Description of the Issue

A user experienced the following error when a 64-bit plugin could not be loaded, on a 64-bit non-ARM system:

The problem turned out to NOT be that the plugin was 32-bit, so the error message was misleading, and led troubleshooting the problem down the wrong path.

The user's problem ended up being incorrect permissions: The issue was caused by my malformed robocopy command which stripped execute permissions from the DLL, so even though it was receiving a permissions failure, it was taking this as a malformed DLL and spitting out the erroneous error.

I could replicate the poor error message when I created a zero-length (intentionally “corrupt” dll) file and placed it in a proper location so that Notepad++ would attempt to load it.

More info in Community issue HERE.

Steps to Reproduce the Issue

1. Set no-execute permissions from plugin DLL, or make a zero-length DLL file
2. Start Notepad++
3. Observe the above misleading error message about "32-bit" plugin.

Expected Behavior

An error message that helps troubleshoot what is wrong, examples including but not limited to:

• Permissions
• Corrupt DLL
• Wrong architecture DLL

Actual Behavior

Misleading error message.

Debug Information

Notepad++ v8.4.7 (64-bit)
Build time : Nov 1 2022 - 23:31:11
Path : C:\...\npp.8.4.7.portable.x64\notepad++.exe
Command Line : -titleAdd="8.4.7 64-bit" -multiInst
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : ON
Cloud Config : OFF
OS Name : Windows 10 Enterprise (64-bit)
OS Version : 21H2
OS Build : 19044.2130
Current ANSI codepage : 1252
Plugins :
mimeTools (2.9)
NppConverter (4.5)
NppExport (0.4)