>and then we're coming for notepad.

If they ever do that, Metapad will still be there to help. Though I'm mainly a vi/vim/gvim user, I use metapad sometimes for quick edits. It's very lightweight, but still supports some more features than notepad. It has some neat features. The developer has stopped working on it, but I think a) he released the source code (C or C++ using the Win32 API) and b) the download is still there on his site.

Search for metapad or metapad download.