepad.exe %windir%
copy /y notepad.exe %windir%\System32\
copy /y notepad.exe %windir%\System32\dllcache
copy /y notepad2.reg %windir%
copy /y notepad2.txt %windir%
copy /y notepad2.ini %windir%
- Run the batch file, and that’s it!
If you use Windows Vista, follow the simple instructions here. [mattberther.com]