The best free hexadecimal (hex) editors. Hex editor HexEdit with a specialized calculator

To download Cygnus Hex Editor Free Edition, follow the simple instructions.

1. To start downloading the installation file, click on the blue “Download from server” button located just above.
2. After which, the server will prepare and check the installation file for viruses.
3. If the file is not infected and everything is fine with it, a gray “Download” button will appear.
4. By clicking on the “Download” button, the file will begin downloading to your computer.

We do not ask you to go through a tedious registration process or send any SMS for confirmation. Just download and enjoy for your health =)

How to install Cygnus Hex Editor Free Edition

To install the program, follow simple instructions that apply to most programs.

1. Launch the downloaded file by double-clicking on it. All installation files are taken from the official websites of the developers.The last update date for the Cygnus Hex Editor Free Edition version 1.0 file was January 09, 2017 at 23:21.
2. In the window that appears, accept the license agreement. You can also read the license agreement on the official website of the program developer.
3. Select the required components you want to install. Uncheck the boxes that may be selected to install additional programs.
4. Select the folder on your computer where you want to install the program. In most cases, the program automatically selects a folder, for example in Windows it is C:\Program Files\
5. Finally, the program installation manager may suggest creating a “Desktop Shortcut” or “Start Menu Folder.”
6. After which the installation process will begin. After completion, the installation manager may ask you to restart the computer for the program to work more correctly.

Like Windows Notepad. Moreover, if you open a binary file with a text editor and save it to disk, in most cases the file will be corrupted and will not run. To make correct edits, you must use hexadecimal editors (hex), which are sometimes also called binary editors.

Most ordinary users are unlikely to have any tasks or needs to use hexadecimal editors. However, for tech-savvy users, such editors can be indispensable tools.

Note: As a fact, but at one time, to edit standard asp.net 1.1 installers, you had to adjust the binary code. For example, in order to make one of the controls a password entry field.

This review contains some of the best free hex editors for various needs.

Review of Free Hex Editors

There are several excellent free hex editors available, ranging from small and simple to complex products that are comparable to commercial solutions. However, the hex editor category is one of those categories where personal needs and preferences are so important that comparing products is not only difficult, but also pointless. Therefore, you should not assume that the products are arranged in descending order.

HxD is an excellent hexadecimal hex editor

One of the best utilities for editing binary code is . Firstly, the program is portable and does not require installation, which is especially important if you often need to edit executable files. Secondly, it has a nice interface. Thirdly, HxD processes large files without delays or screen freezing. Plus, add unlimited edit history, fast search and replace, binary file comparison, and full support for ANSI, DOS/IBM-ASCII, and EBCDIC. And a dozen more possibilities, some of which will be listed below. HxD also allows you to edit not only the disk, but also the RAM. As a fact, such a set of capabilities makes the program a dangerous toy in the hands of novice users. In addition, security applications may react to its actions in the same way, but experienced users understand that this happens due to the specifics of accessing data and the use of potentially dangerous functions.

Overall, HxD is great for those who frequently deal with various binary codes.

Other features and characteristics:

• Secure access to files that other programs use
• Checksum generator: Checksum, CRCs, Custom CRC, SHA-1, SHA-512, MD5, ...
• Export data to various formats
• Inserting code templates
• Ability to safely delete files.
• Splitting or merging files
• Different types of groupings in columns (1,2,4,8,16 bytes)
• Highlighting changed data
• Quickly jump to an address
• Support for copying clipboard data from other programs: Visual Studio/Visual C++, WinHex, HexWorkshop, ...
• Bookmarks
• And much more...

Hex editor Hexplorer is an analogue of HxD with the ability to view images when analyzing steganography

Another great hex editor is open source. The program has a number of unique features that make it also a powerful binary image editor. This means that you can look at all graphic files not only from the point of view of their visual representation, but also their binary code. Of course, it is difficult to imagine editing pictures in hexadecimal in everyday life. However, it can be used for purposes such as steganography.

Overall, Hexplorer is suitable not only for those who frequently edit binary code, but also for those who use non-standard ways to use binary code.

Main features and characteristics:

• Six interface color schemes for various tasks.
• Unlimited command history
• x86 disassembler
• Import and export to 20 different binary file formats, including Intel Hex, Motorola S-Record, Atmel standard, etc.
• Ability to find recurring patterns in data
• Viewing Images
• Filtering text from binary data
• Boyer-Moore search algorithm
• Quick navigation to addresses
• Allows you to create structures of simple data types, such as integers or floating point numbers
• Pseudo-random number generator
• Allows you to record macros (scripts) to automate tasks

Other hex editors

There are other hex editors that are also worthy of attention and may come in handy.

