Notepad "Find" direction

jseeley · May 5, 2023

Currently on Win 11 22621.1265. I use the traditional Notepad program. When I open a .txt doc in Notepad, it seems to remember my "Find" direction. If I was last Finding in the Up direction then close the document, the next time I open that doc, the cursor is naturally back at the top, but the Find direction is remembered as Up. Doesn't make sense. This is driving me crazy. Is there a way to always Find in the Down direction when I first open a .txt doc?

I came from Windows 7 where it would always first Find in the Down direction (Ctrl+F -> Enter) regardless of where you were the last time you had the document open.

Thanks.

caramba · May 31, 2023

Can you send a screenshot?
When I re-opened a document in Notepad I didn't notice any change in the "Find" box: there are two arrows and none of them was active / highlighed. It's me to decide what direction I want to start the search.

jseeley · May 31, 2023

Thanks. I don't see arrows. I'm referring to the traditional Notepad app. (notepad.exe) located in System32 folder. When I do a Control + F, I see two radio buttons: Up and Down. There's always one selected.

I've been since using the "Wrap around" feature and making a habit of always leaving it on "Down". The Wrap around feature is good, but it could be a LOT better if they had a number count (in the Find box) showing you the number of finds and which one you're on. Instead you get a small notification in the status bar (I don't use the status bar) when the results loop to the top again.

The Find box looks exactly like the one here (first picture): Find and Replace Text in Notepad in Windows 10

caramba · May 31, 2023

Thank you for a thorough explanation.
Here are the arrows I was talking about and my version of Windows.

jseeley · May 31, 2023

Thanks for the screenshot! I think that's the new Notepad app. I'm brand new to Win11, and coming straight from Win7, I still prefer using the traditional Notepad.exe. In the future, maybe I'll try that one. Does that app give the number of search results? Doesn't look like it. Thanks again.

SIW2 · May 31, 2023

You could try notepad2 http://code.kliu.org/misc/notepad2/4.0.22/SetupNotepad2.x86-64.exe

jseeley · May 31, 2023

SIW2 said:
You could try notepad2 http://code.kliu.org/misc/notepad2/4.0.22/SetupNotepad2.x86-64.exe

Thanks. I'm going to stick with the old school notepad at least for now, as I'm starting to get used to it's subtle differences between it and the Windows 7 version. (I don't know where it changed because I never had Windows 8 or 10) Maybe I'll try an alternative in the future. Thx.

caramba · May 31, 2023

jseeley said:
In the future, maybe I'll try that one. Does that app give the number of search results?

I'm afraid you'll have no choice. After you update the system there will be no turning back to the old one (unless somebody writes a script or proposes a tweak).

Unfortunately the app doesn't display the number of search results now, but huge (I mean: HUGE) changes in Windows are due in July so who knows.

jseeley · May 31, 2023

Thanks. That's fine if I have no other choice.

I'm also using the old school Snipping Tool. I just copied the SnippingTool.exe and SnippingTool.exe.mui from Windows 7 to the same directories in Win11 and it works great.

hdmi · May 31, 2023

NFOPad - Free lightweight notepad replacer - True Human Design Official Homepage

truehumandesign.se

dacrone · May 31, 2023

Just copy the old notepad from Win 7 into your 11 install

jseeley · May 31, 2023

hdmi said:
NFOPad - Free lightweight notepad replacer - True Human Design Official Homepage

truehumandesign.se

View attachment 61380

Looks great. Thanks for making me aware of this. Reminds me of the old days when searching for sn's and other important info nestled in NFO docs of warez. lol.

jseeley · May 31, 2023

dacrone said:
Just copy the old notepad from Win 7 into your 11 install

You know, I never thought of that! Tomorrow is another day. Thx!

hdmi · Jun 1, 2023

jseeley said:
Looks great. Thanks for making me aware of this. Reminds me of the old days when searching for sn's and other important info nestled in NFO docs of warez. lol.

Yarr!

Code:

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MisterEd · Jun 1, 2023

dacrone said:
Just copy the old notepad from Win 7 into your 11 install

I have a dual boot of Windows 10 and 7.
In Windows 10 Notepad is in two places: C:\Windows\Notepad.exe & C:\Windows\system32\Notepad.exe
In Windows 7 Notepad is in two places: E:\Windows\Notepad.exe & E:\Windows\system32\Notepad.exe

I tried copying Notepad.exe from E:\Windows\Notepad.exe to C:\Windows\Notepad7.exe. I renamed it so the original wouldn't be overwritten,
Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to run. However, from Windows 10 I could run E:\Windows\Notepad.exe.

I don't know why I couldn't get the copy to work. Maybe there is something in Windows 7 it needs to run.

SIW2 · Jun 1, 2023

Did you copy the mui file ?

whatever you have named notepad.exe to, it wants notepad.exe.mui

dacrone · Jun 1, 2023

notepad.exe.mui that SIW2 is referring to is in

%systemdrive%\Windows\System32\en-US

jseeley · Jun 1, 2023

Yes! Thanks! The Notepad.exe from Windows 7 works great! I copied over the notepad.exe and notepad.exe.mui from Win7, but before placing them in the System32 and System32\en-US folders respectively, I had to rename them because I was unable to rename the Win11 notepad.exe. So I renamed the ones from Win7 _notepad.exe and _notepad.exe.mui Works good and the underscore makes them pop to the top of the pile... easy to find. So both Notepads work side by side... the Win11 traditional Notepad and the Win7 Notepad.