How to Reset Notepad and WordPad to Default

If you’ve changed the default font settings and other options in WordPad or Notepad and want to revert back to Windows default values, this post tells you how to do that.

Reset Notepad settings

If you’ve altered the default Notepad font or encoding (using the iDefaultEncoding registry value), the margin, and header settings incorrectly, you can quickly reset them to the default values.

The settings for Notepad are stored in this registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Notepad

Notepad reset settings

Right-click on the key and choose Delete.

Exit the Registry Editor.

Note: The Notepad Store app (UWP) is bundled by default on Windows 11. In that case, you need to access “Settings” → “Apps” → “Apps & Features” in order to reset the new/modern Notepad settings.

reset notepad store app


Reset WordPad Settings

To reset WordPad settings, follow these steps:

Start Regedit.exe and go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Wordpad

The Options subkey stores the Wordpad settings you configured. Delete this key would restore the original settings when you open Wordpad next time.



WordPad reset settings

The Recent File List subkey stores the list of most recently used files in Wordpad, which is shown when you click the File menu in Wordpad.

WordPad MRU reset

To clear the most recently used files listing, delete this key.

WordPad MRU reset

Using Command-line or Batch file

To do this quickly using the command-line, run this from Command Prompt.

reg delete HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Notepad /f
reg delete HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Wordpad /f

You should see the message The operation completed successfully.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

5 thoughts on “How to Reset Notepad and WordPad to Default”

  1. Ramesh –
    What I want to do is CHANGE the default settings for wordpad. In this article, you explain what to do if someone has already changed the defaults, but I don’t know how to do that. I want to. I am getting sick and tired of always having to change from Calibri 11 to Arial 14 EVERY SINGLE TIME I start a new document.

    WHERE ARE THE DEFAULT VALUES LOCATED? I can’t seem to find them.

    Reply

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