Microsoft released ‘Edit’ as a new command-line text editor, which will soon be a built-in Windows application. It has been inspired by the MS-Doss edit program since the 1990s, and is already an open-source software.
The company announced the new editor at its build 2025 conference. It said in a blog post, “We are presenting a command-line text editor, edit on Windows, which can be accessed by running a ‘edit’ in the command line. It enables developers to edit files directly in the command line, enables to reduce the living and reference switching in its current flow. Will be available for preview. “
The editor should be familiar with someone who has used Vim, Nano or another command-line text editor. It can open plain text files for basic viewing and editing, completing with a search and replaced feature and alternative term rapping. It has a menu bar at the top and a position bar at the bottom for file information, so the interface is close to the notepad or nano than the VI/VIM.
Microsoft says that Edit is less than 250kb, and it is fully written in the rust programming language. Code is Is available independently on github Under the MIT license, so even though Microsoft is currently making it for Windows, we can see the port (official or otherwise) to other operating systems in the future.
But why?
There are many command-line text editor, so why did Microsoft make another? A blog post explained, “Many of you probably” how do I get out? “Mem. While it is relatively simple to get out of magic, it is certainly not a coincidence that it often turns into a stumbling form for new and older programmers, as we wanted to save it from a built -in default editor.
Inspired by editing Ms.-dos editorWhich began in 1991 as the underlying text editor MS-Doss, and later became a standalone program in Windows 95 as an alternative to the notepad. Editor got stuck in every 32-bit release of Windows including Windows 10. It was never bundled in 64-bit versions of Windows, as they could not originally run 16-bit programs such as editors. Windows 11 is available only as a 64-bit operating system, so the editor was completely dropped.
As a person who is primarily sticking to the nano when editing quickly in the terminal, the editor looks like a great option. I hope a person will eventually detect the Macos port.
Edit
Edit application is not yet available from winget or other package repository, but you can Download it from GITHUB release pageYou have to run it inside the folder withdrawn, or copy the edit binary in a directory in your system path.
Microsoft says that it will be rolled out for the manufacture of Windows Insider in the coming months, and should be pushed to all Windows 11 PCs after some time.
