Now that most people have “upgraded” to Windows 11, there has been some ongoing backlash about some of the changes Microsoft has made and is making to their desktop operating system. Many of us have noticed that Microsoft has removed features that we found useful such as having the ability to move the taskbar to the side or top of the screen. They have also “updated” some of their common apps such as Photos, File Explorer and Notepad.
Watch Video: How to Use Both the New and Classic Notepad App in Windows 11.
The updated Notepad app has some new features such as being able to use tabs to open multiple text files in one Notepad window. It will also remember what files you had open so when you open Notepad again, it will automatically load them. Some people like these new features while others prefer the simplicity of the classic Notepad app. In this article, we will be showing you how to use both the new and classic Notepad app in Windows 11 at the same time.
In order to enable the classic Notepad app in Windows 11, you will need to perform a registry edit. You can either do this manually or download the registry files from this link. If you didn’t know, the Windows registry is a hierarchical database that stores configuration settings and options for the Windows operating system, its applications, and hardware devices.
Once you download the zip file and extract it, you should have two registry files. One will be called restore_classic_notepad.reg and the other undo_classic_notepad.reg. The first one is used to enable the classic Notepad app while the second is used to reverse the process and disable the classic Notepad app.
If you want to see what these registry files will do, you can open them using Notepad or another text editor application.
Here are the contents of the registry file that will enable the classic Notepad app.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\notepad.exe]
“NoOpenWith”=-
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\notepad.exe]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfilelegacy\DefaultIcon]
@=”imageres.dll,-102″
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfilelegacy\shell\open\command]
@=”C:\\Windows\\System32\\notepad.exe \”%1\””
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe]
“UseFilter”=dword:00000000
And here are the contents of the registry file that will undo the process.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\notepad.exe]
“NoOpenWith”=””
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfilelegacy\DefaultIcon]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfilelegacy\shell\open]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe]
“UseFilter”=dword:00000001
If you wanted to perform this registry edit manually, you would need to find all the keys listed and create any that were missing and then adjust their settings to match.
A much simpler way to apply the registry edit is to double click on the file and click on the Run button.
You will then need to click the Yes button for the UAC prompt that will appear next. If your Windows user account is not an administrator, then you will need to supply credentials for an account that has administrator rights.
You will then need to click Yes again to approve the change to the registry.
You will then be notified that the changes to the registry have been made successfully.
Now when you right click on a text file in Windows and choose Open with, you should see an option for the new Notepad app as well as the classic Notepad app.
If you click on the Choose another app option, you can then change the default app used to open text files to the classic Notepad app by selecting it from the list and then clicking on the Always button. Then once this is done, every time you double click on a text file, it will open with the classic Notepad app rather than the new version.
If you want to reverse the process and remove the classic Notepad app from your computer, you can simply double click on the undo_classic_notepad.reg file to have the changes to the registry reversed.
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