I have finally kicked Windows notepad completely to the curb, having replaced it with notepad2 as per instructions here. But I didn't stop there. I realized that by putting essential light-weight customizations into a separate file (init.q.el, q for quick) and replacing the shortcut to my Emacs with
C:\Emacs\emacs-23.0.95\bin\runemacs.exe -q -l "%HOME%\.emacs.d\init.q.el",
I can make it launch almost as fast as notepad. So, I did my usual trick of appending the names of commonly used files where I keep my notes to the above command line, putting the shortcut somewhere in the start menu where Launchy can find it, and having instant access to the information I need -- in Emacs!
But I didn't stop there. I snagged the recently released binaries for Emacs 23 and installed nice fonts -- I'm a fan of DejaVu Sans 10 and Consolas 11, and now my text editing is beautiful. Anyhow, I guess I'm getting pretty indoctrinated by the Church of Emacs. I don't particularly like the idea of RMS as my spiritual leader, but I'm fine with worshiping Yidong. I just wish he'd forced me to see the light back in undergrad :P
So how does AutoHotkey fit into the picture? Well, it makes it trivial to send any file from Windows Explorer to Emacs with a keyboard shortcut. See this stackoverflow thread for details! The thread also describes how you can also add send-to-Emacs to a context menu. Sending things to Emacs can work in several ways, but I like the idea of starting Emacs server (M-x server-start) in one instance of Emacs, and then all these send-to-Emacs actions will direct the files to that particular instance.