Default save extension in Notepad++

The configuration files are typically stored in the user's roaming app data folder. I have a standard Notepad++ setup (v6.1). I made no modifications during installation. My config files are stored in:

%appdata%\Notepad++

Which resolves to:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++

I verified this by opening %appdata%\Notepad++\config.xml and checking the value for <GUIConfig name="StatusBar"> tag, which was set to show. I then went into Settings -> Preferences and unchecked the "Show status bar" checkbox. I then closed Notepad++ and reopened the config.xml file. The value now shows hide instead of show.

If you did check the "Don't use the %APPDATA% folder" option at install time, Notepad++ may be trying to write configuration files to your install directory but failing, or the Windows compatibility layer may be giving you a virtualized version of the install directory to write to. In that case I would uninstall, and reinstall using standard settings.

If you have a look under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\UserChoice\ProgId

You should see something like Notepad++_file

If you find the entry for that in HKCR, e.g.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Notepad++_file

You'll see the description "Notepad++ Document", this is where Explorer picks it up from. If you simply set the value for Notepad++_file to empty and then ALL files will revert to generic descriptions, e.g. TXT file, PHP file etc.