Notepad++

Overview

Notepad++ is a free, open source text and source code editor designed for Microsoft Windows. It is a powerful alternative to Windows' native Notepad. It is driven by the Scintilla editing component, written in C++, based on pure Win32 API and STL, ensuring high execution speed and low resource usage. Notepad++ supports about 80 programming languages, provides syntax highlighting, code folding, and a multi-tab editing interface, and is widely used in programming, scripting, and configuration file management. As of 2025, the latest version is 8.8.1 (released in March 2023), following the GNU GPLv3 license, with over 28 million downloads (SourceForge data).

History and Development

Origin:

• In September 2003, Don Ho (a computer science graduate from Paris Diderot University) was dissatisfied with the poor performance of the Java text editor JEXT used by the company, so he developed Notepad++ based on C++ and Scintilla components.

• On November 25, 2003, the first version was released on SourceForge, limited to the Windows platform, and refused to use wxWidgets to port to macOS or Unix.

Important Milestones:

• 2003-2010: hosted on SourceForge, downloaded more than 28 million times, and won the SourceForge Community Choice Award (Best Developer Tool) twice.

• 2010: Because SourceForge followed US law to restrict access to Iran, North Korea and other countries, Don Ho believed that it violated the spirit of open source and moved to France TuxFamily (2010-2015).

• 2015: SourceForge replaced the project download file (including adware) without authorization, Notepad++ was completely migrated to GitHub, the forum was moved to NodeBB, and the website was migrated to Hostinger in 2019.
• 2017-2025: The version was upgraded to 8.8.1, and new features included dark mode (7.8.1), ARM64 support (7.9.2), backup and recovery (8.6), etc. Don Ho continued to use Notepad++ and Visual Studio for development.

Politics and controversy:

• Don Ho expressed his political stance through version naming, such as the "Free Uyghur" version in 2019 to protest against Xinjiang detention camps, which triggered DDoS attacks and GitHub spam. In 2025, the "Taiwan Independence" version caused controversy, and the website needed Cloudflare protection.

Community driven:

• Active GitHub community supports 70+ language translations, rich plugin ecosystem, users can contribute code, plugins and documents.

Main features

Notepad++ provides powerful editing functions, suitable for developers, administrators and ordinary users, the following are the core features:

1. Code editing and syntax support

2. Supports 78 programming, scripting and markup languages (such as C++, Python, HTML, JavaScript), provides syntax highlighting, code folding and limited automatic completion (words, functions, non-intelligent completion).

3. Support cross-platform line breaks (CR, LF, CRLF), convertible character encoding (ASCII, UTF-8, UCS-2), and repair garbled text.

4. Line operations: sorting, case conversion, deleting redundant spaces, bookmark navigation.

5. Multiple tabs and workspaces

6. Tabbed interface, supports editing multiple files at the same time, reducing taskbar clutter.

7. Split screen editing: supports vertical/horizontal split screen, compare different parts of the same file or multiple files.

8. Folder as workspace: manage projects through "Open folder as workspace", double-click to open the file.

9. Search and replace

10. Advanced find/replace: supports regular expressions, incremental search, multi-file search, and quickly locates code or log errors.

11. Marking function: mark lines containing specific words for easy navigation and batch editing.

12. Plugins and extensions

13. Plugin system: install AutoSave, Compare, PyNPP, etc. through the plugin manager to expand functions (such as automatic saving, file comparison, Python running).

14. Custom plugins: support user-defined language rules and add syntax highlighting for unsupported languages.

15. Sample plugins:

    • AutoSave: automatically save every minute to prevent data loss.
    • Compare: compare file differences side by side, suitable for version control.
    • Python Indent: optimize Python code format.

16. Other features

17. Macro recording: record editing operations, repeat execution, suitable for batch tasks.

18. Right-click integration: add "Edit with Notepad++" to the Windows right-click menu during installation.
19. Themes and customization: 20+ themes (Settings > Style Configurator), support dark mode, adjust the appearance of the code area (without affecting the UI).
20. Portable version: supports 7z/zip portable version (4MB), no installation required, USB operation, including themes, plug-ins, etc.

Advantages and limitations

Advantages

• Free and open source: follow GPLv3, no ads, no bundling, GitHub source code transparent.
• Lightweight and efficient: only 2.7MB installation package, 4MB disk usage, low CPU consumption, fast startup, suitable for old devices.
• Rich features: syntax highlighting, code folding, plug-in support, comparable to lightweight IDE, suitable for programming, configuration management and log analysis.
• Highly customizable: Themes, plugins, shortcut keys and language rules support personalization, and right-click integration improves efficiency.
• Community support: Active community provides plugins, documentation and forums. According to the 2015 Stack Overflow survey, 34.7% of developers use it daily.
• Cross-platform text support: Handles large files (2GB vs. Notepad's 58MB), compatible with multiple encodings and line breaks.

Limitations

• Windows only: Does not support Linux/macOS (compatible tools such as Wine are required), limiting cross-platform use.
• Outdated interface: The UI design is simple, the function buttons are crowded, and it lacks the beauty of modern IDEs (Lifehacker calls it "ugly").
• Incomplete IDE: Lacks smart completion, syntax checking and debugging, and requires the use of a compiler or IDE (such as Visual Studio).
• Complex plugin management: Some plugins are unstable and need to be installed or updated manually, which may confuse beginners.
• Political controversy: Don Ho's political version naming (such as "Free Uyghur") triggered attacks and affected some user experience.

Summary

Notepad++ is a lightweight, powerful open source text and source code editor. With syntax highlighting, code folding, multi-tab editing, and plugin ecosystem, it has become the tool of choice for programmers and administrators on the Windows platform. Since its creation by Don Ho in 2003, it has proven its reliability and popularity through community-driven development and 28 million downloads. Despite its slightly outdated interface, Windows-only, and lack of IDE features, its low resource usage, high customizability, and free features make it irreplaceable in lightweight editing scenarios. Suitable for programming (Python, HTML, etc.), configuration file management (such as YAML), and large file processing. If you need a modern UI or cross-platform support, consider Visual Studio Code or Sublime Text. For in-depth use (such as plugin configuration, theme customization), refer to the official manual or GitHub community.