Notepad Will Not Open with .txt file

[Guest]

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.â€

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

But here’s the main 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 the filename or icon, 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 Filesâ€. 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 Withâ€
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.

An alternative to this, which results in the same dead-end, is from the
Desktop, I click Start > Run > and then Control Folders in the space > Enter
and then go to the File Types tab. When I choose TXT files and try to
associate them to open with notepad, but I have the same problem as the above
paragraph. I browse and find notepad but I can lock in the association at all.

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? Although I appreciate the effort, please do not suggest a special
computer program from some obscure website that may “fix†this. My last
download and running of an unknown program cost me $200 in “wipe and re-loadâ€
technician fees.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

try using wordpad
instead:

start > run > wordpad

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..

 

[John John]

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.â€

Right click on the Notepad shorcut and click on properties. Look at the
"Target" box and make sure that it reads:
%SystemRoot%\system32\notepad.exe


You should also be able to run Notepad by clicking on STart | Run and
entering notepad in the box.

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

But here’s the main 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 the filename or icon, 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.

Right click on a .txt file and in the "Open with" select browse and
navigate to the System32 folder and highligth Notepad. Then tell it to
"Always use..."

John

 

[Guest]

Right click on the Notepad shorcut and click on properties. Look at the
"Target" box and make sure that it reads:
%SystemRoot%\system32\notepad.exe


You should also be able to run Notepad by clicking on STart | Run and
entering notepad in the box.



Right click on a .txt file and in the "Open with" select browse and
navigate to the System32 folder and highligth Notepad. Then tell it to
"Always use..."

John

Thanks, John. That works. For some reason my only copy of notepad.exe was in my WINNT\ServicePackFiles\I386 directory. So I copied it to WINNT\System32\ and then followed the "open with" business. So now I am good to go.

 

[John John]

:

You're welcome.

John