149

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.

7
  • 3
    For the record, the same thing asked on SO: stackoverflow.com/questions/10426/…
    – Jonik
    Jul 28, 2009 at 15:07
  • 7
    The SO question isn't there anymore. Some of the best questions around here seem to be closed !?
    – Liviu
    May 20, 2016 at 10:10
  • 4
    @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...). Aug 22, 2016 at 23:42
  • 4
    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, 2018 at 22:51
  • 2
    @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, 2019 at 13:17

9 Answers 9

74

Free Hex Editor (frhed), small and fast.

enter image description here

10
  • 5
    +1. I like the fact that it doesn't require an installer. Also, it is open source.
    – Magnilex
    Aug 22, 2013 at 13:17
  • 1
    No drag-and-drop.
    – Liviu
    May 20, 2016 at 10:17
  • looooove it so good Oct 4, 2016 at 16:32
  • 1
    @Liviu Just downloaded Frhed 1.6.0 and dragging-and-dropping from Windows Explorer works.
    – EM0
    Jun 27, 2017 at 13:04
  • 2
    Its a bad hex-editor, cant load 4gb files even if you have 18gb ram free.
    – Grim
    Aug 28, 2019 at 9:11
65

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

4
  • 1
    HxD is a great free Hex Editor that handles massive files with ease. Definitely gets a +1 from me. Feb 4, 2010 at 14:33
  • 1
    i like the feature to copy some data as a c,c#,pascal, java array ...
    – enthus1ast
    Mar 21, 2015 at 12:43
  • The wikipedia link is lame (and already in the question), please remove it for my vote!
    – Liviu
    May 20, 2016 at 10:12
  • does it provide option to disable disk edit? I worried my kid accidentally do it Jul 15, 2020 at 9:02
14

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

3
  • 18
    This plugin is flaky in my experience. It struggles with large files and switches to/from Hex mode at random.
    – Ash
    Sep 2, 2009 at 7:03
  • Thanks for the comment. I don't do much hex editing so I don't have much experience with it.
    – Scott
    Sep 3, 2009 at 19:09
  • It's not useful when you want to edit a big file that doesn't fit on memory.
    – skan
    Aug 30, 2015 at 12:39
14

UltraEdit has a hex editor mode:

enter image description here

For an old school DOS style display, ZTreeWin:

enter image description here

(neither are free / open source).

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.

3
  • 37
    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. Jul 28, 2009 at 15:13
  • 2
    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, 2009 at 15:26
  • 2
    I was coming here to suggest XVI32, so upvote for that Jul 28, 2009 at 21:31
9

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

enter image description here

7

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

alt text

(Though I usually use HxD.)

10
  • Just out of curiosity, how do you turn hex edit mode on in Vim? Nov 29, 2012 at 16:51
  • 6
    @KrisErickson: :%!xxd
    – akira
    Nov 29, 2012 at 16:53
  • 1
    @Joshua: define "true hex-editor".
    – akira
    Sep 27, 2016 at 17:33
  • 2
    use xxd reverse mode to change hex back to bytes eg. xxd -r
    – Zimba
    Aug 24, 2019 at 17:11
  • 1
    Like vim which also does not exist in Windows by default...
    – akira
    Feb 19, 2020 at 16:04
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.

3

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

1
  • Seems to be a dead project - no activity since 09, link to wiki is 404
    – rossmcm
    Nov 26, 2018 at 21:42

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .