• The calculator has an improved look and many new features
  • Evaluate any strongly typed (C-like) expression into the calculator
  • Use brackets to enforce precedence
  • Assign to variables including multi-dimensional arrays
  • Variables are retained between invocations of HexEdit
  • There is an option to clear all variables
  • Integer variables can also be used with the hex and decimal jump tools (Standard Toolbar)
  • Expressions can have any type (but only integer expressions work with the buttons)
  • Drop down lists of previous values
    • hex/decimal jumps (including those used in the jump tools)
    • available variables grouped by the 5 types (int, real, bool, string, date)
    • available functions (and PI) grouped by the 5 types
    • previously entered expressions
• Navigation Points - like an undo/redo but for the "edit" position
  • click the back/forward buttons to go to the previous/next edit position
  • select any nav point from the drop-down lists
  • drop-down lists are grouped by file (using sub-menus) to allow you easily find the point you want
  • nav points are always kept in strict chronological order (unlike in Visual Studio) to avoid confusion
  • a tip for each nav point shows the file position, description, etc
  • HexEdit will reopen a file to return to a nav point
• The Options dialog has been further improved
  • New tree view makes option page navigation very easy
  • New workspace and history pages with many new options
  • Many address display options: eg line numbers, addresses start at 1, etc
  • Hex and decimal addresses (and line numbers) can be shown simultaneously
  • New startup options - eg turn off splash screen
  • Allow/prevent floating modeless dialogs to move out of the way of the cursor
  • Complete control of abbreviated display of integers (eg K=1000/1024)
  • Many new ruler options (see below)
  • Control how fast autoscroll accelerates
  • Many other simple but useful options
• Highly configurable ruler(s) - hex and/or decimal
  • Easily toggle the ruler using menu item or tool bar button (Format Bar)
  • Both rulers are shown if both hex and decimal addresses are shown
  • Adjust how often ticks are displayed (separate for hex and decimal rulers)
  • Adjust how often numbers are displayed in the rulers
  • Cursor position can be shown in the ruler (and address area)
  • Mouse position can be shown in the ruler (and address area)
• Handles are shown in the ruler that indicate row size, grouping and offset
  • Hover over a handle to see the current setting
  • Drag a handle to change the setting
  • Row size handle also indicates if auto-fit is on (but does not prevent dragging)
• Explorer Window has an improved look and new features
• New Explorer Window columns and abilities
  • New columns: Category, Comments etc
  • Hide/show columns by right-clicking the header and selecting from the list
  • Drag column header to reorder the columns
  • Column size and order is remembered between uses of HexEdit
• Several template improvements (also see Expressions improvements below)
  • EVAL (expression evaluations) can now be the target for IF and CASE
  • Greatly improves conditional evaluations (avoids use of ternary operator ?: )
  • EVAL can now be the sole element in a STRUCT
  • Many improved example templates
  • PE (EXE, DLL etc) now supports display of .NET CLI data
• Improved expression functions and testability
  • GetInt now supports spin buttons and min/max values
  • GetBool now allows user to press the first letter of button text (eg Y for Yes, N for No, etc)
  • Variable names can be escaped with an @ symbol (eg to differentiate a name from a hex constant)
  • Expressions can easily be tested in the calculator
  • All available functions can be seen in the calculator "Functions" menu (grouped by return type)
• Better file position preservation when
  • window is resized and AutoFit mode is on
  • number of columns increased or decreased, etc
• Small fixes for some dialogs with non-standard DPI (eg 120 DPI)

Features added in HexEdit 3.3

Features added in HexEdit 3.2

Features added in HexEdit 3.1

Features added in HexEdit 3.0

Features added in HexEdit 2.6

Features added in HexEdit 2.5

Features added in HexEdit 2.2

Features added in HexEdit 2.1

Features added in HexEdit 2.0

Features added in HexEdit 1.2

Features added in HexEdit 1.1

Display Options

• Easy selection of display format from toolbar drop-down lists
• Easy selection of character set (ASCII, ANSI, MSDOS, EBCDIC) using drop down list
• Easy selection of colour schemes, font, font size etc using drop-down lists
• Choose any font (including typeface, style and size)
• You can undo all display changes not just file changes (see Undo below)
• Option to show only text area, only hex area, or both areas
• Quickly select the next larger or smaller valid font size using toolbar buttons or mouse wheel
• Mark and remember important bytes with the highlighter
• Number of columns setable up to 1000
• Column grouping setable from 2 to number of columns
• Autofit mode automatically adjusts the number of columns to fit the window
• You can hide highlights, bookmarks etc (without actually deleting them)
• Addresses (on the left side of the window) can be in hex or decimal
• Hex digits can be displayed in upper or lower case (all windows, dialogs, status bar etc)
• Skins allow you to completely change the look of menus, toolbars etc
• Window tabs facilitates switching between files
• See also Colour Options, Advanced Display Options, EBCDIC support

