Windows Wordpad

[DwightStegall]

I absolutely hate what Microsoft did to Windows Wordpad (wordpad.exe) in Windows 7. So I decided to try something to get the old Vista Version back. I use it a lot for coding HTML/CSS in the "Text Document" mode.

I installed WinBubbles 1.76 and used it to add "Take Ownership Of File" and "Take Ownership Of Folder" to Windows 7 Windows Explorer's right-click Context menu.

Then I took ownership of the C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories folder. In there are "en-US" folder, wordpad.exe, and wordpadfilter.dll. I added a "1" on to the left-end of their names "1en-US" etc. so the computer couldn't find them.

I plugged in a Flash Drive into my Vista computer and went to C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories and copied "en-US" folder and wordpad.exe to the Flash drive. I plugged the Flash Drive into my Windows 7 64-bit computer and copied those files into C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories

I was overjoyed to find out that this worked great. If I ever need to restore the original Windows 7 Wordpad I can just reverse this process.

After you restart your computer the Windows 7 Wordpad icon will be replaced by the icon of the Vista version.

 

[logicearth]

Could you not just use a better editor that is made for HTML and CSS? Like Komodo Edit (free)?

 

[unifex]

I always use emacs. Never even used Wordpad, so was a bit confused to read the OP, I had no idea there was such a big difference between Vista and 7 in this respect.

 

[CarlTR6]

Good information.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello DwightStegall.



Thanks for the info!

 

[Pikey]

What did Microsoft do to Wordpad that you hate so much?

I'm just curious ..

 

[davehc]

I was wondering the same thing, Pikey.
Although have Office installed, I find it is quicker and easier to use wordpad for normal writing. It certainly does everything my lowlevel typing attempts require.
I most certainly would hesitate to go through all that procedure to replace it

 

[DwightStegall]

I was dead wrong!

I was upset how everything was out in the open in the Windows 7 version of Wordpad. If I had looked closer I would have realized you could hide most of it.

Not only that but copying Wordpad from Vista was a bad idea. Windows 7 keeps replacing it with it's own version when I restart my computer. Feel free to delete this thread if you like.