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I have been struggling with Notepad++ since forever. It gives me random error messages out of the blue (like the "Load langs.xml failes!" I just got), and it always loses my settings.

What other alternatives do you recommend? It would be nice if it could also have an Hex View.

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13  
I've never had any problems with Notepad++. Perhaps your installation is broken, did you re-install it since the errors started showing up? – delnan Oct 7 '10 at 15:27
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If your struggling with Notepad++ you must have other problems! Did you use the installer? Standard install etc - I use it all the time - just about every machine I use gets Notepad++ within 5 minutes... – Adrian Oct 7 '10 at 15:28
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We are not talking about the same Notepad++ i guess. – krmby Oct 7 '10 at 15:30
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I have the same issues with it from time to time. It's a great little editor but it does have its quirks! – D Roddis Oct 7 '10 at 15:34
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Notepad++ rocks. The problem with "langs.xml" happened to me, too. It was caused by one of the recent updates. The XML file was empty when I looked at it so I replaced it with the original version. Reinstallation might help as well, but don't replace this awesome editor! – AndiDog Oct 7 '10 at 16:19
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18 Answers

up vote 19 down vote accepted

Portable version of Notepad++. It won't go looking for missing files or lose its settings, since all application- files and settings are stored in the same directory, making it portable.

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I will give this one a try. How does it save settings? – relima Oct 7 '10 at 15:55
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All settings are saved to a file in the PortableNotepad++ directory. This is great to keep on a USB drive. – Tim Oct 7 '10 at 16:01
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This is working great! I don't know why, but Notepad++ is still giving me problems even after reinstalling. However, this portable version is working great. I am going to stick to it for a while. – relima Oct 7 '10 at 16:15
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up vote 17 down vote

Notepad2 - same internals as notepad++ but loads much faster - replaces windows notepad as well

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This looks very good too. I will give it a try! – relima Oct 7 '10 at 15:56
+1 Notepad2 beats the monkey. – Galwegian Oct 7 '10 at 16:42
I was hopeful for this one, but no tabbed documents == no go. :( – Toji Oct 8 '10 at 5:23
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up vote 7 down vote

If you're familiar with Vim, there's a gvim windows port:http://www.vim.org/download.php. With a good .vimrc, I've found it to be one of the best simple editors out there.

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+1 from me for gvim :) – usta Oct 7 '10 at 15:33
didn't like vim, the UI seemed dated – abel Oct 7 '10 at 15:37
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@abel: Vim is not about the UI. It gives you control through complex keyboard shortcuts that render the mouse (and any more UI) useless. – Tim Oct 7 '10 at 16:00
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Keyboard commands are much faster than using a UI. Yes, it requires you to remember more, but once you learn the basic commands there's a lot of very powerful stuff you can do in a matter of 6 keystrokes or less. – Bryan Oct 7 '10 at 17:18
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up vote 4 down vote

PSPad is a good one:

http://www.pspad.com/

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up vote 3 down vote

On windows, I had used : http://www.textpad.com

Others like http://www.e-texteditor.com/ is like textmate

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I love this product, and have used it for many years. Multiple document support, smart tracking of what is saved / what isn't, supports document-sets for quick group-opening of files, intelligent reasonable basic help-edit functions for sorting and some more advanced ones like manipulation of blocked text. Also very nice is its customized work area color schemes per file extensions. In my experience TextPad simply has no equal, and the price is right too. – Hardryv Oct 7 '10 at 16:05
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up vote 3 down vote

Emacs

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up vote 2 down vote

I tried several text editors, mostly free, but I end buying ($50) EditPad Pro, mainly because of its regular expressions features. I'm very satisfied with it.

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Or get the free version, EditPad Lite, at editpadlite.com – Pat Oct 7 '10 at 15:33
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up vote 2 down vote

I would checkout SciTE. Notepad++ and SciTE share a common editor component (Scintilla).

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Scintilla is the editing component. Scite is the editor. I use it for all windows/*nix editing that I have to do as it's the best by far. – john Oct 7 '10 at 16:07
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up vote 2 down vote

Programmer's Notepad - PSPad - Notepad2 - MetaPad

But seriously, Notepad++ > all of these. And I highly recommend you do a clean reinstall on Notepad++.

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up vote 2 down vote

I like Crimson, because I need column edit feature most of the time

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up vote 1 down vote

I kicked Notepad++ and now happily use "Crimson Editor" Version "SVN286". Also I liked jEdit (Java), but it's easier for me to carry Crimson Editor from computer to computer. jEdit has Plugins and (at least) one of it is a hex viewer.

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up vote 1 down vote

UltraEdit is pretty nice, but it's not free beyond a 30 day trial.

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up vote 1 down vote

You can also try Crimson

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up vote 1 down vote

I'm with @leonbloy regarding EditPad. It has a hex view that you can access with a simple Ctrl+H.

For a full hex editor, I like HxD. Not only does it let you compare files, but it lets you open disks as well.

If you're looking just for a lightweight notepad, Win32Pad is quick and simple.

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+1 HxD is great. – ur Oct 7 '10 at 15:42
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up vote 0 down vote

Not free but I am using E TextEditor http://www.e-texteditor.com/ the textmate snippets are awesome and loads quick.

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up vote 0 down vote

Geany is an excellent text editor: lightweight and feature-rich

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up vote 0 down vote

For windows I use VIM and UltraEdit, i like them both. vim is free and Ultaedit is not. Another option would be to use for free since vim has a a steep learning curve would be to use eclipse or editpad lite is good and free.

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up vote 0 down vote

I've never have to many problems with Notepad++, I'll go with the idea that your installation is corrupted...

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