I can’t open my Notepads. I’m not sure what the problem is but the day before yesterday it just stopped working. Yes, I can open them with another program such as Wordpad but I don’t want to use Wordpad. I like my nice and stupid Notepad because it does exactly what I tell it to do and not something else it thinks I REALLY meant. Any ideas on how I can get it working again? I have a newer Dell PC running Windows XP.
Have you installed any software lately that may have affected your system? Do a search for notepad.exe. It should be in the System32 directory. If not then for some strange reason it was altered. Virus maybe? Google Search for notepad virus.
Window sizing in IE has been a long reported problem. It used to happen to me but it has been stable for a while now. Here is one potential solution.
Re the windows sizing simply drag the edges of the browser (or whatever) window to fill the screen and then exit by “file”>“close/exit” via the top right menu choices. The next time the window opens it will be full size.
Re notepad have you tried starting it directly from the start>run line?
ie start>run>c:\windows
otepad.exe
Will it start that way?
I noticed the Notepad malfunction during a session with the computer. That is, I opened it, messed around for awhile, then tried to open it again and it didn’t work. I didn’t install any software that day or the day before. Notepad.exe looks to be where it belongs in the System32 directory.
That didn’t work for me. Thanks for the ideas though.
Thanks but unfortunately that turns out not to be the case. Other suggestions are welcome.
It will. Unfortunately that only opens up a new notepad not one of the ones I want to access and once I save it I can’t open it again either.
Sounds like your file association for .txt files got changed from Notepad to some other program. Try right clicking on a .txt file, going down to the “Open With” button, then clicking on the “Choose Program” button. From there, select Notepad, and click the checkbox that says “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file.” Then hit okay.
It seems like your .txt file extension has been misplaced or re-appropriated to another program.
Open “My Computer” then click “Tools” in the menu at the top. Choose “Folder Options…” from that menu.
In the Folder Options window, choose the File Types tab and scroll down to “TXT”. At the bottom of the window it should have “details” for TXT files and a buttom that says “Change”. Click the button and look for NOTEPAD in the list of available programs. If it’s not listed there, browse for it in C:\Windows\System32
If you can’t find TXT in the “File Types” menu, choose Add and add the extension TXT with the associated file type of Text Document.
See if that works.
As far as the IE Window resizing goes, do this:
Size the window to the size you want all default IE windows to open to. (If this is maximized, simply use the maximize button and get the window the way you want them to open to)
Use the “Ctrl” key on your keyboard as you LEFT-click the “X” in the top right corner. This will save your setting and all new IE windows that are opened will take that size. Try it out, it works!
Sometimes Notepad misbehaves when you have too many Internet Temp files lying around. Try running Disk Cleanup. Even if it doesn’t help your immediate problem, it’s worth doing from time to time.
Thanks to you all. I’m grateful for the suggestions but none has resolved my problems. Even when I identify Notepad as the program to open the text documents they won’t open. And Notepad is the default program to use for this, it just isn’t working. I deleted the temporary internet files and emptied my recycle bin and that had no effect either. Nor did tubbytreats’ suggestion fix my IE problem. My secondary windows still open up at less than full size.
Any other ideas?
I’m a bit confused by the way you’re describing notepad behavior on your system. Per your response to my inquiry about starting it from the start command line, you’re saying you can get a new (assumedly blank) notepad to open, but you can’t get it to re-open saved notepad *.txt files. Is this correct?
What happens when you try to reopen them? Nothing, an error message, what?
Yes that’s right, astro. I can open a new document with Notepad but nothing happens when I try to open saved text documents.
How exactly are you trying to open the older files? Are you double-clicking on the files, or are you opening NotePad and then going to File>Open? Whichever you’re using, try the other one. Do you get the exact same behavior?
Thats some strange behavior 2sense. When I did a search on my XP Pro machine I found 3 notepad.exe files. They all were 65KB and in different directories. I don’t know if that is normal but I think that maybe the File Association is screwed up somewhere in the registry. If it was my machine I would delete or move the versions in your machine and download and paste some new ones where yours used to reside. I would remove and then reset the File Associations after this and see what happens. You can dowload a version of notepad here.
Yes I have tried both and the result is the same: nothing.
Thanks but I’m leary about this. I doubt I have the technical competence to handle it without screwing something up. I guess I’ll explore the virtues of Wordpad.
This site indicates you have have been infected by a spyware trojan that cripples notepad and some other binaries and offers some solutions.
Does anyone else have issues using my “window resizing” instructions from my above post? I’m wondering if it makes a difference that I’m using Windows 2000 and you all are using XP Pro/Home. I will have to try this using my XP Pro box at home and get back with you.
It DOES work on Windows 2000 Professional, and SHOULD be the same method on Windows XP. Thanks in advance for the feedback.
I have XP Pro and using the maximize button and then saving does not work, but if I resize using the handles on the window and then save it does remember the sizing. I was reading a tech forum in which the same type of behavior worked for some and not for others.
Well, I got inquisitive enough here at work to install Windows XP Pro on a computer here and tried my little “Ctrl+left click the Close X” approach.
It worked properly with flying colors. I tried it with the Maximize button, also by maximizing the window with the window edges, as well as a smaller window that took up about 1/2 of the screen. ALL of them worked properly when I did the “Ctrl + left click the Close X” approach.
Could we have a few more people try this out?
Ah ha! That did it, astro. Thanks!
And today my secondary windows are opening full size too.
