Hex editors for Windows?

126

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.

Kris Erickson

Posted 2009-07-28T14:57:05.230

Reputation: 1 581

For the record, the same thing asked on SO: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10426/what-is-a-good-windows-hex-editor-viewer

– Jonik – 2009-07-28T15:07:21.733

4The SO question isn't there anymore. Some of the best questions around here seem to be closed !? – Liviu – 2016-05-20T10:10:59.190

2@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 – 2016-08-22T23:42:41.093

1For some reason, every time I think "oh, that's exactly the question I was looking for" it appears to be closed... – Artur Klesun – 2018-04-20T22:51:42.543

@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 – 2019-02-26T13:17:15.853

I would advice, https://freehexeditorneo.com

– tsenapathy – 2019-10-30T15:44:33.400

Answers

Free Hex Editor (frhed), small and fast.

enter image description here

Dinesh Manne

Posted 2009-07-28T14:57:05.230

Reputation: 1 079

1No drag-and-drop. – Liviu – 2016-05-20T10:17:13.353

looooove it so good – Nicholas DiPiazza – 2016-10-04T16:32:39.010

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 – 2017-03-27T21:01:57.780

1@Liviu Just downloaded Frhed 1.6.0 and dragging-and-dropping from Windows Explorer works. – EM0 – 2017-06-27T13:04:51.757

Unfortunately, finding hex data is not straight forward... check first answer of the FAQ for help.

– calandoa – 2017-12-28T15:34:03.617

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. – Teo Carter – 2018-03-04T13:07:34.697

@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 – 2018-11-08T19:31:25.257

Its a bad hex-editor, cant load 4gb files even if you have 18gb ram free. – Peter Rader – 2019-08-28T09:11:25.733

3+1. I like the fact that it doesn't require an installer. Also, it is open source. – Magnilex – 2013-08-22T13:17:44.943

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

Simon P Stevens

Posted 2009-07-28T14:57:05.230

Reputation: 5 025

HxD is a great free Hex Editor that handles massive files with ease. Definitely gets a +1 from me. – Django Reinhardt – 2010-02-04T14:33:43.077

i like the feature to copy some data as a c,c#,pascal, java array ... – enthus1ast – 2015-03-21T12:43:55.573

The wikipedia link is lame (and already in the question), please remove it for my vote! – Liviu – 2016-05-20T10:12:33.543

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.

joe

Posted 2009-07-28T14:57:05.230

Reputation: 11 615

27No 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 – 2009-07-28T15:13:00.160

1I 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 – 2009-07-28T15:26:28.510

2I was coming here to suggest XVI32, so upvote for that – Factor Mystic – 2009-07-28T21:31:51.487

UltraEdit has a hex editor mode:

For an old school DOS style display, ZTreeWin:

enter image description here

(neither are free / open source).

Pauk

Posted 2009-07-28T14:57:05.230

Reputation: 924

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

enter image description here

barfoon

Posted 2009-07-28T14:57:05.230

Reputation: 926

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

Scott

Posted 2009-07-28T14:57:05.230

Reputation: 1 143

It's not useful when you want to edit a big file that doesn't fit on memory. – skan – 2015-08-30T12:39:50.117

15This plugin is flaky in my experience. It struggles with large files and switches to/from Hex mode at random. – Ash – 2009-09-02T07:03:25.903

Thanks for the comment. I don't do much hex editing so I don't have much experience with it. – Scott – 2009-09-03T19:09:52.693

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.

Axxmasterr

Posted 2009-07-28T14:57:05.230

Reputation: 7 584

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

alt text

(Though I usually use HxD.)

akira

Posted 2009-07-28T14:57:05.230

Reputation: 52 754

NOT a true hex editor. – Joshua – 2016-09-27T16:18:29.263

@Joshua: define "true hex-editor". – akira – 2016-09-27T17:33:54.307

Editing either side changes the bytes. – Joshua – 2016-09-27T18:04:49.140

kch kch kch. 2x. – akira – 2016-09-28T06:58:12.640

1use xxd reverse mode to change hex back to bytes eg. xxd -r – Zimba – 2019-08-24T17:11:14.000

This depends on the external tool xxd which doesn't exist on Windows by default – Zvika – 2020-02-19T12:45:34.527

Like vim which also does not exist in Windows by default... – akira – 2020-02-19T16:04:13.857

Just out of curiosity, how do you turn hex edit mode on in Vim? – Kris Erickson – 2012-11-29T16:51:38.393

3@KrisErickson: :%!xxd – akira – 2012-11-29T16:53:12.580

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

user1596

Posted 2009-07-28T14:57:05.230

Reputation: 1 414

Seems to be a dead project - no activity since 09, link to wiki is 404 – rossmcm – 2018-11-26T21:42:13.450