Apps in Taskbar that contain word New xxxx opens Notepad/Notepad++ Ghost

When right-click on apps in taskbar, i.e. Edge, chrome, Firefox, Outlook 2021 and click: New window, New Private windows, New email, anything with 'New' in the context menu of these apps opens a 'Ghost' Notepad and Notepad ++ which can be seen with the Task Manager. They open the 'background' but seem to be 'Ghost' as the app itself does not open.

Does not seem to hurt anything, and uses little or no resources, just seems strange.

FWIW not something I see- but I don't have Notepad++ on mine.

Do you see the same in Safe Mode?

IMO one would need to use a clean boot, not safe mode, to determine if software is causing the issue.

That would be the next step. Along with creating a new user account for comparison.

Well after a long trek through registry settings, clearing various caches and 3 hrs with a AI bot the issue was tracked down a possible corrupt install of Notepad++. Found that even through I killed it in taskmanager and tried uninstall it I could not - said it was still running. BOT gave me a command to kiell it from a CMD prompt and removed notepad++. The issue in this thread is gone, no more 'Ghost' start-up of Notepad or Notepad++. Guess I will try to re-install Notepad++ later. I'm tired. (78 hr old man) haha.

And thank you for your reply.

Suggest you look for an alternative - there have been so many threads about issues trying to 'install' Notepad++ and register it as default here and on tenforums.

Many longstanding members are retired.