Here’s the old build machine’s state, and it explain why:

However, though I know that it was me who did this modification, I don’t remember why.

@xomx said:

Do you have any idea what happened there?

I have no old build machine with me currently.
I’ll let you know tonight when I get home.

@donho said:

This is a wrong switch use, /i is not intended for the NppShell, should be only regsvr32 NppShell.dll.

Yes indeed, it’s better without /i.

/i is for inproc DLL servers having specific DllInstall exported func. That’s why you got that error msg saying that the DLLInstall entry-point was not found, as the NppShell.dll is not designed to use that func.

I just changed the build machine, re-installed VS Studio Community edition from scratch,

Do you have any idea what happened there?

This is a wrong switch use, /i is not intended for the NppShell, should be only regsvr32 NppShell.dll.

Yes indeed, it’s better without /i.

But I see that there is a significant change in the NppShell.dll export table:

I just changed the build machine, re-installed VS Studio Community edition from scratch, and re-compiled all the binaries of v8.9.8.1 RC.

From your table, I see RegisterDll entry is missing.
I’ll update my VSStudio and re-build NppShell.dll to improve it.

After running “C:\Program Files\Notepad++\contextMenu>regsvr32 /i NppShell.dll”:

This is a wrong switch use, /i is not intended for the NppShell, should be only regsvr32 NppShell.dll.

But I see that there is a significant change in the NppShell.dll export table:

previous v8.9.8:

Ordinal   Entry Point   Name
      2   0x0000E690    CleanupDll
      3   0x000055A0    DllCanUnloadNow
      4   0x000055B0    DllGetClassObject
      5   0x00005500    DllMain
      6   0x00005520    DllRegisterServer
      7   0x00005530    DllUnregisterServer
      1   0x00005520    RegisterDll

RC:

Ordinal   Entry Point   Name
      1   0x0000E680    CleanupDll
      2   0x00005590    DllCanUnloadNow
      3   0x000055A0    DllGetClassObject
      4   0x000054F0    DllMain
      5   0x00005510    DllRegisterServer
      6   0x00005520    DllUnregisterServer

Notepad++ v8.9.8.1 (64-bit)
Build time: Sep 17 2026 - 01:53:48
Scintilla/Lexilla included: 5.6.6/5.5.3
Boost Regex included: 1_90
pugixml included: 1.16
nlohmann JSON included: 3.12.0
Path: C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Command Line: “C:\Users\username\Downloads\updated-event.ics”
Admin mode: OFF
Local Conf mode: OFF
Cloud Config: OFF
WinGUp: present
disableNppAutoUpdate.xml: absent
Periodic Backup: ON
Placeholders: ON
Scintilla Rendering Mode: SC_TECHNOLOGY_DIRECTWRITE (1)
Multi-instance Mode: monoInst
asNotepad: OFF
File Status Auto-Detection: cdEnabledNew (for current file/tab only)
Dark Mode: ON
Display Info:
primary monitor: 2560x1440, scaling 100%
visible monitors count: 2
installed Display Class adapters:
0000: Description - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
0000: DriverVersion - 32.0.16.1692
OS Name: Windows 11 Home (64-bit)
OS Version: 25H2
OS Build: 26200.9457
Current ANSI codepage: 1252
Plugins:
CollectionInterface (1.3)
ColumnsPlusPlus (1.3.3)
ComparePlus (3)
CSVLint (0.4.9)
CsvQuery (1.2.9)
FWDataViz (2.6.7)
HTMLTag (1.6.1)
HugeFiles (0.4.1)
JsonTools (8.5)
mimeTools (3.1)
MultiReplace (6.1.0.37)
NppConverter (4.7)
NppExport (0.4)
NppXmlTreeviewPlugin (2)
PythonScript (2.1)
Search++ (0.6.5)
XMLTools (3.1.1.13)

Note:
After running “C:\Program Files\Notepad++\contextMenu>regsvr32 /i NppShell.dll”:

@donho said:

If you guys can reproduce the crash steadily

I cannot steadily reproduce, got it only once (it’s a FASTFAIL exit, disassembly at the fault offset: 000000014041592D int 29h … RtlFailFast)

Event Name: BEX64

Faulting module name: Notepad++.exe, version: 8.9.8.1, time stamp: 0x6aab2c3b
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x000000000041592d