Notepad settings

tistou77 · Sep 18, 2025

Hello

It's possible to backup and restore Notepad settings ?
I saw a tutorial for backing up the files located in "AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_8wekyb3d8bbwe\Settings" but it didn't work.

Thanks

garlin · Sep 18, 2025

UWP apps store their settings in an offline reg hive, under Settings\settings.dat.

Code:

copy %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_8wekyb3d8bbwe\Settings\settings.dat settings.dat
del  %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_8wekyb3d8bbwe\Settings\settings.dat
notepad

Code:

taskkill /f /im notepad.exe
copy settings.dat %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_8wekyb3d8bbwe\Settings\settings.dat
notepad

The rules are:
- If you're installing Windows, you must wait until after the user's first-time logon because UWP apps need to be registered in the user's profile.
- The app must not be running, otherwise it has an exclusive lock on the settings.dat

dacrone · Sep 18, 2025

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState

if you just copy that whole folder, it should back up the basic settings.

TabState contains open tabs and unsaved text
WindowState stores the layout position and size

just to cover these, plus what @garlin mentioned (folder-wise), here's a batch to copy the whole appdata folder to C:\temp

just make a .bat file with this in it to backup to C:\temp

Code:

@echo off
setlocal

set "backupDir=%SystemDrive%\temp"
set "sourceDir=%LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_8wekyb3d8bbwe\"

if not exist "%backupDir%" (
    mkdir "%backupDir%"
)

xcopy "%sourceDir%\*" "%backupDir%\" /Y /I /Q

echo Notepad data backed up to: %backupDir%
pause

tistou77 · Sep 18, 2025

Thanks for help

The Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState directory is empty
I'm testing on a Windows that's already installed and it doesn't work with settings.dat

During some tests, I found a file (user.dat) that is modified every time the settings are changed. I'll test to see if it's the one

PS: I forgot to mention that it was Notepad without the tabs, surely for that

garlin · Sep 18, 2025

You mean classic Notepad? That's a different app.

dacrone · Sep 18, 2025

notepad classic and notepad are two completely separate apps/programs

classic notepad - you can backup word wrap, status bar and font settings:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad

tistou77 · Sep 18, 2025

No, Notepad App (11.2204.12.0) the version just before the one with the tabs
The one from W11 22h2, if I remember correctly

dacrone · Sep 18, 2025

tistou77 said:
No, Notepad App (11.2204.12.0) the version just before the one with the tabs

same as aforementioned folder. if nothing is backed up, there was nothing configured.

tistou77 · Sep 18, 2025

It's good, I found it, for the version without tabs,
It's user.dat file in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_8wekyb3d8bbwe\SystemAppData\Helium

Notepad settings

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