+ I just can’t stop thinking that PSPad editor is the shit, so I wont. PSPad is the shit, and it’s freeware!! Amazing. Such a perfect editor. A ‘robust’ (I keep seeing that term used in reviews. sounds good. what the hell.) solution to edit just about anything. With syntax highlighting for Plain Text, HTML, CSS, PHP, Pascal, Java, C++, JScript, VBScript, MySQL, MS-Dos, Perl…etc. Has all the simple features like word wrapping, line numbers and a spellchecker (you have to install it yourself, but that’s easy). It has a fully functioning integrated FTP, and an internal web browser that can integrate with Apache webserver. It works for MD5 checksums, and even has a full powered Hex editor, Uh. Is there anything else? Right, it is set up to create and work with projects. Can plugin TopStyle’s CSS Editor, and no doubt has scads of features I have yet to discover. — it’s freeware! — I think I’ll replace Notepad in XP with this. I currently have EditPlus as my Notepad replacement, but it’s not free.

+ It’s a fairly simple hack to replace Notepad with something more useful. My instructions are not elegant, but they’ll work. Click your Start button >> Right click the My Computer icon >>select Properties >>select System Restore >> check ‘Turn Off System Restore’ and click ‘Apply’ >> Open Explorer >>browse to C:\Program Files\PSPad (or whichever editor you choose) >> Create a copy of the PSpad.exe file (or whichever .exe starts your program). >> Rename the ‘copy of’ file to ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ >> Copy the new ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ file. >> Browse to C:\WINDOWS\system32 >> Paste ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ >> Browse to C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache >> Paste ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ >> Rename ‘Notepad.exe’ to ‘Notepadbak.exe’. >> Rename ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ to ‘Notepad.exe’ >> Browse to C:\WINDOWS\system32 >> Rename ‘Notepad.ex’ to ‘Notepadbak.exe’. >> Rename ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ to ‘Notepad.exe’ >> Start >> Right click My Computer >> Properties >> System Restore >>un- check (remove the ‘X’ mark) ‘Turn Off System Restore’ and click ‘Apply’ click ‘OK’. Now whenever you click anything that requires Notepad to open it will open your replacement program instead. — if for any reason you wish to restore Notepad just use ‘Notepadbak.exe’. It is your original file.
**If you cannot see the folder ‘dllcache’: In File Explorer click ‘Tools’ >> ‘Folder Options’ >> ‘View’ >> Check ‘Show hidden file types’ and uncheck ‘Hidden extensions for known file types’ and uncheck ‘Hide protected operating sytem files’.