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Notepad++ fails to update

Notepad++ is a feature rich Windows Notepad replacement. It contains an automatic package update feature in more recent versions but if you are using an older version you will be prompted to download an update package and then apparantly nothing happens.

The prompt

After starting Notepad++, if there is a package update available it will show the following prompt:

an update package is available

This says “An update package is available, do you want to download it?”.

If you click “Yes” then it downloads the update and displays another dialog “Notepad++ is opened. Updater will close it in oreer ot process the installation. Continue?” Clicking “Yes” then appears to do nothing. Starting up Notepad++ again shows the first update prompt shown above again.

Version requirement

The updater only works for Notepad++ versions 5.6.4 and higher. If you have an older version then it will not work, so you have to download an up to date version of Notepad++ from Sourceforge.

Which version

To check which version you are running click the ? menu item in the main menu then “About Notepad++” as shown in the screenshot below.

select about notepad++

This will then show the about dialog with the version number, which I have highlighted with a red box in the final screenshot below.

about notepad++ dialog

After installing and running, Notepad++ will again check for updates and prompt to download and install with the improved updater. This time when prompted to install and restart it actually does.