At its Build conference, Microsoft announced ‘Edit on Windows’, a new command-line text editor designed for developers.
Accessible simply by typing “edit” in Command Prompt, this lightweight editor is open-source, under 250KB, and built to simplify file editing without switching windows or apps.
Unlike modal editors like Vim, Microsoft’s Edit is modeless and user-friendly, avoiding the common “how do I exit Vim?” meme. It includes features like multi-file editing (Ctrl + P), find and replace, regex support, word wrapping, and customizable key bindings—bringing a modern yet minimal CLI editing experience to 64-bit Windows systems.
“64-bit versions of Windows lacked a built-in CLI editor, unlike their 32-bit counterparts,” said Christopher Nguyen, product manager of Windows Terminal. “We built Edit to fill that gap with simplicity in mind.”
Edit on Windows will soon roll out to users in the Windows Insider Program, with the source code already available on Microsoft’s GitHub repo.
Microsoft also announced it is rebranding Windows Dev Home to “Advanced Windows Settings”, integrating developer-centric features directly into the Windows 11 Settings app—like enabling File Explorer with GitHub integration.
