Remember when Notepad was just… Notepad? A simple text editor nobody asked to be modernized?
Yeah, Microsoft didn’t care either. They bolted on Markdown support and AI features anyway. And now we’ve got CVE-2026-20841. Remote code execution. Via a text file. This is the kind of thing that makes you go “oh come on, really?”
For some reason I have a vague memory that the old notepad is still there. You just need to do a extra loop to start it. I’ll check if I can find the link.
It’s been a while and I’m a Linux user, so I didn’t really pay attention.
That’s pretty much the problem. You know how to work around the issue. I know how to work around the issue. Institutional knowledge doesn’t and just opens the application just like they’ve always done. I resolved this one by associating .csv files with Notepad++ company wide. Now this is a mandated change so they’ll grumble and get on track.
The real issue I have with all this is changing data without consent. It’s like the new Notepad is malware all by itself, doesn’t even need remote exploits.
And hello fellow Linux user :)
It has always been the problem with Micro$oft products. You don’t use them the way you want or need to. You use them the way Micro$oft envisioned it.
Wasn’t notepad++ just compromised in a pretty major way?