For Windows, Notepad++ fits nicely for situations where "I need more than Notepad, but less than an IDE". It's a great example of the a well done pieces of free software on Windows. I've tried Emacs, Vim, Atom, Code, and Sublime, and none of them beat N++.
Both Semiapies's and Cthulthu_'s comments hit the mark, Notepad++ is a definitely Windows application that just works straight out of the box. (As a caveat, I have spent a lot of with a command shell and vim).
The other thing is that, as a Windows developer, I spend a lot of time in my IDE. Whenever I try to use Emacs I quickly get sucked into the fact that the most productivity gains you get from it are when you use it for as much as possible, like OrgMode, reading emails, etc. It's advantage is that you can write elisp plugins to customize it for your workflow. As a standard corporate "textbox over data" developer, I have the full suite of Office and Visual Studio at my disposal, so I don't see any benefit to use Emacs. Also, Emacs on Windows is definitely a second rate experience. You can't launch a daemon process, and it requires setup to get copy/paste from the OS to work well.
Vim is great, and it works well on Windows, but again, most of the time I am editing code, it's in Visual Studio. If I need text manipulation or searching, it's a real loss to paste into Vim, and then have to switch over to remembering Vim commands.
I've come to the realization that tools like Vim, Sublime, and Emacs are awesome if you do the majority of your work on them. The more tasks you can pile into them, the less context switching you have, and more consistent experience you get.
On Windows, Notepad++ fits that niche perfectly, it uses the Windows commands, present a consistent interface, and it has the power to do powerful text manipulation when needed.
One thing about the context switching comes to mind as I was reviewing this post a day later. I am capable of being very good at vi(m)'s commands when using vi(m). When I need to ssh into a headless server to deploy or modify a text file, I just immediately use vi. When I try to use a vi emulation layer (VsVim, Evil Mode) I choke, because I inevitably use a set of keystrokes native to that application but do not work in command mode. Just more evidence towards my claim the benefits of a text editor can only be realized if you try to pile in as much as you can.
Be easy, straightforward, and immediately productive for someone used to Windows apps.
I love Emacs, but it took a deliberate, determined effort and time sacrificed to get productive in it, so that I didn't feel like I was handicapping myself.
What does "in the end" mean? I've been working in Vim and then Emacs+Evil for four years or so and it is pretty clear that I'm still far from proficient. That said, it is an enormous step above a text editor (and somewhat better than any IDE I've tried).
And by that, I mean a dedicated effort. I used VsVim and Vim for years, and I've made multiple attempts to switch to Emacs. But I keep coming back to the fact that the majority of what I need can be done in VS and Office.
Don't get me wrong, the idea of Emacs is awesome: a configurable text editor using a dialect of Lisp? This is great, not only can I shape the tool to my needs, I also get to use a great language. However, at some point I do need to get my work done.
True, but it will not be the only tool in the toolbox... So taking into account all the other software you've purchased, the costs will add up.
Just an anecdotal example, before JetBrains switched to their subscription model I was paying individual licenses for IDEA, PyCharm, and ReSharper. So if I had already spent over $300 p/a for IDE and tooling, another $70 will seem like an excess.
This advanced editing thing has completely evaded me. I'm a long time Windows dev and never got to terms with emacs due to non standard (i.e. non Windows) default keybindings etc.
The editors and IDEs I do use likely all have very advanced text editing ability but I just never reach for them! Not once have I felt "now I'd really like 3 cursors". What are the normal use cases? Maybe I'm leaning on auto-formatting and refactorings more that lets me do things you would otherwise do with e.g regexes, multiple cursors?
The most common use cases for me are just replacing words and tweaking alignment. Obviously there are ways to do it in other editors, but having multiple cursors exposes these capabilities in a convenient way.
But one thing it's really useful for is making bulk replacements on the fly without having to think too hard about what to match on. Instead of fiddling around trying to create a perfect regex to match the right cases, you can just step through instances of a loose match, choosing the right ones, and then make your edit.
Overall, for me it just feels like a much more intuitive ad-hoc style of editing.
I've found myself using Notepad++ for personal notes/to-do lists and Sublime or Pycharm for coding. I could do everything in Sublime, but this division of duties seems to reduce clutter.