Editing Options

• You can edit files over a Terabyte (Windows 2000/XP filesystem) or up to 4 GBytes (FAT32)
• Open and change the last byte of a 10 Gbyte file in seconds
• All the normal cursor movement and editing keys are supported
• Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right move by column groups (group size is configurable)
• Holding down shift and pressing cursor movement keys selects a range of bytes
• The normal mouse selection is supported including autoscroll (with acceleration), shift-clicking etc
• Unlimited undo of all files changes (see Undo below)
• Files can be opened for read-only
• Windows can be toggled between read-write and read-only (if the file is not read-only)
• Windows can be edited in Insert or Overtype mode
• Unlike some editors you don't need a spare GByte of disk space to edit a Gbyte file
• See also Advanced Editing, Clipboard, and File Handling

Templates

• Easily gives an overview of almost any type of binary file (using appropriate template)
• Templates for common formats provided or available for download, and more being created all the time
• Advanced template system using XML schema for storing templates
• Handles variable length elements (arrays, strings) and optional elements by evaluating expressions
• Displays a "tree view" in a split window or a tabbed window
• Tree view allows quick location of specific data fields (by expanding branches)
• Expressions can evaluate any field encountered in the file so far including array elements & struct members
• Expressions have most C (and hence C++) operators with same precedence
• Integer, floating point, string and boolean types supported by expressions
• Expressions allow array indexing ([] operator) and structure member access (. operator)
• Create and assign global variables (including arrays) in expressions
• Complete nesting of elements (eg array of structs, array of arrays etc)
• Arrays can be variable in length using a length expression and/or termination condition expression
• Array elements can be variable in size
• Boolean expressions are evaluated to determine presence of optional elements
• Supports all "Properties" data types including dates, floats, 64 bit ints etc
• Supports fixed length and terminated strings
• Optional domain check (boolean expression) of fields to flag invalid values
• Integer fields can be displayed and validated according to an "enum" (list of names/values)
• Enum syntax is the same as in C/C++
• Supports variable length strings and BLOBs (length = expression)
• Button to jump to the template creator's web site for more info. on a specific format

Bookmarks

• Unlimited named bookmarks each associated with a file and address
• Add, delete, jump to bookmarks from the Bookmarks list (modeless dialog)
• Sort bookmarks on name, time last used (jumped to), time changed (created/moved), filename, offset etc
• Bookmarks are automatically adjusted when bytes are added or deleted
• Validate bookmarks removes all bookmarks that no longer exist (file gone etc)
• Exclude network and removable drives from validation
• Command to remove all bookmarks from the current file
• Commands to jump to previous/next bookmark in file
• Quickly create unnamed bookmarks using bookmark toggle command
• Quickly jump to any bookmark in the current file by selecting from bookmarks tool
• Bookmarks tool displays the nearest bookmark in the file
• New bookmarks context menu when you right-click on a bookmark
• Integration with other features (eg jump tools, searches etc)

Undo

• Unlimited undo (only limited by available virtual memory)
• File level undo allows undoing of all modifications to a file
• All display changes are undoable (eg. font, number of columns, etc)
• "Undo Changes" command avoids wading through lots of window level changes
• You are warned before undoing file changes made in another window

Printing

• Print preview (including zoom) is provided
• Printing the current selection or a range of pages is supported
• NEW Duplicate lines (eg masses of nul bytes) can be printed once with a count
• The font size is adjusted so that the printing fits across the page
• Margins and line-spacing can be controlled
• Customizable printer headers and footers - current date, file name/dates, page # etc
• NEW Printer headers can be positioned vertically
• NEW Options to print a border and column headings
• Improved print preview including display of margins
• Search occurrences and highlights are printed

