Why does NR have run by a helper app?

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Helix751

6 discussion posts

Notepad Replacer sets a Windows Notepad replacement by means of a helper application.
The registry key is the following:

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Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe]
"Debugger"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Notepad Replacer\\NotepadReplacer.exe"

My questions:
1. Where does NR store the replacement editor path (NP++, for instance)? It is persistent and the program remembers the last path selected and set.
2. Why doesn't NR plainly set the 'Debugger' key to directly point to the replacement editor program, like in the following example? It would load more quickly, deprecating the need of a helper app and the need to read additional config info. Also, any security concerns about running an external program each time notepad.exe is run would be unnecessary.

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Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe]
"Debugger"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe\"

May 24, 2021 • #1

Good question! We wrote Notepad Replacer many years ago and for whatever reason chose to have it be a helper app that launches the selected Notepad app, but we could probably change it to make it just have the installer modify the registry key instead.

One interesting hitch though is that in newer Windows 10 versions, Notepad Replacer doesn't work at all because it appears Notepad is a UWP app. When we look for a way to fix that, we'll look into changing this as well

Thanks!

Jun 2, 2021 • #2

This issue should be fixed up in our latest version, available here: https://www.binaryfortress.com/NotepadReplacer/Download/

Please let us know if you run into any issues after updating.

Thanks!

Feb 15, 2022 • #3

Helix751

6 discussion posts

I'm afraid your solution (as of v1.4) is still running through the use of a helper app.
Here's the Registry key created after running it:

Name: Debugger
Value: C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad Replacer\NotepadReplacer.exe

Feb 17, 2022 (modified Feb 17, 2022) • #4

It is still, yep! Sorry for the confusion, we had put the note about looking into running it directly without the helper app in with the ticket to fix it for the Windows Store version, so we fixed that part, but haven't checked into the helper app yet.

Feb 24, 2022 • #5

Does setting the Debugger registry value directly actually work for you? I've tested it in Windows 10 and 11, and in both cases, it doesn't work as expected.

Notepad++ opens, but it also opens Notepad.exe as a text file. And trying to open a text file with spaces in the name from File Explorer fails as well, it tries to open Notepad++ with each word in the file name as separate files.

Apr 28, 2022 • #6

Helix751

6 discussion posts

Hi. Not anymore. In Windows 11, Notepad is now a MS Store redesigned app and seems to not propertly respond to these registry keys.

Apr 28, 2022 • #7

Yeah, same when testing here. The only way to make it work is to uninstall the Windows Store version of Notepad.

Apr 29, 2022 • #8