How to add custom Run command to Notepad++ for AutoHotkey and other programming/scripting languages

1. Click the Run menu, then click the first item — Run...

After running NPP and performing the actions above, you will have this dialog:

2. Browse to the AutoHotkey executable

Click the ... button and navigate to AutoHotkey.exe, which is in C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\ in a standard installation (but may, of course, be in a different folder on your system).

3. Add a parameter for the full path of the file in the current tab

You will now have this dialog box:


Go to the end of the AutoHotkey.exe file name in the box and add this (including the quote marks):

"$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"

Be sure to make it all upper case.

4. Save the new Run command

Click the Save... button, which gives you this dialog:


Give the new, custom Run command a name (I chose AHK in the video) and assign it to a hotkey (if you wish) by ticking CTRL and/or ALT and/or SHIFT, then one of the keys in the drop-down. When you have an OK button that is not grayed out, click it, then click Cancel to close the dialog.

5. Repeat Steps 1-4 for other programming/scripting languages

The video shows how to do it for batch (BAT) files, namely:

cmd /c "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"

You may, of course, do it for other programming/scripting languages.

6. Click the Run menu and view your new custom Run commands

After adding Run commands for AHK and BAT, the Run menu looks like this:

7. Load scripts and use your new custom Run commands

Now that you have the new custom Run commands, create, open, and/or edit scripts in tabs, then click the Run menu and select the appropriate Run command for the script, such as AHK or BAT. Alternatively, you may use the hotkey that you set for each one.

8. Getting started with AutoHotkey

If you ran across this Micro Tutorial and are not familiar with AutoHotkey, but would like to learn about it, this EE article is a good place to start:
AutoHotkey - Getting Started

That's it! If you find this video to be helpful, please click the thumbs-up icon below. Thank you for watching!