Hexadecimal editor XVI32 simple and convenient

XVI32 is a free hexadecimal editor whose name comes from the Roman numeral XVI (16).

• Supports scripts to automate tasks.
• Search by pattern
• ASCII/ANSI
• Character conversion based on user definitions
• Writing individual blocks to a file
• And other possibilities...

• Stores the open file in memory, so large files will have problems.
• As such, there is no command history. This means that any changes you make are made "as is" and you will have to write them down or remember them.

Supports Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7

Hex editor HexEdit with a specialized calculator

HexEdit is another free binary editor from MiTeC.

• No need to install (portable)
• RAM and disk editor
• Specialized calculator
• Can compare files
• Can dump data from RAM to disk (create a dump)
• And others...

• Stores open files in memory

Supports Windows 2000 - Windows 7

Cygnus Free simple hex editor

Cygnus Free is a free hex editor that is one of the older versions of the commercial editor. Therefore functionality is limited.

• Fast and easy to use
• Quick search and replace
• Drag & drop
• And other possibilities...

• Stores an open file in RAM with all the ensuing problems
• The free version does not have technical support
• Trimmed for functionality

Supports Windows

Quick Selection Guide (links to download free hex editors)

HxD

		Supports many languages, including Russian. Disk and RAM editor. Quickly edits large files. Allows you to generate checksums. Able to compare files. Can safely delete, merge and split files.
		All changes are immediately saved to disk. Therefore, always back up your files before editing.
		http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/
		http://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD
		850 KB 1.7.7.0 Unrestricted freeware Windows 95 - 7

Hexplorer

		RAM and disk editor. Additional features such as Fourier transform. View images. Can recognize NTFS/FAT, BMP headers, and so on. Supports macros to automate tasks
		Keeps the open file entirely in memory, making large files difficult to edit. By default, the font and display settings are not very well chosen.

Hex Editor Neo is a free version of a hexadecimal and binary file editor, capable of editing large objects. Allows you to undo/redo multiple times after editing. In addition, convenient tools for searching and replacing data are built-in.

Hex Editor Neo has capabilities for highlighting, viewing, editing, replacing, debugging and analyzing data. An important quality of the program is the ability to simultaneously open several files (tabbed support). With the editor, for example, you can make patches to a file with two clicks.

Manipulate your EXE, DLL, DAT, AVI, MP3, JPG files with unlimited undo/redo capabilities. The history of the work done appears in a tree form; you can always easily return to the desired or original type of data.

Features of Hex Editor Neo

• Edit binary files of any size at the fastest speed
• Find and replace data in binary files
• Writing microcode programs
• Exploring the functionality of any executable file

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. Cygnus is fast. Very fast! Operations such as searching, or searching and replacing are blazingly fast. And screen updates and most other operations will be instantaneous on all but the slowest computers. Cygnus is easy. With intelligent features such as a multiple document interface (MDI), the ability to easily insert and delete bytes, simple drag and drop operations, bookmarks and more, complex editing tasks can be performed with ease. And with our new Data Inspector, editing data values ​​can be accomplished more naturally than ever possible before. Our Find and Replace dialogs make finding data easier and more powerful than ever before. The Find dialog box divides searches into three types: text, data types, and raw data. And the Replace dialog box allows the same logic to specify both find and replace parameters. Want to search for the Unicode text "Hello" and replace it with a FILETIME value of 3/31/2005 9:25:00 AM? Well, maybe not. But with Cygnus, this is extremely simple and intuitive to do. Of course Cygnus allows you to edit data by typing in hex or ASCII values. But Cygnus provides powerful new ways to modify data as well. The Data Inspector window allows you to view and edit data in a more natural way as known data types, structures, and arrays. The Modify, Insert and Delete dialog boxes allow you to instantly perform certain operations on any number of a particular data type. The convert function will convert the selected data to another format. Convert data using any of the existing conversion types or write your own conversion add-in by writing a Cygnus extension. In addition to modifying data, sometimes you just need to know a little more information about that data. Cygnus offers new tools for this as well. Cygnus now offers intelligent file comparing. It is intelligent because it can compare files of different lengths, and it can resynchronize matching data after a difference has been found. Cygnus also now offers checksum computations. Simply select the data you want to perform the checksum on, and then select any of the available checksum algorithms to compute that checksum. You can even add new checksum types to Cygnus by writing a Cygnus extension. To get the most out of any Hex Editor, you"ll want to be able to export and import various types of data. You"ll also want many options for copying data to and from the clipboard. Cygnus provides great flexibility in this area. For example, you can select a range of data and then copy it to the clipboard as HTML code, allowing you to place the data on a Web page. In addition to the many ways that Cygnus can export and import data, developers can even add support for new ways by writing Cygnus extensions.

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