Replace Notepad With Notepad Windows 11 Jun 2026

As Microsoft continued to evolve and improve Windows 11, the new Notepad remained a core part of the operating system, a testament to the company's commitment to innovation and user experience. The story of Notepad's transformation served as a reminder that even the humblest of apps could benefit from a fresh perspective and a willingness to adapt to changing user needs.

If the classic Notepad does not appear when you right-click a file and choose "Open with," you may need to edit the registry to re-associate file types. Press Windows Key + R, type regedit , and press .

To completely redirect Windows 11 so that any call to the old Notepad launches Notepad++ instead, you can use the Image File Execution Options registry hook. Step-by-Step Execution

2. How to Replace Old Notepad with New Notepad (Method 1: Microsoft Store) replace notepad with notepad windows 11

The redesigned Notepad introduces several features that make it more comparable to other modern text editors:

If you want the old notepad.exe back as your default, Windows 11 actually keeps it hidden in your system files. You just have to tell Windows to stop "redirecting" you to the new app. Open Settings > Apps . Go to Advanced app settings > App execution aliases . Find Notepad in the list and toggle it Off . Step 2: Create a Shortcut

Elias tried to paste the product key. He hit Ctrl+V . As Microsoft continued to evolve and improve Windows

It was too powerful. The darkness of the theme absorbed his focus. The absence of the classic status bar clutter made him feel untethered. He felt the pull of the modern era, dragging him away from the comforting beige of Windows 95.

_AW_ 67,116 • Volunteer Moderator. Oct 14, 2022, 6:11 AM. This is tested and working, no uninstallation necessary. Open Settings > Microsoft Learn Classic Notepad without AI elements in Windows 11

To use Microsoft Edit as your primary text editor, you will need to install it first. Microsoft has made it available on GitHub, and you can install it using the Winget command: winget install edit . Once installed, you can type edit in any Terminal window to launch it. Press Windows Key + R, type regedit , and press

If you do not want to fully uninstall the modern app, you can disable its alias, forcing Windows to use the legacy version.

Yes, significantly. Notepad++ is designed to handle very large text files (hundreds of megabytes) that would cause regular Notepad to become unresponsive or crash. It's much more reliable for working with large log files or massive data dumps.