Change or restore source viewer for Internet Explorer

You can use other editor instead of notepad as the default source viewer for Internet Explorer.

Here is how to do the tweak.

1. Open the registry. Click on Start > Run. Type “regedit” in the “Open” text box. Click OK.
2. Create the key below, if it does not exist. Please refer to Figure 1.
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerView Source EditorEditor Name]
3. Set the “(Default)” “Value Data” to the full path of the new editor.
4. Restart Internet Explorer

Figure 1: Registry Editor

I had also found that this tweak is useful if suddenly the source viewer editor path is missing, which results in “My Computer” to be launched instead of Notepad, when I click on “View Source” in Internet Explorer.

By the way, for whatever reason you would like to apply this tweak, editing the registry is dangerous. Please pursue registry backup, before making any changes to the registry.