Properties

• The properties dialog can remain on screen and is updated as you move the cursor
• The current position of the dialog is restored when you reopen Hex Edit
• Associate category, comments and keywords with individual files
• View file name, directory, date last created/accessed/modified, current size etc of a file
• View file type (based on extension) as displayed in Windows (NT) Explorer
• View read-only, hidden and system attributes
• Display the hex, decimal, octal and binary values of the current byte at the cursor
• Display the current byte in ASCII, Unicode (NT only), and EBCDIC
• Display values of 4 integral sizes: 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit and 64 bit
• Display integral types as (unsigned or signed) decimal
• Display in any of 3 signed formats (2's complement, 1's complement, Sign & magnitude)
• Display floating point numbers in IEEE, IBM or C# Decimal formats
• Mantissa & exponent also displayed for floating point types
• Display all numeric types with big- or little-endian byte order
• Date properties page: allows view/change in 15 date formats
• Dates can be set to current date/time, first/last valid or invalid values
• Dates can be changed using calendar/spin controls or just typed in

Colour Options

• Set all colours and save in a "scheme"
• Four built-in schemes used by default for the four different character set displays
• Unlimited number of custom schemes
• A custom scheme can be associated with a file type (based on file extension)
• Easily select a built-in or custom scheme from the drop-down list
• Set colours for background, bookmarks, highlighter, hex and decimal addresses etc
• Set colours for unlimited number of byte value groups
• Colour groups allow non-adjoining ranges (eg. ASCII text = "10,13,32-126")
• Colour groups allow you to easily see file structure and spot many problems/irregularities
• Comprehensive colour selection: drop-list, hexagon, RGB, HSV etc

Advanced Display Options

• Window display options page allows adjustment of all options
• Save display options as the default or restore the default settings
• Most display options are adjustable on a per window basis
• Display options (including highlights, bookmarks etc) are restored when file re-opened
• Three options for the display of ASCII control characters (including C/C++ escape chars)
• Options to display "ANSI/graphic" characters (byte values above the normal ASCII range)
• Option to display IBM/MSDOS graphic characters
• The column of the first byte of the file can be shifted with an offset
• Press "Alt-Enter" to move the current column to be the leftmost column (adjusting the offset)
• Choose any font (including typeface, style and size)
• Display options for "new" windows can be set including open maximised
• Addresses (on the left side of the window) can be in hex or decimal
• Addresses can be displayed with thousands separators (decimal) or digit grouping (hex)
• International number formats are supported
• There is an option to have a "shadow" cursor in the other (hex/char) area
• There is an option to display char area only (ie. no hex area)

Advanced Editing Options

• The "mark" assists in many editing operations by marking a position
• Conversions between EBCDIC and ASCII
• Conversion between ANSI and IBM/OEM characters sets
• Case conversion commands (including EBCDIC)
• Encryption commands use internal algorithm or Crypto API compliant CSPs
• MD5 command for checking for tampered downloads
• Take checksum  or CRC (several types) of the current selection
• Add, subtract, negate, NOT, XOR, increment, decrement etc on the current selection
• Full support for ZLIB compression/decompression
• Keep Same Times option restores file times to old values after saving

Clipboard

• Cut and paste works for binary data (unlike some programs that lose nul bytes)
• Bytes are copied in binary format (compatible with Visual Studio) and text (for NotePad etc)
• In EBCDIC mode text is converted to ASCII before copying/cutting
• Paste As EBCDIC allows conversion to EBCDIC
• Paste As Unicode allows conversion to Unicode
• Paste As ASCII removes non-ASCII characters (and avoids conversion in EBCDIC mode)
• Copy As Hex Text converts each byte to 2 hex digits
• Copy As C source converts to text suitable for initialising a char array
• Write selection to file (overwrite or append)

Find

• Boyer-Moore algorithm and other optimizations gives very fast searches
• The Find Tool allows quick and easy hex or text searches
• The Find Tool is resizeable so you can see those long search strings
• Abort searches with the Escape key
• When the background searches option is on and a new srting is searched for all occurrences are found using low-priority background threads
• EBCDIC searches (case-sensitive and -insensitive) are performed when in EBCDIC mode
• The search history lets you recall previous searches from a drop list (or using the arrow keys)
• Standard modeless search dialog with hex/ASCII/Unicode/EBCDIC switch

Find Dialog

• New find dialog is split into 5 pages: Simple, Hex, Text, Number & Replace pages
• Options include direction, scope, whole word, case-sensitive
• 4 scopes: whole file, to end/start of file, to mark (to search part of a large file), and all open files
• whole file scope switches to end/start of file scope after first find to avoid finding the same thing
• Simple page allows hex or text search and basic options
• Hex page allows "?" wildcard to match any nybble and "mask" to ignore individual bits
• Text page allows "?" wildcard to match any character, and character set options
• Number page allows search for most formats of integer and floating point numbers
• Replace page allows Find, Replace and Replace All
• There is an option to just bookmark all found occurrences
• Searches can be alignment restricted with alignment stride, offset and "relative to mark" options
• Info entered on one page is reflected on other pages (eg text string is converted to hex using current character set in hex page)
• Info entered is reflected in the Find Tool on toolbar
• Search (and replace) histories are saved between sessions and also available from Find Tool
• Find dialog stays on screen (modeless) but gets out of the way of the cursor

