Unhelpful error message when plugin list cannot be downloaded: "There was an error downloading the plugin list. Please check your internet connection, and your proxy settings in Internet Explorer, Edge or Chrome"

[loop-evgeny]

Description of the Issue

When I start Notepad++ after installing PluginManager I get a dialog with the following error:

There was an error downloading the plugin list. Please check your internet connection, and your proxy settings in Internet Explorer, Edge or Chrome

This tells me nothing about what the problem actually is. My internet connection is fine and I have no proxy - those are obviously just generic guesses. The program should tell me what actually failed: resolving a hostname (what hostname), establishing a TCP connection to it on port X, the SSL handshake, HTTP error Y from requesting URL Z, etc. Then I can either fix the problem myself or file a more useful bug for the actual problem.

Steps to Reproduce the Issue

1. Start Notepad++ with PluginManager installed.

Expected Behavior

No error or a a helpful error.

Actual Behavior

The error above.

Debug Information

Notepad++ v7.5.9 (32-bit)
Build time : Oct 14 2018 - 15:02:52
Path : C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : OFF
OS : Windows 7 (64-bit)
Plugins : DSpellCheck.dll mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExport.dll JSMinNPP.dll PluginManager.dll

PluginManager 1.4.12.0

[loop-evgeny]

Note: the underlying problem was resolved by enabling TLS 1.2, as noted in #114 (comment) This issue is about the bad error message which wastes way too much of the users' time.

[wesgray76]

if this happens again:

1. open your command prompt by typing "cmd" in the search bar
2. run cmd as administrator.
3. type netsh winsock reset.
4. restart your computer

This should fix the proxy settings for your internet.