NotePad Features You Probably never Know Existed

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Notepad is one of the oldest built-in apps in Windows. It’s also arguably the simplest text editor you can find on Windows. It’s so simple that people can’t use it for any extensive work, such as coding. But still, it’s a great editor for easy and quick file editing, especially when you are on a computer that doesn’t have any other fancy editors like Notepad++ installed.

Besides, there are a few nice things you can do with NotePad that you probably never know existed.

Use as a personal diary with auto-timestamped entires

First of all, do you know that you can just press F5 to insert the current timestamp and then start writing?

image 1 - NotePad Features You Probably never Know Existed

Furthermore, if you follow the steps below, you can create a text file in a format that inserts the date and timestamp automatically every time you open the file.

  1. Create a new text file and open it in Notepad.
  2. Type .LOG in the first line.
  3. Save and close the file. You can name it whatever you like.

From this point on, every time you open this file, the timestamp will be inserted automatically at the end of the file, waiting for your next entry to the file.

image 4 - NotePad Features You Probably never Know Existed

Making a virus sample to test your anti-virus software

Create a new file in Notepad, paste in the following code to the file and save it.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

Now, double-click the file and see if your anti-virus is able to pick it up.

image 2 - NotePad Features You Probably never Know Existed

Windows Defender caught it right at the moment I save the file. It shows up in Windows Security app too.

image 3 600x392 - NotePad Features You Probably never Know Existed

Why is this special series of the string considered as a virus? Check out this intended use to find out.

Note that this virus sample above is not intended to test how good and reliable your anti-virus software is. Rather, it’s there to test if the anti-virus software you invested and installed is working.

Making your own Matrix effects right on your own computer

Create a new file in Notepad, paste in the following code and save as a .bat file that is executable.

@echo off
color 02
:start
echo %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random%
goto start

Now, double-click it and enjoy the Matrix effects appearing on your screen.

Notepad metrix - NotePad Features You Probably never Know Existed

That’s about it for now. Enjoy.

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