Bah Vista

I've replaced Notepad with Notepad2 at work, and I couldn't be happier. I get syntax highlighting, ability to toggle read-only from a menu (seriously awesome), and encoding detection/changing from one program. Awesome.

I installed it in the C:\Windows folder as notepad2, and changed most of the default types (that don't open in VS2008) to use notepad2, but it still appears in every Open As.. dialog. What I should have done was replace Notepad.exe entirely.

So, this is what I'm trying to do now on my personal laptop with Vista. And I can't.

When I try to rename notepad.exe to _notepad.exe, the UAC pops up and asks me for my credentials. I sign in as my admin account, and then it pops up friendly "You need permission to perform this action." box, which pops up again and again when I click Ok.

Checking the permissions on notepad, the only thing that has full control is a trusted installer. Adminstrators just have read & execute permission. Moreover, I can't change permissions, even as an administrator. This is where the Bah Vista comes from.


In fairness, I'm the one messing up and trying to do what I shouldn't, and Vista is entirely correct in its actions. System files shouldn't be replaced, and this will prevent viruses, et cetera.. If I want to install Notepad2, I should do it somewhere else. It still doesn't make me any happier about it.

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UPDATE: You can take ownership of the file from TrustedInstaller (with admin rights), which allows you to change the permissions. So I did, but I can't set the ownership back to TrustedInstaller, and I'm also having trouble limiting my user account's permissions on the file now. I also hope that Vista doesn't notice I've messed with her files and come after me..

This is NOT recommended. I should have just installed it somewhere else and dealt with the hassle of reassigning file types.

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UPDATE: I feel so bamboozled. All links to Notepad go to c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe, not c:\windows. So I basically did nothing. I'm not sure why there is another copy of Notepad, or why it is in the system32 folder since it's a 64-bit executable. Mysteries of Windows I guess.

Even more mysteriously, it doesn't run while named _notepad.exe...but I rename it back to notepad.exe and it opens just fine.

I have finally put Notepad2 in its own folder and we can all just forget about this little mess..