How to replace Notepad with UltraEdit?

[billmeier]

The old method of putting a stub notepad.exe that would dispatch to UltraEdit in various areas in \Windows doesn't seem to work any more. Under SP2 it seems Windows is VERY agressive about dealing with the files in the Windows directory. Put a different copy of notepad.exe in, and in seconds, the old one comes back. You can even delete a file, and Windows will restore it in seconds!

So, what is the formal way to solve this problem? The idea of course is such that all programs that hard code notepad.exe as their text editor, will run UltraEdit instead. This works because of the dispatch stub notepad.exe that UltraEdit supplies.

Anyone have a workaround for this?

If you what an app that involves notepad.exe just do a "View Source" in IE... This used to bring up UltraEdit, now it brings up Notepad... Boo !

[Mofi]

Have you read the notepad replacement instructions carefully? There is an extra section about how to install it on Windows 2000 (and XP). You can't replace notepad.exe in the windows directory before you have replaced it in the dllcache directory.

[MarkWhite]

Any ideas where to find the cache on windows xp (sp2)? This notepad replacement is annoying...

[Mofi]

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DLLCACHE\

It is normally a hidden system directory (not on my PC anymore).
So you must enable "Show hidden files and folders" and "Display the contents of system folders" and maybe disable also "Hide Protected Operating System Files" temporary in Folder Options - View of the windows explorer.

[Viking]

I've had a look at it after installing SP2 myself. It seems that SP2 also updates notepad.exe because it no longer resides in

system32\dllcache\

instead it is found in

windows\servicepackfiles\i386\

and also in
C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\6ca7b3a8efd5a9b6f87fff395a2eb989\

beware that the last part of the directory path "6ca7b3a8efd5a9b6f87fff395a2eb989" can be different on your computer. I've overwritten notepad.exe these two places and following this in windows\ and windows\system32\
So far it works as it should

[jboosterman]

Not sure why people go to such lengths to try and defeat windows file protection; it's rarely a good idea. Why "replace" notepad? Just change the association of your extensions to the editor of your choice. With IE, it's a little less straightforward, but can be done. E.g.:

http://www.sanx.org/tipShow.asp?articleRef=6

[Syncubus]

Not sure why people go to such lengths to try and defeat windows file protection.

Because some programs launch notepad as the text editor/viewer.

[JohnRoss]

The notepad.exe fake has worked for me on XP SP2, so far...

I replaced notepad.exe in the following two places:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\DllCache
C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386

In both cases I created a Backup directory and placed the original file there - but I probably didn't have to. Anyway it's now possible to replace the two instances of notepad.exe in Windows and for them NOT to magically change back.

The notepad.txt from the UltraEdit Notepad.zip file should really be updated to reflect the two locations now needed in XP once a service pack has been applied.

[Syncubus]

I was having the same difficulties replacing notepad.exe, and I don't have a windows\servicepackfiles\i386\ directory.

This may be because this is a brand new (Dell) machine, installed from a slipstreamed version of XPsp2.

I found the notepad.exe file in my C:\i386 directory. Replacing it first, then in the DLLCache directory, then \windows and \windows\system32

It's simply amazing you can't turn the System Resore off. It has no effect whatsoever on being able to change files.

Hope this helps someone else.

[El_Supremo]

FWIW I've been through the same rigmarole with XP to get the stub to work properly. I combined some of the suggestions in this thread and it finally worked for me on my HP media centre system with Win XP Pro SP2. Maybe this'll help someone.

First you have to make hidden files and folders visible. To do this, in windows explorer choose the menu Tools|Folder Options and then in the View tab enable "Show hidden files and folders" and "Display the contents of system folders" and disable "Hide Protected Operating System Files". You have to force windows to allow you to do this, and then click Apply.
Now search for notepad.exe on the C: drive and make a note of every occurrence. On my system it was found in:

C:\windows
C:\windows\system32
C:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386
C:\windows\system32\dllcache

Make a copy of each of these files (don't use rename) just in case. I used the command prompt and in each directory did a copy to "notepad_orig.exe".
Then copy ultraedit's stub file "notepad.exe" into each of these directories starting with the dllcache directory, then the i386 directory, then the other two.

You can then easily test whether it has worked by typing these commands in a command prompt window:
cd c:\
notepad

If the ultraedit window pops up then it has worked. If you still get notepad then you're up the creek.
If it works, you can go back into the windows explorer View tab and hide the system files and folders again.

Pete

[tosbsas]

Hi

earlier versions had a way to use UltraEdit directly as notepad. Anyone doing this with 13.10+2 too?

Download page doesn't give us this download anymore and IDM tells you that they "officially" don't support this anymore cause there was trouble. So no download and no idea if it is working on a standard XP system.

Ruben

[Mofi]

You are right, the notepad replacement can't be downloaded anymore, although it still works on my WinXP SP2 32-bit x86. I think, MS has something to do with the removal of this tool. I guess, MS does not like that one of their programs is replaced with a different EXE with the same name. Or some anti-virus program don't like it if they have CRC sums for original notepad.exe.

However, there are different methods to replace Notepad with UltraEdit. But before I post here any of them, I have one question.

Why do you need the Notepad replacement?

If you need it only because some file types are associated to be opened with Notepad and you want to open it with UltraEdit, then you can re-associate it with the File Associations configuration dialog of UltraEdit. UE remembers with which application a file type is currently associated and restores that when you later remove the file association of UltraEdit with the file with the File Associations configuration dialog of UltraEdit.

Well, for files like batch files which are opened with the command processor, but edited with Notepad, you need to modify the application for the Edit action in the Windows Explorer - Tools - Folder Options - File Types tab.

You can also use Regedit and search for every Notepad.exe and modify the value to uedit32.exe with correct path. But you should have experience with the registry when working with Regedit.

[Laurent]

However, there are different methods to replace Notepad with UltraEdit

Mofi, could you tell us more about these other methods? I also used to replace notepad.exe with the stub and I miss this method. Even if I associate the .txt files with UltraEdit there will always be a point where Windows will take back the associations (e.g. after a crash). If you could tell us some more about these other methods that would be great!

[Mofi]

For example you could create a batch file with name Notepad.bat with only one line:

"path to uedit32.exe\uedit32.exe" %*

and use a BAT to EXE converter tool (use a WWW search engine, there are lots of them) to make it an EXE and replace notepad.exe.

[Laurent]

Thanks a lot! I'm going to give this a try.