Windows Notepad Replacement

[atomi]

I’d like to see a “-z” command line switch that would allow Sublime Text to replace notepad.exe on windows machines.

Programmers Notepad blog explains this method
( untidy.net/blog/2009/11/03/repla … n-options/ ):

“The –z tells PN to ignore the next parameter, which when using Image File Execution Options is the process name that we’re replacing – the full path to notepad.exe in this case.”

This way we can do this to register Sublime Text as a Notepad.exe replacement;
reg.bat in sublime program folder:

reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe" /v "Debugger" /t REG_SZ /d "\"%~dp0sublimetext.exe\" -z" /f

Thanks.

[Grumpydev]

In case you don’t spot it, I’ve created a little launcher/installer for doing this:

Solution for replacing Notepad.exe on Windows

I’m giving Sublime a whirl and I must say I’m impressed, but I’ve noticed there doesn’t currently seem to be support for replacing Notepad on Windows using the “debugger trick”, which is a bit of a shame. Rather than just come on and bitch about it though I’ve knocked up a small launcher that handles this, along with a BAT file for making the relevant changes to the registry - seems to do the job for me (I’ve only tested it with the Alpha though). If anyone else is interested in doing this you …

[atomi]

Great!
Thanks!

I had to install Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 (redistributable)…
So I hope this can be incorporated into Sublime Text.

[jps]

In the latest version of Sublime Text 2, “-z” can be passed on the command line, and the following command will be ignored. I haven’t tested this with the registry key to enable Notepad replacement, but my understanding is that’s all that’s required.

[atomi]

I’m not using Sublime Text 2, but I went ahead and tested it for you.

It’s not working when opening files in paths with spaces in them.
For example, I open the file “J:\My Dropbox\Workspace\blah.txt”, Sublime tries to open a file named “My”

GrumpyDev’s launcher works in all cases for what it’s worth.
Tested on 20110203 x64/386 portables and installed as well.

Here’s the ReplaceNotepad.bat

reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe" /v "Debugger" /t REG_SZ /d "\"%~dp0sublime_text.exe\" -z" /f

[Grumpydev]

Yep, when you launch it with the debugger trick it doesn’t surround the filename with quotes - no idea why, but it doesn’t.

My launcher thingy makes sure the parameters (ignoring -z and the one after it) are quoted.

[l1n3n01z]

Hi Grumpydev, I’m using Windows 7 for 64 bit, and when I install this, it doesn’t quite work. Something gets run, but sublime doesn’t get started at all. Sublime gets installed in Program Folders(x86) folder, but that is referenced correctly in the registry keys.

Do you have any pointers for Windows 7, 64 ?

[atomi]

[quote=“l1n3n01z”]Hi Grumpydev, I’m using Windows 7 for 64 bit, and when I install this, it doesn’t quite work. Something gets run, but sublime doesn’t get started at all. Sublime gets installed in Program Folders(x86) folder, but that is referenced correctly in the registry keys.

Do you have any pointers for Windows 7, 64 ?[/quote]

I’m not Grumpydev heh but I think I know what is wrong. If you look at the source code the exe is actually calling sublimetext.exe and not sublime_text.exe what you can do is rename the sublime_text.exe to sublimetext.exe and it should work. I’m not sure though if that breaks anything else, but so far it’s been working fine for me.

[l1n3n01z]

Very astute! This worked perfectly, atomi. Thanks a lot!

[chrisemersonnc]

If you look at the source code the exe is actually calling sublimetext.exe and not sublime_text.exe what you can do is rename the sublime_text.exe to sublimetext.exe and it should work.

Thanks man!

[kybo15]

Update sublime text 3

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe]
“Debugger”="“D:\portables\Sublime Text 3\sublime_text.exe” -z"
@=""

this work for me! thanks

[one]

Update sublime text 3

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe]
“Debugger”="“D:\portables\Sublime Text 3\sublime_text.exe” -z"
@=""

this work for me! thanks

This won’t be able to open files correctly. You need some launcher if you want to be able to open files correctly, either Notepad Replacer or Sublime Launcher.