---
title: "[Cool Tool] NotePad2"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/28/cool-tool-notepad2.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/28/cool-tool-notepad2.html"
published: "2004-04-28T11:12:00"
updated: "2004-04-28T11:12:00"
tags: ["Cool Tools"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "[Update: Steve Eichert shows how to make notepad2 replace good ol' Notepad without windows file protection interfering in the process. Thanks!] Just found out this cool little util through the win-tech-off-topic list:…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# \[Cool Tool\] NotePad2

By Roy Osherove April 28, 2004 In [Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools)

**Historical article** · Originally published April 28, 2004; technical details may be outdated.

_\[Update:_ [_Steve Eichert shows_](http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/seichert/archive/2004/04/30/12462.aspx) _how to make notepad2 replace good ol' Notepad without windows file protection interfering in the process. Thanks!\]_

Just found out this cool little util through the win-tech-off-topic list:

[NotePad2](http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html) \- freeware notepad replacement with some extra features:

**Features**
• Customizable syntax highlighting:
• • HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, VBScript, ASP, PHP, CSS, Perl/CGI
• • C/C++, C#, Java, VB, Pascal, Assembler, SQL, Python, NSIS
• • INI, REG, INF, BAT, DIFF
• Drag & drop text editing inside and outside Notepad2
• Basic regular expression search and replace
• Useful word, line and block editing shortcuts
• Rectangular selection (Alt+Mouse)
• Brace matching, auto indent, long line marker, zoom functions
• Support for Unicode, UTF-8, Unix and Mac text files
• Open shell links
• Mostly adjustable

## More in Cool Tools

[All posts in Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools)

- May 8, 2004

    ### [Numega DevPartner Profiler - free community edition](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/5/8/numega-devpartner-profiler-free-community-edition.html)

- May 1, 2004

    ### [New version for NUnit Add-in](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/5/1/new-version-for-nunit-add-in.html)

- Apr 22, 2004

    ### [Blogsphere viral marketing](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/22/blogsphere-viral-marketing.html)

- Apr 20, 2004

    ### [\[Tool\] WMI Strongly Typed Class Generator](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/20/tool-wmi-strongly-typed-class-generator.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

### Social

- X: https://x.com/royosherove
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/

### Contact

- Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7

### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/