I will assume you belong to those ~5000+ geeks that reckon Notepad++ is “the best” Notepad replacement (http://alternativeto.net/software/notepad/).

If you agree with the above statement, I'm sure you did already set Notepad++ as your default text editor for all your text (.txt) files.

However, if you are also a little bit fussy with regards to that fugly default Notepad++ icon that gets slapped on all your text files, don't worry because there's something you can do about it ?

 

Today I'll show you how you can replace the default Notepad++ text file icon with the Windows default one (from Notepad).

In other words, if you follow the below steps, you'll end up with:

1. Notepad++ as your default text editor.
2. Your text files icons will be restored to the default notepad icon.
3. Double-clicking text files will automatically open them on Notepad++ (not Notepad, despite the icon is the default Notepad text file icon).

A simple default-icon change.

Open regedit

Browse to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Notepad++_file\DefaultIcon

Replace the Notepad++ “default” REG_SZ-value of: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe",0

With: %SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-102

Then Restart Windows in order to apply the changes.

The above trick restores the vanilla “Notepad”-icon for all your text files (more precisely, for all your Notepad++ associations).

This way, whenever you double click on any text file (ie. to edit it), your files will still be opened by Notepad++ and your desktop will still look like a “normal” environment.

 

Not working…?! 2 additional checks.

IF the above trick doesn’t work for you, there are two additional checks you can do.

1. Clean your Thumbnails cache.
2. Review your Registry User’s hive.

To Clean your Thumbnails cache:

Open “Disk Cleanup”.

Check “Thumbnails” on the “Files to delete”-list.

Click OK to Cleanup your Thumbnails.

Restart your Computer and hopefully you should be all set.

 

How to review your Registry User’s hive.

If cleaning your Thumbnails cache didn’t offer you the expected results, then you might wish to review your Registry settings.

Your registry might have a “User”-setting that takes precedence over the Local Machine Settings.

If that is the case, then browse to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Notepad++_file\DefaultIcon” and change the value to “%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-102”

 

No worries!

[BONUS TIP]: To find out which icon is used for which file type extension, get FileTypesMan (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/file_types_manager.html) and double click on any of your extensions to locate its respective icon.

 

SRC:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/57455-file-extension-icon-change-default-icon.html

Defaults Program Editor: http://defaultprogramseditor.com/