Replaced the View Source Editor for my Browsers

Up until now, on my PC, Internet Explorer and Firefox have had different "View Source" editors -- that is the editor used when you right click on a web page and click View Source. To keep things consistent, I decided to find a quick, syntax highlighting, notepad replacement which I could use to quickly view source code on both browsers.

After some quick research, I decided to go with Notepad2. I may eventually switch to gvim, as I'm an avid vi fan, however for now I'll see how things work out with Notepad2. I've already replaced my Windows Notepad with Metapad, which I think is a perfect replacement, however I wanted something with syntax highlighting for the View Source editor.

To change the editor which is used for View Source in Internet Explorer, do the following:

Start -> Run -> regedit.exe

Click OK, then open the following key:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
|- Software
|-- Microsoft
|---- Internet Explorer
|----- View Source Editor
|------- Editor Name (Default) = C:Program FilesNotepad2Notepad2.exe

You can change Editor Name to the path of whatever editor you want to use.

Close the registry and now Internet Explorer's View Source editor will use the editor you specified above!

To change the View Source editor in Firefox:

Type about:config in the URL box, press enter.

You should see a whole list of different options you can change. In the filter box, start typing view_source.editor.external until you see it in the list. Double click it to change the value to true.

You should also see view_source.editor.path. Double click it and enter the path to the editor of your choice.

Click OK, restart Firefox, and you're all set!