Microsoft has released a new command-line text editor for Windows 11, named Edit. It is open source. You can easily install it on your system through the Command Prompt. This CLI editor is currently available to preview in the Windows Insider Program. After that, Microsoft will ship it to the Windows 11 stable build.
Microsoft Edit is a command-line text editor for Windows
The 32-bit versions of Windows were shipped with MS-DOS Editor. Currently, there is no built-in CLI text editor in 64-bit Windows OS. This made Microsoft develop an Edit text editor for 64-bit Windows operating systems.
How to download Edit
Microsoft will ship Edit to Windows 11 stable build in the upcoming months, but you can install it now by running a command in the elevated Command Prompt window. First, click Windows Search and type cmd. Now, right-click on the Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator. Once the elevated Command Prompt opens up, copy the following command and paste it into the Admin CMD:
winget install Microsoft.Edit
After typing the above command, hit Enter. Windows will start installing Edit.
How to use Microsoft Edit
Using Edit is easy. Once it is installed successfully, close the Command Prompt. Now, go to the location where the text file you want to edit is located. Click on the address bar of File Explorer, type cmd, and hit Enter. Command Prompt will open.
Now, type Edit “file name.txt” and press Enter. The file will open in the Edit text editor in Command Prompt. Now, you can edit the file. To save the file, click File > Save. You can also save the same file with another name. For this, go to File and click Save As. After that, enter the new file name and press Enter.
You can also create a new text file with Edit. Launch Command Prompt, type edit, and hit Enter. The Edit text editor will open. Now, you can save the file.
It also supports basic text editor features, like Find & Replace and Word Wrap. You can also open and edit multiple files in Edit.
More information is available on the Microsoft Dev Blog.
