Sometimes you just need a simple solution. When it comes to text editing, it was a notepad -simple, quick and reliable. However, the latest simple text editor of Microsoft, editing, defeats the notepad in his game.
What happened to old editing?
If you have long been using a Microsoft operating system, you probably remember the original editing, which is a program that has been around since the days of MS-Doss.
The original editing was completely removed with the release of Windows 11, as Windows 11 had no backward support for the 16-bit application. If you want to use a 16-bit application on Windows 11, you will need to break an emulator, which completely defeats the purpose of a simple text editor.
New microsoft editing is fantastic
Microsoft Edit is actually very little, and this is a great thing. It has become fast for my departure text editing because it is not so nonsense.
A minimum interface
The user interface is as minimal as you can still get during being one. You have only found four buttons: file, edit, visual, and aid. Although it is no-frills, the editing menu item contains Find and Replace functions, which are edited long-term configuration files.
Edit is mainly designed as a command-line tool, but you can interact using your mouse if you want, whether you are using Windows Terminal or Old Console hosts.
Microsoft edit also honors common hotkeys, including:
- Ctrl+n: new file
- Ctrl+O: Open file
- Ctrl+S: save
- Ctrl+Z: Undo
- Ctrl+Y: Redo
- Ctrl+F: Search
- Ctrl+R: replace the
The Great Tab vs Space Debate
If you have spent time in the coding circle, or even only saw the silicon Valley, you probably have to face the debate whether the tab or space should be used while writing the code. If you have not done, the issue is very controversial. Hundreds of blog posts have been written about it over the years. I have seen that hot arguments in college classes turn into grade penalty at the conference. Stackoverflow once surveyed thousands of users To find out who was more popular. The blanks won by a very small margin.
Microsoft Edit gives you the option to choose wisely. If you choose “space”, hitting the tab key will include a fixed number of spaces, which you can remove one by one. If you set it on “tab”, it will indent a fixed number of spaces, but it acts as the same character.
Painless remote use
If you use SSH to connect to your Windows PC with any regularity, you will quickly discover another perk: Microsoft Edit works out of the box with SSH. Usually you are setting Vscode remote or if you need to fidel with text files, you are installing the third-party application. Now, however, you just have to do editing using the winget, and you are set. It also works on Arm CPU.
How to connect SSH server to Windows, Macos, or Linux
SSH is available on every popular operating system.
How do you install Microsoft Edit?
There are two ways to install Microsoft Edit.
Install from github
Edit Available on githubGo to Release pageThen download the latest version. I am using an X86_64-based PC, so I caught that version. If you are using an arm laptop, you have to download that version instead.
Once downloaded it, remove the zip and run the executable “edit”. I put it directly into C: \, so I do not lose its track.
If you want to access it with any terminal window, you have to add the executable to your Windows path.
Install from winget
If you want, you can download editing from winget instead. Downloading it from the winget also automatically adds it to your path, which is not the case if you get it from Github. If I were connected to a headless Windows server from a distance, it is definitely the option I choose.
Set a terminal window on fire, then run:
winget install Microsoft.Edit
Then you just type edit Command Prompt or Powercel to launch the application.
This open-source project brings the best part of Linux to Windows
Do not ignore how convenient the user interface can be.
Once you actually remove ExE from Github somewhere, it is very easy to add to the “Open with” menu. Right-click on a text file, then choose “Open with”. Scroll down and choose “Choose an app on your PC”, then navigate there wherever you get out. I put my C: \ in the directory, so it was easy to find.
Once you choose editing for a given type of file, it will show it under the open with the menu.
Feature creep text editors ruins
Notepad, certainly the world’s most famous plain text editor, has suffered from a problem: the feature creeping.
Originally, the notepad was the lowest lesson editor you could ask. There was no tab. Your formatting options were “Word rap” or “no word rap”. Now it comes with Copilot integration, which starts you again Notepad Add documents, or text with various styles. Unnecessarily, there is an option to log into your microsoft account.
Notepad is being “upgraded” with AI – how to restore the old version
Even notepad AI is not safe from apocalypse.
Increasing list of features – especially AI Blot – completely defeats the purpose of a simple text editor such as the notepad. I just hope that editing will not have to edit with Kopilot at any time soon.
