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I decided to open the disk usage statistics in Resource Monitor, and discovered that after closing notepad++.exe, even if there were no files open, a large write to the disk occurs. In the first second, the speed is approximately 4 MB/s, then less: 3 MB, 1 MB, 500 KB, 300 KB, 100 KB. And in total it writes like this for about a minute. I think the total write will be at least 30 MB.

notepad.exe writes to both files “e:\User\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\config.xml” (which is 10 KB) and “e:\User\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\session.xml” (which is 200 bytes).

I have the same problem with Classic Shell, but I decided to write about Notepad++, since it is easier to explain and test. Does your Notepad++ also writes to disk when closed? I'm afraid my Windows is broken.

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3 Answers3

19

There is nothing wrong with your Windows or Notepad++ : Mine does exactly the same.

Notepad++ always writes its closing configuration to the file config.xml, which serves for it to be able when launched to open with exactly the same configuration as when you closed it.

As for the disk speeds, they don't mean much for such a small file. The registered speed takes a few seconds to return to zero, not because Windows is doing more writes, but because the previous write is remembered for a very short time after it finishes.

harrymc
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9

Notepad++, and many of its add-ons, are not efficient when it comes to disk writes on program termination.

Notepad++ itself writes its configuration file to disk every time you exit Notepad++, even if there have been no changes to its configuration.

Similarly, many of the plugins (extensions) for Notepad++ do the same.

If you have several Notepad++ plugins, the results can be a large number of disk writes when Notepad++ closes, even if you have not changed anything.

You may consider filing an issue report on the Notepad++ GitHub repository if there isn't one already.

One solution is to run Notepad++ from a RAMisk. I have tested this configuration and it makes Notepad++ open and close faster and definitely reduces drive wear and tear.

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Looking at closing of (my copy of) Notepad++ with Process Monitor, it writes to 3 files:

  • plugins\config\XMLTools.ini - presumably by XMLTools plugin. It writes 1.2KB, though it writes every line separately.
  • config.xml - 11KB
  • session.xml - 2KB
Jonathan
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