Hex editors for Windows?

Question

Are there some hex editors for Windows? Preferably open source or free since I don't need a hex editor all that often...

Things I do need is the ability to search in different types (text, raw hex, little endian short, big endian short, etc.) and viewing by type (same as searching types) starting at the selected byte. It would be nice to be able to create structs on the fly, so I can view binary blobs in the file. Binary file comparison is also a must, hopefully it would be smart and enable block detection.

I do know about the list on Wikipedia, but I don't really have time to try the 60 or hex editors, and I was wondering what other people use.

For the record, the same thing asked on SO: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10426/what-is-a-good-windows-hex-editor-viewer — Jonik, Jul 28 '09 at 15:07
The SO question isn't there anymore. Some of the best questions around here seem to be closed !? — Liviu, May 20 '16 at 10:10
@Liviu - Yes, it is a shame. I have no idea why that particular question was removed. Marking a question as [Closed] is one thing, but removing it (and any existing answers) is another matter, and and it seems to me to be a bit excessive except in cases of abuse (spam, etc...). — Kevin Fegan, Aug 22 '16 at 23:42
For some reason, every time I think "oh, that's exactly the question I was looking for" it appears to be closed... — Klesun, Apr 20 '18 at 22:51
@ArturKlesun it's like when you google something and all the results for similar questions are just full of people saying to Google it. — Kefka, Feb 26 '19 at 13:17
Can SU please reopen this question? It this should be archived or deleted, it's all extremely outdated... — user2305193, May 10 '20 at 11:27

score 75 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 15 '11 at 09:14

75

Free Hex Editor (frhed), small and fast.

enter image description here

edited Oct 15 '11 at 09:14

Gaff

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answered Jul 28 '09 at 15:13

Dinesh Manne

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+1. I like the fact that it doesn't require an installer. Also, it is open source. – Magnilex Aug 22 '13 at 13:17
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No drag-and-drop. – Liviu May 20 '16 at 10:17
looooove it so good – Nicholas DiPiazza Oct 04 '16 at 16:32
This question is closed but obviously active: If you like "native" stuff, `List.exe` comes with the Windows 2K3 Toolkit, & is both a binary & hex editor. The `list.exe /?` help command doesn't give much info, but once inside the editor just hit ? to see commands. `H` opens the Hex editor, & `F1` toggles the way the Hex is displayed – Coruscate5 Mar 27 '17 at 21:01
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@Liviu Just downloaded Frhed 1.6.0 and dragging-and-dropping from Windows Explorer works. – EM0 Jun 27 '17 at 13:04
Unfortunately, finding hex data is not straight forward... check first answer of the [FAQ](http://www.unrealtexture.com/Unreal/Website/Downloads/3DEditing/UnrealEditor/Tools/Info/frhed_v11/frhed-faq.txt) for help. – calandoa Dec 28 '17 at 15:34
I know this is an old post but the download links on the page do not work. Also, the last stable release was back in 2009. I'm not sure if nine years old software works under current windows versions. – Wolf G Mar 04 '18 at 13:07
@TeoCarter It does. I'm using it on Windows 10 and used in Windows 7 way before - it works perfectly with all the drag-and-drop feature as opposed to Liviu answer. It also works fine under Wine. – MaKiPL Nov 08 '18 at 19:31
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Its a bad hex-editor, cant load 4gb files even if you have 18gb ram free. – Grim Aug 28 '19 at 09:11
It has no Undo/Redo function which is a huge miss. – hexaae Jul 29 '22 at 11:58

score 64 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 19 '16 at 13:24

64

Personally, I use HxD (Free but not open source). Particular features of note include the ability to open very very large files, and you can modify raw disk data and open and edit data in RAM.

