Where are Notepad++ config files?

I know this question has been asked before and I have read many answers from various forums regarding this issue but I have never ever been able to find my actual configuration files for Notepad++.

I have been using Notepad++ for many years and periodically something will happen or I will change computers and I will have to reinstall it and then reconfigure ever setting all over again since I have no prior config files that I can just copy back. Very frustrating.

I have always set a "DoLocalConf.xml" in the install directory because it has been said that this will store settings in the install directory (but doesn't). I have also looked in the folder: user / Roaming / appdata for notepad++ and the settings are not there either (even though the folder exists depending on if I have creatd DoLocalConf.xml or not). -- To be more specific - the CONFIG files are there but they never change after I have setup my preferences and such.

I use Beyond Compare to diff them every time and they stay identical and the timestamp does not change. A very simple example is I go to preferences, set "show close button", "draw vertical line", Set backup directory, ... and then close Notepad++ and none of the notepad++ xml files get updated. I don't understand how this is possible. Every once in a while I will spend hours reading forums and searching for these settings only to finally give up until the next time I have to reinstall. There must be something else to check where they are stored.

I have a Windows 7 professional setup and (currently) using the latest Notepad++ 6.2.3

Solution 1:

The configuration files are typically stored in the user's roaming app data folder. I have a standard Notepad++ setup (v6.1). I made no modifications during installation. My config files are stored in:

%appdata%\Notepad++

Which resolves to:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++

I verified this by opening %appdata%\Notepad++\config.xml and checking the value for <GUIConfig name="StatusBar"> tag, which was set to show. I then went into Settings -> Preferences and unchecked the "Show status bar" checkbox. I then closed Notepad++ and reopened the config.xml file. The value now shows hide instead of show.

If you did check the "Don't use the %APPDATA% folder" option at install time, Notepad++ may be trying to write configuration files to your install directory but failing, or the Windows compatibility layer may be giving you a virtualized version of the install directory to write to. In that case I would uninstall, and reinstall using standard settings.