Notepad++ 8.9.8.1 for Windows

Notepad++ 8.9.8.1 for Windows is Don Ho's free and open-source text and source code editor, and you can download it from the official notepad-plus-plus.org website. It opens in a moment, handles plain text and program code equally well, and has been developed since November 2003.

Specifications

What Notepad++ is good at

Notepad++ sits between Windows Notepad and a full development environment. For plain text it is simply a better Notepad: tabs for many files, reliable handling of different encodings and line endings, and a search that can look through a whole folder. For code, the Scintilla component gives it syntax highlighting and folding for a long list of languages, so a configuration file, an HTML page or a script is much easier to read. System administrators use it to edit config files and logs, web developers for quick fixes, students for their first programs, and writers for distraction-free notes. Because it starts almost instantly and uses little memory, many people keep it open all day as a scratchpad alongside heavier tools.

How to install

1. Open the official Notepad++ website and go to Downloads.
2. Pick the installer that matches your system: 64-bit, 32-bit or ARM64.
3. Run it and choose the components and language you want.
4. Launch Notepad++; it can be set to open text files by default.

What changed in each release is described in the project news, for example the v8.9.8.1 release notes, and the source code is on GitHub.

Requirements

Notepad++ runs on Windows and is light on hardware. The project does not publish a detailed hardware list; users in the official community forum discuss which builds work on older Windows versions.

Is it safe?

Download only from notepad-plus-plus.org or the GitHub repository. Fake "Notepad++" sites with similar names have been used to spread malware, so check the address before clicking Download. Plugins should also come from the built-in plugin admin rather than random archives.

Price

Notepad++ is free for personal and commercial use under the GPL. The author accepts donations, but nothing is locked.

Pros and cons

• Pro: fast start and low memory use.
• Pro: open source with an active project.
• Con: Windows only.
• Con: the interface looks dated next to modern editors.

Alternatives

For web pages with a visual editor, Adobe Dreamweaver is in the same developer tools category, and Android Studio is the environment for building Android apps.