After reading Where Sticky Notes are Stored, David Kampmeyer asked how to open a Sticky Notes .snt file.
It’s a funny thing about Sticky Notes data files. The program is part of Windows Vista and 7. The file formats and .snt extension were invented for this program. To my knowledge, no other program reads .snt files.
Yet Microsoft didn’t bother to associate the .snt extension with Sticky Notes–or anything else, for that matter. Double-click StickyNotes.snt, and you get an error message.
My guess is that Microsoft didn’t associate the extension with the program because the company assumed that you’ll only have one .snt file, and that it would always be in the right place. Thus, the only way to launch the file is to load the Sticky Notes program. If the program doesn’t find the appropriately-named file in C:UsersloginAppDataRoamingMicrosoftSticky Notes (where login is your login name), it will create it. The appropriately-named file is Sticky.snt in Vista; StickyNotes.snt in Win7.
If you want to open another .snt file, you’ll have to open the Sticky Notes folder in Windows Explorer, rename the existing file (to protect it), copy the file you want to open to the Sticky Notes folder, and rename it appropriately. Then open Sticky Notes.
Also worth mentioning: Although the program is called Sticky Notes in both Vista and Win7, and the extension is .snt in both operating systems, the formats aren’t compatible between these versions of Windows.
Add your comments to this article below. If you have other tech questions, email them to me at answer@pcworld.com, or post them to a community of helpful folks on the PCW Answer Line forum.