Misbehaving Plugins
I changed jobs and the new machine that I was using kept giving me pop up errors every time I opened up NotePad++ and it was due to some plugins that were installed. For whatever reason NotePad++ doesn’t have an explicit uninstall feature for the plugins that might be in the program. So I did some quick searches on the errors I got and I came up cold, however when I went to the NotePad++ website and read some of the documentation it says that in order to uninstall a plugin you just need to delete it from the plugins directory. So I tried that, but I still had issues, so I went a few steps further and I just uninstalled NotePad++ and re-installed it which unfortunately didn’t fix the problem again.

Doing a Full Uninstall Of NotePad++
This turned into an unusual problem. I solved it by taking the following steps:

  1. Run the uninstaller for NotePad++
  2. Delete (Backup first if you want) its directories located in these two places:
    • Go to the start menu and type in “%appdata%”, locate the NotePad++ folder
    • Go to “C:Program Files (x86)Notepad++”
  3. If you get an error while trying to delete the main Notepad++ folder then restart your computer because you have the Notepad++ shell extension installed. The dll that controls that won’t be released until you restart your computer. After restarting delete the folder again
  4. Install the latest copy of NotePad++

What you accomplish by doing all of this is fully uninstalling NotePad++ and then installing it again, that way you remove anything that might have been causing the issues.

Pop Up Errors I Received
If anyone is interested I was getting errors for Snippets and Pork2Sausage. For Pork2Sausage an “ini” file could not be found, even when I created it. With regards to Snippets I was getting two errors, one that explicitly said “Not an Error” and another one that said “A proper database could not be loaded”.

2 Replies to “Notepad++ Errors: Doing a full Uninstall”

  1. Eli,

    I'm using the Snippets 1.1.0 plugin on Notepad++. One of my ongoing problems is I occasionally somehow make the Snippets window disappear. It happens so seldom (and I have neglected to write down the fix – which I seem to remember is rather simple) — that here I am again – two hours of experimentation and I still can't get it to reappear. Any idea how I fix this ?

    Any help appreciated !

  2. I wish I could be more helpful than this, but did you try restarting your computer? Chances are you have already. The truth is I don't use any of the plugins for Notepad++, I should probably start though. Bet they are time savers most of them.

    I can imagine doing a full uninstall like above is not a favorable option for you. If I were you I would poke around in %appdata% and the install directory. Make a full backup of anything you want to mess around with (backup the whole directory) and start deleting things, replace with blank ones or editing files. Of course that could make it worse or unstable, but hell if it all goes south you have your backup and that has all of your settings in it.

    This honestly sounds like buggy software that the author(s) of the plugin need to resolve (obviously). Which unfortunately is the price we pay for free software 😀 (that's why I am a Microsoft whore).

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