Notepad Statusbar Bug Found in All Windows Versions

UPDATE: Finally the bug has been fixed in Windows 10 newer versions. Check out following article for details:

[Review] Notepad Improvements in Windows 10

Today we are going to share a bug present in Notepad program which comes bundled with all Windows versions. This bug exists in almost all Windows versions including Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Windows 8:

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1. Open Notepad and enable “Status Bar” from “View -> Status Bar“. If this option is disabled, then first uncheck “Format -> Word Wrap” option and now enable Status Bar again.

2. Now open any existing text file (Yeah, you have to open an already saved file to check this BUG) and put your cursor to any line, you’ll see its location in Status Bar.

e.g. we assume that you put the cursor at column 3 of Line 3, then it’ll show “Ln 3, Col 3” in Status Bar.

OK, fine then what’s the BUG? Now press <Ctrl>+S or Choose “File -> Save” and look at the Status Bar. VOILLA, it’ll show “Ln 1, Col 1” irrespective of the actual Line and column Number, that was “Ln 3, Col 22” in our case.

Notepad_Bug.png

Sometimes you may have to press <Ctrl>+S twice to re-create this BUG.

So the BUG is whenever you save an existing file, Notepad will show “Ln 1, Col 1” in Status Bar and it’ll be corrected when you move the cursor.

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BONUS TIP:

Notepad doesn’t allow to have Status Bar along with Word Wrap feature. You can have one of them enabled at a time. But there is a registry hack, using it you can have both of them at the same time.

Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad

In right-side pane, change value of StatusBar to 1.

More Info: [Windows Tip] Show Status Bar with Word Wrap Enabled in Notepad

Published in: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Open notepad, and type some text.
    Select it all, and type something else.
    Then, move the cursor to the start and type a few characters.
    Then, UNDO, and magically the text you had before appears over the few characters you typed, rather than over everything! This logically shouldn’t occur since the text was never in that state!

  2. Statusbar: Ctrl+S once is enough, if it doesn’t open the save file dialog.
    The Ctrl+Z one: whoa, What??!! 😮 😮 😮

  3. Still present in Windows 10 (Build 10240).

    I think Microsoft abandoned Notepad.
    They should at least replace it to a universal app version.
    Keep its simplicity and also fix the status bar bug.

  4. This bug happens if word wrap is off even without hacking the registry. Confirmed it on Windows 10 64 bit.

  5. Regarding the Bonus Tip, windows 10 now allows to have both Status Bar and Word Wrap in Notepad without using any registry hack or anything else.

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