replace-notepad

Easily replace Notepad with Atom. Administrator privileges are required for a one-time setup.

After installing, use the menu: Packages » Replace Notepad » Replace Notepad.

Note that you have to restore notepad before you uninstall this package!

If there are multiple users using the machine, please be aware of the following caveats:

• This registry tweak is a global setting that will affect all users.
• Since Atom is installed on a per-user basis, each user must install Atom, but since the registry tweak is for a specific user, that user's files must be accessible to all users (this is usually the case by default).
• If the replace-notepad stub can't find Atom, it will offer to disable the redirect.

Compiling

If you want to compile replace-notepad.exe yourself, download Cygwin and install the mingw64-i686-gcc-core package. Then open the Cygwin terminal, go to the bin directory, and run ./build.bat.

Read these websites for more information:

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/greggm/archive/2005/02/21/377663.aspx
• http://www.flos-freeware.ch/doc/notepad2-Replacement.html

Restoring Notepad

If you forgot to restore Notepad and uninstalled Atom, you can easily restore it by running this command. In Windows 10, open an elevated command prompt by right-clicking on the start menu and then clicking Command Prompt (Admin).

cmd /C reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe" /f