Re-Register Notepad

mtrox

Often when I remove spyware, I find that notepad.exe is gone or corrupted somehow. That's easy to fix but what I've not figured out is how to make it a registered program again. If I want to associate a file type to notepad (obviously .txt is the most likely) the list of registered programs does not include notepad. I even searched for notepad in a healthy registry and exported all of those resitery keys. No good.

Anyone know how to make notepad a registered program again?

mtrox

Answered my own question. First of all, having notepad.exe in the c:\windows directory isn't enough. Yes it will run from there, but on a healthy computer I see that it's also in c:\windows\system32\. When you put it there it will magically show up as an "Open With" option in Control Panel> Folder Options> File Types.

You can also edit the registry key to get notepad fixed. The key is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FileExts\.extension\OpenWithList. Then you navigate to and expand the extension you want (probably .txt and .ini for notepad), then highlight OpenWithList. On the right side of the registry editor, right click on value "a" and choose Modify. Then just type the name of the executable, "notepad.exe". However, if your spyware has deleted or corrupted the notepad.exe in c:\windows\system32\, editing the registry won't do any good.