Considering the time it takes to find certain lines in text files by scanning through the whole text, it’s no surprise that how to search in Notepad is the topic of many discussions regarding Notepad. You want to edit text files effectively and efficiently on Windows? In that case, this article is going to be of use to you. Down below is everything you must know searching in Notepad.
Table of Contents
Searching In Notepad: Summary
- Step 1: Launch Notepad, select Edit and choose Find.
- Step 2: Enter what you want to search for in the Find what box.
- Step 3: Proceed to hit Find next.
Note: Alternatively, you could press Ctrl + F while Notepad is open to launch the Find window. Also, feel free to tick the Match case circle to find the exact match of your search.
How To Find And Replace Text In Notepad
- Step 1: Open your text using Notepad then press Ctrl + H.
- Step 2: Enter the texts you want to replace and replace with in Find what and Replace with fields respectively.
- Step 3: Either hit Replace to replace one matched instance or hit Replace all to replace all matched instances.
How Do I Create A Notepad Shortcut?
- Step 1: Press Windows key.
- Step 2: Type Notepad, right-click the result and pick Open file location.
- Step 3: Once the Explorer opens, select Notepad, go to the Home tab and hit Copy path.
- Step 4: Right-click your desktop, hover over New and choose Shortcut.
- Step 5: In the Type the location of the item field, paste the path in your clipboard then hit Next.
How Can I Open Notepad On Windows 10?
Via Context Menu
- Step 1: Right-click your Desktop, hover your cursor over New and hit Text Document.
- Step 2: Enter a preferred name for your new text document, hit Enter and double-click the file to open it.
Via Run
- Step 1: Press Windows + R to open Run.
- Step 2: Type Notepad then hit Enter.
Via Search
To open the Notepad using the Search bar, navigate to the search bar, type Notepad then hit Enter.
Notepad Won’t Open: Troubleshooting
Run SFC & DISM
- Step 1: Right-click Start Menu then pick Command Prompt(Admin).
- Step 2: Once in the Command Prompt paste the following commands while hitting Enter after each command.
- SFC /scannow
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
- Step 3: Close CMD, restart your computer then check if your Notepad is now responding.
Set As Default Text Editor
- Step 1: Press the Windows key + I then select Apps.
- Step 2: Go to Default apps then click Choose default apps by file type.
- Step 3: Find an application associated with the .txt file type, hit the Plus sign then choose Notepad.
Uninstall And Reinstall Notepad
- Step 1: Press the Windows key then click the cogwheel icon to open Settings.
- Step 2: Select Apps then go to Apps & features.
- Step 3: Open Optional features, select Notepad then hit Uninstall.
- Step 4: Once done, restart your computer then open Optional features again.
- Step 5: Click Add a feature, pick Notepad then choose Install.
Apply Changes To The Registry
- Step 1: Press the Windows key, type regedit then hit Enter.
- Step 2: In the Registry Editor, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then navigate to the following directory SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options
- Step 3: Right-click Notepad.exe, select Delete then confirm your action.
- Step 4: Close the Registry, restart your computer then try opening Notepad again.
Perform A Clean Boot
- Step 1: In Windows Search, type msconfig then hit Enter to open System Configuration.
- Step 2: Head to the Services tab, checkmark Hide all Microsoft services then click Disable all.
- Step 3: Navigate to the Startup tab, choose Open Task Manager, and once in the Task Manager, disable all the startup services.
- Step 4: Back to System Configuration, click OK to save changes then restart Windows.
Once your computer boots to the clean boot environment, check if the Notepad opens. If it does, there is a high chance that certain third-party software is causing conflicts. Uninstall some of the recently installed apps then boot back to normal startup.
- Step 1: Launch System Configuration then in the General tab, select Normal Startup.
- Step 2: Hit Apply followed by OK then restart your device.
