| MS-DOS Editor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Initial release | June 1991; 34 years ago (1991-06) |
| Stable release | 2.0.026 / 1995; 31 years ago (1995) |
| Operating system | MS-DOS,PC DOS,OS/2,Microsoft Windows |
| Platform | Intel x86, 16-bit |
| Predecessor | Edlin |
| Successor | Windows Notepad, Microsoft Edit (see below) |
| Type | Text editor |
| License | Same as Windows |
| Website | learn |
| Microsoft Edit | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Initial release | 19 March 2025; 10 months ago (2025-03-19)[1] |
| Stable release | 1.2.1[2]  / 15 October 2025 |
| Written in | Rust |
| Operating system | Windows,Linux,macOS,BSD |
| Size | 250kB[3] |
| Available in | 11 languages[4] |
List of languages English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese | |
| Type | Text editor |
| License | MIT License |
| Repository | https://github.com/microsoft/edit |
MS-DOS Editor, commonly just callededit oredit.com, is aTUItext editor. Originally, it was a 16-bit application that shipped withMS-DOS 5.0 and later,[5] as well as all 32-bit x86 versions of Windows. It supersedesedlin, the standard editor in earlier versions of MS-DOS. Originally,EDIT.COM was a stub that ranQBasic in editor mode. Starting withWindows 95, MS-DOS Editor became a standalone program because QBasic did not ship with Windows. In 2025, Microsoft released a free and open-source remake.[3]
The Editor version 1.0 appeared inMS-DOS 5.00,IBM PC DOS 5.0,OS/2, andWindows NT 4.0. This version relies onQBasic 1.0. Hence, it uses atext-based user interface (TUI), and its color scheme can be adjusted. It can only open one file, but can open the quick help file in a split window.
The Editor version 1.1 appeared in MS-DOS 6.0. It uses QBasic 1.1 but no new features were added to the Editor.
IBM PC DOS 6 dropped the Editor in favor of another text editor calledE, which supports mouse and menus in version 7.0.
The Editor version 2.0 appeared with Windows 95, as standalone app that no longer requires QBasic. It has amultiple-document interface and can open up to 9 files. The screen can be split vertically into two panes which can be used to view two files simultaneously or different parts of the same file. It can also open files inbinary mode, where a fixed number of characters are displayed per line, withnewlines treated like any other character. This mode shows characters ashexadecimal characters (0-9 and A-F). Editor convertsUnixnewlines (LF) to DOS newlines (CRLF) and hasmouse support. This version has been included with all 32-bit x86 versions. Being a 16-bit DOS app, it cannot run onx64,IA-64, orARM64 versions of Windows.
The Editor may be used as a substitute forWindows Notepad, although the 16-bit version is limited to files smaller than300kB, depending on how muchconventional memory is free.[6]
TheFreeDOS version was developed by Shaun Raven and is licensed under theGPL.[7]
On May 18, 2025, Microsoft released an open-source recreation of the Editor written in the Rust programming language, simply named Edit, for modern versions of Windows.[8] The version number did not continue, resetting to 1.0.0. Edit was included with the Windows 11 2025 Update or 25H2.[9][10]
