Windows 10: Notepad nuisance

I was wondering if there is a way around this. I like to use Notepad for simple notemaking. But then sometimes I accidentaly open a second instance of Notepad and I get a second window open (so I have two windows open in parallel of the same file) and I keep editing one and then after a while maybe accidentaly editing the other one... This of course doesn't happen with Word. Whenever I open a file that is already opened, no second window gets opened.
I really like Notepad, I appreciate its extreme simplicity. But this thing bothers me. Anything I can do to fix it? Thanks!

:)

 

Notepad

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community. Appreciate your interest in using Windows 10.

I suggest you to follow the steps provided below:

• Open Task Manager. Here’s a tip: press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC.
• Click on Startup tab.
• Select Notepad from the list and click on Disable.

Hope the information is helpful. Feel free to write to us
for any other assistance with Windows, we’ll be glad to assist you.

 

Notepad

I followed your suggestion but wasn't able to find Notepad listed on the startup. There are some listed as program but don't know which ones it could be.

 

Notepad consuming cpu 40%

Your screenshot of Task Manager and the notepad.exe properties shows the same size and creation date as in @dalchina's earlier screenshot. So it looks like it is the real notepad that's running.

But - it isn't running the way it should. In your Task Manager there should be a > to the left of notepad, and clicking on it should open up a list of the Notepad instances that are running, along with the name of the document that's open (or 'Untitled - Notepad' if none).

Yours doesn't show that (compare it with dalchina's screenshot). Notepad is running - yes, but not the way it's supposed to. It appears to be in the list of background processes, not in the list of Apps where it should be. Could something be trying to run it as a service? Perhaps some malware set this up, but failed to replace the genuine notepad.exe with its counterfeit one?

As a first step I'd look at the Startup tab in Task Manager for clues.