Calculator

• Supports 4 bases: hexadecimal, decimal, octal, or binary
• Supports 4 number sizes: 64 bit, 32 bit, 16 bit and 8 bit
• Layout similar to Windows calculator but more sensible
• Values displayed for easy reading using spaces/commas (or region specific format)
• Many binary operations (eg. modulus, AND, exclusive-OR, rotations and shifts etc)
• Many unary operations (eg. NOT, flip bytes, reverse bits, shift 1 bit, increment etc)
• Memory operations: store, clear, M+, M-
• File access operations to change cursor position, mark etc
• Use the "GO" button to jump to the address displayed in the calculator
• Mark operations analgous to memory operations: store, clear, Mk+, Mk-
• Read/write values in file at cursor, mark, any address etc
• Read/write file in big- or little-endian format
• All calculator operations are recorded in keystroke macros
• Overflow and errors cause macro minor errors (useful for halt condition)

Jump Tools

• The hex and decimal jump tools allow you to easily jump to any address
• Numbers are automatically formatted as they are entered
• Each tool is updated as the other is changed - can be used as a quick hex/decimal converter
• The addresses in these tools are updated as the cursor is moved
• During long searches and comparisons the addresses are updated to show progress
• Jump to a previous position with the Jump To Mark command
• The calculator can be used to quickly jump to an absolute or relative address

Keystroke macros

• HexEdit keystroke macros are usually fast and use little memory
• Turning off display refresh can increase macro performance up to 10 times
• Multiplay allows playing of a single macro up to 10,000 times repeatedly
• There are options to refresh the display so you can monitor a macro's progress
• Refresh the display based on time, number of keystrokes played, or number of replays
• Turn on tool/status bar refresh, for example to monitor the current cursor address
• Turn on refresh of the properties dialog to monitor properties at the cursor
• Three error handling levels: halt on warnings, minor errors, or major errors only
• Stopping on errors avoids mangled files, for example when end of file is encountered
• Useful commands for macros include: swap cursor and mark, select to mark, increment byte etc
• Mouse clicks and selections are also recorded (relative to top corner of window)
• Macros are not restricted to one file or window, eg. use F2 to move to the next window
• You can select a particular window, for example to build a file from parts of other files
• If a window that was selected during recording no longer exists an error is generated
• Abort macros at any time by pressing Escape
• Save macros to file and load again at a later time
• Easily replay saved macros without disturbing current in-memory macro
• A message or instructions can be recorded and displayed at playback
• Macros can be nested without limit (ie a macro can execute a different macro from file)
• Autoexec macro executed when HexEdit is run
• Macros can be auto-run when a file is opened based on file extension
• Encryption and passwords are integrated with keystroke macros
• A very powerful feature is macros close integration with the calculator

EBCDIC Support

• In EBCDIC mode the character area displays EBCDIC (or a red dot for invalid EBCDIC)
• The character properties page displays the current EBCDIC character including control codes
• In EBCDIC mode the status bar also displays the current character in EBCDIC
• In EBCDIC mode "Find Tool" searches use EBCDIC text (case-sensitive and -insensitive)
• The Find Dialog also allows EBCDIC searches
• The clipboard allows conversion to/from EBCDIC
• Specify a custom EBCDIC conversion/display table (in a file called EBCDIC.TAB)

Unicode Support

• The character properties page displays the current Unicode character (NT only)
• The Find Dialog allows searches for Unicode text
• The clipboard commands allow conversion to/from Unicode

Help

• Extensive on-line help using HTML help
• The help introduction explains all important binary file concepts from the very basics
• The overview give an explanation of all the things HexEdit can do
• The help reference section explains all commands, options etc in detail
• All help pages are in "Browse Sequences"  (Previous/Next buttons) for easy skimming.
• "Tips of the Day" explain things that are not obvious from just using the program
• Tool tips for all tool bar buttons and status bar panes are provided
• The Help/Keymap command displays the current key mappings
• All dialogs have a help button
• All dialog controls support popup help
• Email the author for help, to report bugs etc right from within HexEdit

