Notepad++, Windows 10, UAC & The Plugin-Nightmare - How To Fix It

Notepad++ is great: It has always been my favourite editor, I loved all those useful plugins until... well, until Windows 10 showed up on my company's machines, thus meaning UAC was enforced.

Though we are Local Admins on the machines & starting Notepad++ as Local Administrator, the Plugin Admin couldn't connect to the Plugin Ressources and couldn't download any updates.

Preface:

My problems were caused by Notepad++ not being able to store Update Proxy Information in Non-Administrative Mode. My best guess is that UAC enforced this behaviour.

Took me some time to come up with this remedy since Notepad++ doesn't show any network-error (default behavior).

Also, I didn't find any information how to specify my proxy-credentials in the Update-Proxy-dialog, but there's a remedy for that, too.

However, if you're behind a Socks-proxy, things might work completely different and are not covered by this blog-post.

My Technical Environment:

Windows 10 Enterprise 64 bit

Notepad++ 7.7.1 64 bit

Here's how to fix it:

1. When installing Notepad++, make sure, that you are not using the %APPDATA%-directory, but keep any configuration within the local program folder. To achieve this, click the appropriate checkbox during installation:

2. After having installed Notepad++, run the program as Local Administrator:

3. Open the settings to enter your proxy via the "?"-menu -> Set Updater Proxy:

4. Enter the proxy server in the format

http://[proxy-host] (in case you don't need to provide credentials)

or

http://[user]:[password]@[proxy-host] (in case you need to provide credentials)

i. e. 

http://itsme:somepassword@yourproxy

Don't forget to specify the proxy port:

5 Click OK, exit Notepad++ and restart it running in non-administrative mode, et voilà:

Hope some of you guys asking on Stackoverflow et al not getting a workable solution find this piece of information useful.

In case of any questions, it's easiest to contact me via my Twitter account.

Enjoy!