Screenshot

edited Dec 19 '16 at 13:24

Chenmunka

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answered Jul 28 '09 at 15:05

Simon P Stevens

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HxD is a great free Hex Editor that handles massive files with ease. Definitely gets a +1 from me. – Django Reinhardt Feb 04 '10 at 14:33
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i like the feature to copy some data as a c,c#,pascal, java array ... – enthus1ast Mar 21 '15 at 12:43
The wikipedia link is lame (and already in the question), please remove it for my vote! – Liviu May 20 '16 at 10:12
does it provide option to disable disk edit? I worried my kid accidentally do it – Padmanabha V Jul 15 '20 at 09:02

score 14 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 15 '11 at 09:23

14

UltraEdit has a hex editor mode:

For an old school DOS style display, ZTreeWin:

enter image description here

(neither are free / open source).

edited Oct 15 '11 at 09:23

Gaff

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answered Jul 28 '09 at 15:10

Pauk

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score 14 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 15 '11 at 09:18

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Notepad++ with a hex editor plugin. I was already using the text editor, so this makes for one less application installed.

enter image description here

edited Oct 15 '11 at 09:18

Gaff

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answered Jul 28 '09 at 19:57

Scott

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This plugin is flaky in my experience. It struggles with large files and switches to/from Hex mode at random. – Ash Sep 02 '09 at 07:03
Thanks for the comment. I don't do much hex editing so I don't have much experience with it. – Scott Sep 03 '09 at 19:09
It's not useful when you want to edit a big file that doesn't fit on memory. – skan Aug 30 '15 at 12:39

score 12 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 15:00

12

XVI32 is a freeware hex editor running under Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

Cygnus Hex Editor is a powerful file editor for Microsoft Windows. Unlike text editors, which are designed to edit files that contain text data, hex editors allow you to edit files that contain any type of data.

Free Hex Editor Neo is award-winning large files optimized freeware editor for everyone who works with ASCII, hex, decimal, float, double and binary data.

HxD is a carefully designed and fast hex editor which, additionally to raw disk editing and modifying of main memory (RAM), handles files of any size.

answered Jul 28 '09 at 15:00

joe

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No offense, but have you actually used any of these editors? I appreciate the work that goes in to googling and pasting the copy from the websites, but I was looking for recommendations from actual usage. – Kris Erickson Jul 28 '09 at 15:13
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I used the cygnus hex editor . But other i know one .. But those i didnt used . But i have tried Free Hex Editor very long back . That also good – joe Jul 28 '09 at 15:26
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I was coming here to suggest XVI32, so upvote for that – Factor Mystic Jul 28 '09 at 21:31

score 9 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 15 '11 at 09:19

9

PSPad can edit in hex, and it's free too.

enter image description here

edited Oct 15 '11 at 09:19

Gaff

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answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:58

barfoon

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score 7 · Answer 7 · edited Nov 21 '11 at 18:25

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Since I can hexedit in Vim as well, I tend to say ... Vim!

alt text

(Though I usually use HxD.)

edited Nov 21 '11 at 18:25

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 30 '10 at 14:33

akira

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Just out of curiosity, how do you turn hex edit mode on in Vim? – Kris Erickson Nov 29 '12 at 16:51
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@KrisErickson: `:%!xxd` – akira Nov 29 '12 at 16:53
NOT a true hex editor. – Joshua Sep 27 '16 at 16:18
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@Joshua: define "true hex-editor". – akira Sep 27 '16 at 17:33
Editing either side changes the bytes. – Joshua Sep 27 '16 at 18:04
kch kch kch. 2x. – akira Sep 28 '16 at 06:58
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use xxd reverse mode to change hex back to bytes eg. xxd -r – Zimba Aug 24 '19 at 17:11
This depends on the external tool `xxd` which doesn't exist on Windows by default – Zvika Feb 19 '20 at 12:45
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Like vim which also does not exist in Windows by default... – akira Feb 19 '20 at 16:04
Do any external hex tools exist on Windows by default? I figured the lack thereof is why the question was being asked... – SO_fix_the_vote_sorting_bug Jul 03 '20 at 13:41

score 5 · Answer 8 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

5

Winhex is a decent tool for that.

Enter image description here

This is a Stack Overflow version of the same question. There are a few more options so you can pick from the several recommended there if you do not like Winhex.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

Community

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answered Jul 28 '09 at 15:09

Axxmasterr

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score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 16:50

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If you want a hex editor that works from the command line, I like Hexciting.

answered Jul 28 '09 at 16:50

user1596

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Seems to be a dead project - no activity since 09, link to wiki is 404 – rossmcm Nov 26 '18 at 21:42

Hex editors for Windows?

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