Tool Bars and Status Bar

• 2 built-in toolbars provide quick access to common commands and the find and address tools
• New look "flat" toolbars with grippers
• Toolbars can be customized.  New toolbars can be added and deleted.>
• Toolbar images can be changed.  You can even draw your own button images.
• The status bar provides error and progress messages and several "panes" of info
• One pane shows the current byte value in hex, decimal, octal, binary & ASCII/EBCDIC
• The distance to mark panes show the distance from the cursor to the mark in hex and decimal
• Other panes indicate read-only/read-write mode, overtype/insert mode and macro recording
• Double clicking most panes toggles their status
• Standard panes indicate Caps- and Num-Lock

File Handling

• HexEdit does not include file handling facilities (eg, renaming, deleting etc of files)
• File handling commands are available (indirectly) in the file ope/save dialogs by right-clicking
• Customizable filter list for File/Open and File/Save dialogs
• HexEdit remembers the directories last used for open, read, write selection, export etc
• Select multiple files in the File Open dialog using Ctrl+click and Shift+click
• Open multiple files on the command line, eg. "HexEdit  *.BMP" will open all .BMP files
• There is an option to create backup copies of modified files
• Drag and drop into HexEdit window
• Option to add "Open with HexEdit" to Shell shortcut menus
• Re-open up to 16 most recently used file from the File menu
• Re-open any file previously opened from the "Recently Used Files" dialog
• Open, Open Read-only, Remove etc from the Recently used files dialog
• Sort files on date opened, name, size, date modified etc to help find that file
• NEW Save All and Close All commands
• Commands are provided to insert a file, or write the current selection to a file
• Append Selection to File (avoids Windows 16 Mbyte clipboard restriction)
• Append Same File adds to the end of the last file written or appended to
• Append File and Append Same File allow building of a file from several large pieces

Miscellaneous

• Windows Manager to control windows (save, close, tile etc)
• User-defined tools, including command line options
• Option to only allow a single instance of HexEdit to run
• Multiple monitors under Windows 98/ME/2000/XP are supported
• Context menus (right mouse button) provide quick access to common options
• Several different context menus can be completely customized
• Compare windows (to compare 2 files or 2 parts of the same file)
• Support for international date and number formats (as set in the Control Panel)
• Complete keyboard reconfigurability
• HexEdit remembers window positions, display options etc
• There are many other niceties that you will soon take for granted

Source Code

• Complete C++/MFC source code is available for versions 1.1 and 2.0
• Version 1.1 includes all files needed to build the program and help files
• Version 2.0 requires the commercial BCG library for MFC
• Visual C++ 6 project
• Includes several reuseable components (e.g. timer class, boyer class)
• STL compatible range_set efficiently stores sets of ints containing large chunks

• Info Tips - full customization of information display in popup tip window
  • use any expression involving many predefined values
  • many display formats for result (int, real, date, string, boolean)
• Installation problems (esp under Vista) addressed
• Templates are now easier to open and use
  • flip between splitter/tab/no template view at any time
  • template window size, column widths etc restored on file reopen
  • Improved editing of template fields (in Data column in template view)
  • SWITCH/CASE expression can now be a string
  • default CASE allowed by simply using an empty value
• Associate categories, comments  and keywords with any file
• Other new properties like time64_t and C# Decimal
• Display characters using any code page (including DBCS etc)
• Much more useful alignment options in searches
• All operations now support selection greater than 4 GBytes
• All long operations show a progress bar and can be aborted using Esc
• Open disk dialog now shows more info: disk size in clusters etc
• New case conversion and MD5 operations
• Motorola S record now supports export of non-adjacent records
• New Save All and Close All commands

• New binary operations taking 2nd operand from calculator (8, 16, 32 or 64-bit)
• New operations include +, -, AND, OR, ...
• Use assignment operation to fill a block with any value
• Generate random byte values (2 options: good randomness or fast)
• Seed random number from calculator (repeatable) or randomly (using time)
• Create a new file of any size (in decimal or hex) and fill in many different ways
• Fill new file with repeated hex value(s) or string (ASCII, EBCDIC, Unicode)
• Fill with random bytes in one or more ranges
• Fill with integer (8, 16, 32 or 64 bit) or real (32 or 64 bit)
• Copy to clipboard in many different C/C++ data formats
• Copy as a single string (over multiple lines) supporting escape sequences etc
• Copy as characters (EBCDIC characters used in EBCDIC mode)
• Copy as integers (8, 16, 32 or 64 bit) or reals (32 or 64 bit)
• Other options such as indent, big-endian (for numbers) etc