Over at Build 2018, Microsoft announced it has rejigged Windows Notepad so it can now cope with the line endings used in Unix, Linux and macOS, and thus will correctly display text files created on those platforms.
This change is now live in the current Windows 10 preview build, and it’s obviously good news for the likes of developers who work with those files on Windows PCs, albeit that it’s something of a long overdue change for the venerable Notepad application.
Traditionally, Notepad has only supported text files which use Windows End of Line characters, and if these are missing – Unix, Linux and macOS text files don’t use them – then everything comes out in a completely unmanageable lump of text.
Switch back
As Microsoft details in its blog post on the change, some testers may not find this move to their liking for whatever reason, but it’s possible to switch back to the traditional Notepad if you so wish, simply by tweaking the Registry.
We can expect to see this change go live in Windows 10 proper come the next major update, which should land towards the end of this year.
Also at Build, Microsoft has made a big deal of detailing how its new Sets feature for Windows 10 is really going to streamline the way you work with the operating system, helping you find the things you need – and related files, apps or web pages – very quickly. It’s really starting to sound pretty nifty, and the software giant seems determined to get this particular capability right.