Replace windows 7 notepad with notepad++ (Default text editor)

Notepad++ is an advanced text editor. There are lot of features in Notepad++. It support Multiple clipboard, Split screen editing and synchronized scrolling, Drag-and-drop, Tabbed document interface, Spell checker, File comparison, Macros, zooming, It also includes features for source code editing.  Advanced users always use this type of text editor. They also want to set this as the default text editor. Here I explained about how to replace default windows text editor with Notepad plus plus.

Installation

Download Notepad ++ from  http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download
Install Software for all users
Find the installation folder
Eg:  “C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++”

Notepad++ launcher

Now you have to download Notepad++ launcher (notepad.exe) from http://wiki.przemoc.net/projects/start#notepad_launcher
Put it in to your installation folder

Replace default Notepade.exe

Disable UAC before replacing the windows file (reboot required )

Now copy following script and save it as run.bat  in your installation folder

@echo off
 takeown /f c:\windows\syswow64\notepad.exe
 cacls c:\windows\syswow64\notepad.exe /G Administrators:F

 takeown /f c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe
 cacls c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe /G Administrators:F

 takeown /f c:\windows\notepad.exe
 cacls c:\windows\notepad.exe /G Administrators:F

 copy c:\windows\syswow64\notepad.exe c:\windows\syswow64\notepad.exe.backup
 copy c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe.backup
 copy c:\windows\notepad.exe c:\windows\notepad.exe.backup

 copy notepad.exe c:\windows\syswow64\notepad.exe
 copy notepad.exe c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe
 copy notepad.exe c:\windows\notepad.exe

Right click on run.bat and click on “run as”
This script will backup your current Notepad.exe and replace it with the launcher we downloaded  ( notepad.exe )
Now windows notepad is replaced with Notepad++