How To Add The Open With Notepad Option To The Context Menu In Windows

How to Add “Open with Notepad” to the Windows Context Menu Using the Registry Editor

To include the “Open with Notepad” option in the right-click menu, start by launching the Registry Editor.

Press the Win + R to open Windows Run. In the text box, type regedit and hit the Enter key. Click Yes on the UAC prompt to confirm that you want to edit the Windows Registry using the Registry Editor.

In the Registry Editor, expand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT > *. Then, right-click the shell key on the left panel and select New > Key.

Name this key Open with Notepad. Now, right-click the Open with Notepad key you just created and select New > Key. Then, name that key command.

Select the command key on the left panel and double-click the Default Registry entry on the right panel to open the Edit String dialog box. In the Value data text box, enter the following string value and then click on OK to close the dialog box.

The below screenshot shows what entering the above string value should look like in the Registry Editor.

While you’re at it, you should also add the Notepad icon so it appears next to the “Open with Notepad” option in the right-click menu. To do that, right-click the Open with Notepad key that you previously created in the Registry Editor. Then, select New > Expandable String Value and name it Icon.

On the right panel, double-click the newly-created Icon entry and paste the following string value in the text box for Value data:

Click OK to close the Edit String dialog box for the Icon string value. You should also close the Registry Editor at this point.

Now when you right-click a file, you’ll see the Open with Notepad option in the context menu.

As you can see, the Notepad icon will also appear right besides it, which just makes it look nicer.

Making It Easier to Open Files With Notepad

When the options available on right-click menu in Windows seem limited, it’s good to know that you can expand them as you please. In this case, we’ve shown you how to add the “Open with Notepad” option to the context menu. Now, it should be easier to open text files with Notepad in certain scenarios.