I have never used Notepad but now I have to. (I have formerly used Word for
all my text processing.) I’m running Windows XP. If I try to open notepad
with “All Programs� > “Accessories� > notepad, I immediately get a pop-up
window that is titled “Problem with Shortcut� and the text after the
exclamation point reads “The drive or network connection that the shortcut
‘Notepad.lnk’ refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly
inserted or the network resource is available, and then try again.�

However when I directly go to “My Computer� > “Local Disk� > “Program Files�
I see notepad.exe and I can click it and open it. So I can run notepad fine
then.

But here’s the problem, and it may have something to so with the first
issue: When I save the notepad file as filename.txt, it is so stored.
However when I wish to edit that filename.txt with notepad again by
double-clicking on it, my computer does not know what program the .txt file
should be opened with. I get the pop-up window titled “Open With� which
wants me to choose which program I want to open the filename.txt with. Well,
the answer is notepad, of course, but it does not appear on the list. The
“Recommended Programs� are Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word. Below that
is a long list of “Other Programs� of which notepad is not included. So I
click the box “Always Use the Selected Program to Open This Kind of File� and
I click the Browse button. It takes me to the “Program Files� directory and
I find notepad and click it so “notepad� is entered into the “File Name.�
But in the “Files of Type� field my only two choices are “Programs� or “All
Files�. I’m not sure what that means (it does not make sense to me) but no
matter what I put in there, the next result is always the same and not right.
I click “Open� and this pop-up window goes away and I go right back to the
“Open With� pop-up window. But nothing has changed. The choice of notepad
has not been entered on this “Open With� window. No matter what I do, the
selection of notepad to open and all .txt files is never made. I can not get
it to happen. Yet notepad obviously exists on my computer. Does this
problem have anything to do with my problem statement in the first paragraph?
Does anyone know how I can get .txt files to open with notepad when I double
click them?

Thanks in advance.

LNK (Shortcut) File Association Fix (Restores Default Shortcut Behavior)
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

TXT File Association Fix (Restore default associations for TXT files)
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

Download > Unzip them > Right Click > Choose 'Merge'




"Gordillo6" wrote:

> I have never used Notepad but now I have to. (I have formerly used Word for
> all my text processing.) I’m running Windows XP. If I try to open notepad
> with “All Programs� > “Accessories� > notepad, I immediately get a pop-up
> window that is titled “Problem with Shortcut� and the text after the
> exclamation point reads “The drive or network connection that the shortcut
> ‘Notepad.lnk’ refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly
> inserted or the network resource is available, and then try again.�
>
> However when I directly go to “My Computer� > “Local Disk� > “Program Files�
> I see notepad.exe and I can click it and open it. So I can run notepad fine
> then.
>
> But here’s the problem, and it may have something to so with the first
> issue: When I save the notepad file as filename.txt, it is so stored.
> However when I wish to edit that filename.txt with notepad again by
> double-clicking on it, my computer does not know what program the .txt file
> should be opened with. I get the pop-up window titled “Open With� which
> wants me to choose which program I want to open the filename.txt with. Well,
> the answer is notepad, of course, but it does not appear on the list. The
> “Recommended Programs� are Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word. Below that
> is a long list of “Other Programs� of which notepad is not included. So I
> click the box “Always Use the Selected Program to Open This Kind of File� and
> I click the Browse button. It takes me to the “Program Files� directory and
> I find notepad and click it so “notepad� is entered into the “File Name.�
> But in the “Files of Type� field my only two choices are “Programs� or “All
> Files�. I’m not sure what that means (it does not make sense to me) but no
> matter what I put in there, the next result is always the same and not right.
> I click “Open� and this pop-up window goes away and I go right back to the
> “Open With� pop-up window. But nothing has changed. The choice of notepad
> has not been entered on this “Open With� window. No matter what I do, the
> selection of notepad to open and all .txt files is never made. I can not get
> it to happen. Yet notepad obviously exists on my computer. Does this
> problem have anything to do with my problem statement in the first paragraph?
> Does anyone know how I can get .txt files to open with notepad when I double
> click them?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>