The new reality of Notepad++ (for now)

In the past few versions, the publisher has made some changes that make deploying and managing Notepad++ a challenge. I wanted to share what I have learned in hopes that it might help others. Specifically, the use of plugins.

First, a little background. The current version (7.6.3) did away with the Plugin Manager for Plugin Admin. The way Plugin Admin is designed is that it works only when Notepad++ is installed as the current logged in user. Otherwise, Plugin Admin doesn't appear in the menu and cannot be used. I have yet been able to get this to work deploying from PDQ Deploy (not a shortcoming of PDQ Deploy). This means end users can neither install, nor update any plugins.

What I have found is a somewhat simple solution. First, I have a test machine where I manually install Notepad++ and have access to Plugin Admin. I install all of the plugins used in our organization and update them. All the plugins are now stored in C:\Program Files\Notepad++\plugins. Copy this to your repository. Create a new deployment package with the first step being the native Notepad++ package and the second step copying the plugins directory to the target machine.

The developers of Notepad++ are looking at ways to accommodate different deployments so that this is not necessary. Until that time, we have found this to be our best option. Part of this is a monthly task of checking for updates, then re-copying the plugins to the repository, the copying the plugins directory to target computers. I welcome any comments or improvements to this process, or even anything that eliminates this altogether.