How to completely remove notepad?

[islander_810]

Will just deleting notepad.ex_ from i386 work? Or is there some other way to achieve this?

[Kelsenellenelvian]

That would be a HUGE mistake as windows uses it during setup and for all default txt files.

Why in the world would you want to do this?

[Innocent Devil]

better to put notepad.exe in nLite remove -files-list

[islander_810]

oh, i didn't know it'd have such serious implications.

anyway, i tried replacing notepad with notepad2 by doing modifype and makecab and it works fine.

I wanted to replace notepad with notepad++ cos it offers so much better functionality than the vanilla flavoured notepad . Also i never use notepad.

Isn't that possible u say?

Edited December 25, 2007 by islander_810

[DonDamm]

Hmmm. Let's see. Yes, It's possible. First realize that there are usually two instances of notepad.exe in Windows. Don't ask me why, but there are. The first is under C:\Windows\ (usually capitalized for some reason) and the second under C:\Windows\System32\ getting rid of one of them won't get rid of it and as noted it isn't a good idea anyway.

To make Notepad++ or Notepad2 the default, just right click on any text file and choose Open With... , and then at he bottom click on Choose Program... . In the next dialog box highlight the one you want as default and then make sure the box that says Always use this program to open this file type is checked (I'm paraphrasing here as I'm working on a German machine!). This will set your chosen program to the default.

By the way, I use Notepad++ regularly and it really is a super program and free!! It color codes html and deals with a wide range of formats. It has tabs and can hold many pages open simultaneously and even will remember what you had open last and open with it if you want. Good program. Small, fast, and well thought out. Recommended. Notepad2 is good, too.

[islander_810]

I put notepad.exe in remove files list and it worked. Can't find notepad now. XP is running. But at the start, i saw an error : something abt ie4uinit.exe and advpack.dll. Haven't seen it b4. Not sure if it's related to this or not.

[gosh]

To remove notepad just delete it. There shouldn't be any dependancies, although because it's installed by default some microsoft programs might just assume it's there. It's not an optional component like wordpad. Although because it's so small i dont see why you would want to remove it.

-gosh

[islander_810]

hey gosh, u're active. cool, i wanted to ask some questions to u in particular...

i read ur guide to slimming down xp, followed it and it works. Here's what i did. Used nlite to remove all crap retaining manual install and upgrade

then i used ur method to get a boot menu giving 2 options : unattended install and normal install (with recovery console).

for the unattended one, i used wihu from cmdlines.txt.

when wihu is called at T-12, i want to use hidcon. Where do i place it such that it can be used? I tried placing it in AUTO (that's what i'm calling the boot folder for unattended). doesn't work

[islander_810]

Will the following approach work?

Use a notepad++ installation.

Rename Notepad++.exe to notepad.exe.

Use makecab (or anything else for that matter) to make a notepad.ex_

Replace original notepad.ex_ in i386 with this

If not, why?

Thx

[Kelsenellenelvian]

http://www.wpiw.net/downloads/addons/Kels_...acer_build5.cab

Size - 1.06 MB MD5Hash = A76788942CA01F5E4037EA55E79278DE

Here is an addon that does pretty much that...

It installs Notepad++ to the defualt dir and uses a reg entry and a dummy file to fully replace the standard windows notepad...

(You use nLite and add it as a hotfix or the RVMIntegrator to add this into your windows source)

Will the following approach work?

Use a notepad++ installation.

Rename Notepad++.exe to notepad.exe.

Use makecab (or anything else for that matter) to make a notepad.ex_

Replace original notepad.ex_ in i386 with this

If not, why?

Thx

Nope that wouldn't work because notepad++ has over 50 files that it uses and is dependant on. Notepad++ is not standalone. It needs alot of files and folders.

[islander_810]

@Kelsenellenelvian

Thx a lot man, will try this out

Btw, good work with WPI

Tried it, works but with some probs.

Here's a very elegant way to replace Notepad by Notepad++

Notepad Replacement : http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/commun...auncher.bin.zip

Installation Instruction:

    * Backup your original Notepad.exe (we never know...).
    * Copy notepad.exe which comes with this package into 4 directories (in given order) :
         1. c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386
         2. c:\windows\system32\dllcache
         3. c:\windows\system32
         4. c:\windows
      When you replace notepad.exe in c:\windows\system32 and c:\windows, a "Windows File Protection" message box appears, click Cancel. Then another message box appears, click OK.
    * Modify you registry (if you use installer to install your Notepad++, you don't need to do this step): Create key \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Notepad++, then add your Notepad++ full path as the default value of this key. In my case, it's C:\Program Files\Notepad++.

Now Notepad++ is your default Notepad.

I make a point of thanking Stépho for his contribution.

Edited January 1, 2008 by islander_810