Description
Windows Notepad starts spinning once a log file reaches a few megabytes, offers no line numbers, does not understand regular expressions, and will happily mangle encodings on save. Installing a few-hundred-megabyte IDE just to glance at a config file is not the answer either. Notepad3 sits in between: built on the Scintilla editing engine, it opens effectively instantly with a small memory footprint while still providing syntax highlighting, regex find-and-replace, encoding conversion, code folding and bookmarks.
Replacing Notepad is the explicit goal — there is even a bundled tool that reassigns the system association so double-clicking a .txt opens this instead. Free and open source, descended from the Notepad2-mod line and maintained by Rizonesoft.
The build listed here is the portable v7.26.828.1: trimmed language files, no installer, settings kept in an ini beside the executable, themes retained, and the grepWin content search and MiniPath utilities bundled alongside.
Fast and light: the Scintilla engine means a cold start you barely notice and far better responsiveness on large files than the built-in editor, which is what makes it usable for a quick look at a log.
Syntax highlighting: highlighting for a wide range of languages and configuration formats, with customizable color schemes, so editing a script, an ini or some json shows structure rather than a wall of text.
Regex find and replace: search and replace accepts regular expressions, so reformatting in bulk or pulling out fields does not require a second tool.
Encoding handling: ANSI, UTF-8, UTF-16 and UTF-32 are recognized and convertible, and line endings switch between CR/LF variants — which is what keeps text of unknown origin from turning into garbage.
Folding and bookmarks: collapsible blocks and bookmarks make navigating a long file quicker than scrolling through it.
Notepad replacement tool: a bundled utility points the system's Notepad association at Notepad3 so text files open in it by default, and restores the original just as easily.
Themes: Dark, Obsidian and Sombra theme files ship with it, so switching between light and dark does not mean tuning colors by hand.
Bundled utilities: this portable build also packs grepWin for regex content search across files and MiniPath for lightweight file browsing.
No installation: unpack and run, with settings in an ini next to the executable and nothing written to the registry, so it travels on a USB stick.
Open source: developed in the open on GitHub, maintained by Rizonesoft, free to use.
Replacing Notepad is the explicit goal — there is even a bundled tool that reassigns the system association so double-clicking a .txt opens this instead. Free and open source, descended from the Notepad2-mod line and maintained by Rizonesoft.
The build listed here is the portable v7.26.828.1: trimmed language files, no installer, settings kept in an ini beside the executable, themes retained, and the grepWin content search and MiniPath utilities bundled alongside.
Features
Fast and light: the Scintilla engine means a cold start you barely notice and far better responsiveness on large files than the built-in editor, which is what makes it usable for a quick look at a log.
Syntax highlighting: highlighting for a wide range of languages and configuration formats, with customizable color schemes, so editing a script, an ini or some json shows structure rather than a wall of text.
Regex find and replace: search and replace accepts regular expressions, so reformatting in bulk or pulling out fields does not require a second tool.
Encoding handling: ANSI, UTF-8, UTF-16 and UTF-32 are recognized and convertible, and line endings switch between CR/LF variants — which is what keeps text of unknown origin from turning into garbage.
Folding and bookmarks: collapsible blocks and bookmarks make navigating a long file quicker than scrolling through it.
Notepad replacement tool: a bundled utility points the system's Notepad association at Notepad3 so text files open in it by default, and restores the original just as easily.
Themes: Dark, Obsidian and Sombra theme files ship with it, so switching between light and dark does not mean tuning colors by hand.
Bundled utilities: this portable build also packs grepWin for regex content search across files and MiniPath for lightweight file browsing.
No installation: unpack and run, with settings in an ini next to the executable and nothing written to the registry, so it travels on a USB stick.
Open source: developed in the open on GitHub, maintained by Rizonesoft, free to use.
