Notepad++
Open sourceDon Ho
- Category
- Documents & PDF
- Version
- 8.9.8.1
- Manifest checked
- 2026-10-23
- Size
- ~7 MB
- Licence terms
- Open source (GPL) · free for personal and business use
- Supported OS
- Windows 11 · 10
- Install method
- Automatic install supported
- Developer
- Don Ho
- Downloads via this site
This links to Don Ho’s own download source. AfterFormat neither stores nor modifies installer files.
What it is
A lightweight text and code editor for Windows. It starts almost instantly, handles very large files that Notepad struggles with, and adds syntax highlighting, search and replace across files, and encoding conversion. It is GPL open source and free for personal and business use.
When to pick this
For quick edits, log reading and encoding fixes. For actual development work, VS Code offers far more.
Details
Large files
Opens log files of hundreds of megabytes that make Notepad hang.
Encoding conversion
Converts between UTF-8, EUC-KR and other encodings — the usual fix for text that arrives as garbled characters.
Search across files
Find and replace across every file in a folder at once.
After a reformat
Back up the settings folder
Settings, shortcuts, macros and user-defined languages are in %APPDATA%\Notepad++. Unsaved open tabs are in the backup folder inside it, so copy the whole folder before formatting.
Reinstall plugins
Plugins → Plugins Admin, reinstall what you used. Restoring the settings folder does not bring plugin files back.
Distribution
- winget ID
- Notepad++.Notepad++
- Redistribution policy
- Open source licence
- Manifest checked
- 2026-10-23
- Official site
- https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
The date the version and installer URL were checked in winget. This is separate from a usage-terms review or an installation test.
Original winget manifest