Want to stop Notepad from opening previously opened files? If you want to start over each time you launch Notepad anew, you can turn off the setting that makes Notepad restore previously opened files ...

my notepad.exe disappeared?! i need to open a txt file and it's gone. (tried searching for teh file, but found only shortcuts leading to nothing). don't know what happened, but how can i get it back?

There's a difference between the "Notepad app" and notepad.exe. The Notepad app has the AI and all the new stuff in it. But the old C : \windows\system32\notepad.exe still exists, and is unencumbered ...