Notepad Replacements - How To Get Rid of Notepad Permanently - Suggestions for an Alternative

Excellent Text Editors That Are Perfect Notepad Replacements

EditPad Pro is my favorite text editor. This web site was built entirely in EditPad Pro (except the graphics, of course). I use EditPad Pro almost every day for writing letters, maintaining my web sites, developing software in various languages, inspecting log files, etc.

EditPad Pro's main strength is its convenience. It is very easy to use and never gets into the way of what you are trying to do. It can save you a lot of time, just like it does for me.

Find out more about EditPad Pro

EditPad Lite is also an excellent Notepad replacement. EditPad Lite lacks many of the powerful features that make EditPad Pro such a joy to use. However, it is still a solid text editor with all the basic functionality you would expect. While I find EditPad Pro to be a bargain at $39.95, EditPad Lite is free for non-commercial use.

Find out more about EditPad Lite

How To Permanently Replace Notepad

Some software is hard-wired to use Notepad for working with text files. The reason for this is that Notepad is available on all computers running Windows, and that programmers are often too lazy to add a feature to their software to let you choose your favorite text editor, or better, use whatever application you have associated .txt files with on your computer. Microsoft Internet Explorer is probably the most (in)famous example. Its view source command only works with Notepad.

Therefore, permanently replacing Notepad with the alternative of your choice is a good idea. The exact steps to do it, depend on the version of Windows you have.