Jakub Anderwald

I just switched to Windows 7 64 bit RC on my main computer. Since Crimson Editor was constantly throwing UAC popups, I decided to try something else as a text editor.

I started by looking at Wikipedia “Source Editor” page. I quickly scanned the list of free text-editors for Windows and decided to go with Notepad++, since it had most of the features I need.

I downloaded the installation package (with some plugins included by default) and it installed just fine. However, there’s a glitch. It doesn’t allow you to type in regional characters easily – they appear as if they were entered with ISO into a CP-1250 text editor. 10 years ago that would not be a big surprise, but hey, we have unicode all around us, such things should not happen, right?

I tweak the settings around a bit, but nothing helped. But, since I’m a geek, I have to resolve it.

I googled a bit, found notes about removing HexEditor plugin (which I don’t have installed) and then something about transparency problems on Windows 7.

Then I tried switching Notepad++ to run in backwards compatibility mode and I found out it’s enough to “downgrade” to Windows Vista SP2 and it starts working properly.

So – if you have the same problem with Notepad++, just set the executable file to run in Vista compatibility mode.