Notepad2 is a fast and light-weight Notepad-like text editor with syntax highlighting.
This program can be run out of the box without installation, and does not touch your system’s registry. You can set it also as your default notepad or a windows notepad replacement ;)

Features
Syntax highlighting: HTML, XML, PHP, ASP (JS, VBS), CSS,    JavaScript, VBScript, C/C++, C#, Resource Script, Makefiles, Java,    Visual Basic, Pascal, Assembly, SQL, Perl, Python, Configuration    Files, Apache Config Files, PowerShell, Batch Files, Diff Files  – Drag & drop text editing inside and outside Notepad2  – Basic regular expression search and replace  – Useful word, line and block editing shortcuts  – Rectangular selection (Alt+Mouse)  – Brace matching, auto indent, long line marker, zoom functions  – Support for Unicode, UTF-8, Unix and Mac text files  – Open shell links  – Mostly adjustable

Replace Windows Notepad with Notepad2

If you want to replace Windows notepad with notepad2, you can do it easily, this is how i do it even if windows file protection is enabled…

1. Download Notepad2.zip
2. save it to a folder where you want
3. extract the files inside the archive (notepad2.exe and notepad2.ini) to your desktop.
4. rename notepad2.exe to notepad.exe and do the same with notepad2.ini to notepad.ini
5. go to C:WINDOWSsystem32dllcache
6. In that folder you’ll see notepad.exe, copy that to other location for backup purposes (this is the original Windows Notepad, you can put it back to restore the original Windows notepad).
7. now, back to your desktop you have notepad.exe, copy and paste it to C:WINDOWSsystem32dllcache (Overwrite if asked)
8. and now go back to your desktop and copy notepad.exe and notepad.ini and paste to this folders, “C:WindowsSystem” and also here “C:WindowsSystem32” (Overwrite it all if asked)…

That’s it, all your files that associated with notepad will be opened in notepad2…

if you want other ways to replace windows notepad, you can do it in authors more advance guide here which is not for basic users ;)