A faithful, minimal re-creation of classic Windows Notepad, built for speed and simplicity.
Why? Recent changes to Windows Notepad left some folks missing the old, ultra-simple experience. ognp aims to be that: fast, tiny, dependency-free, and familiar.
- Classic UI & behavior
- File: New / Open / Save / Save As… / Page Setup / Print / Print Preview / Exit
- Edit: Undo, Cut/Copy/Paste/Delete, Find, Find Next (F3), Replace, Go To (Ctrl+G), Time/Date (F5), Select All
- Format: Word Wrap (off by default), Font…
- View: Status Bar (hidden when Word Wrap is on, like the original)
- Help: About
- Encodings
- Detects BOM for UTF-8/16/32; otherwise defaults to ANSI (system code page)
- “Save As” lets you choose: ANSI, UTF-8, UTF-8 (BOM), UTF-16 LE/BE, UTF-32 LE/BE
- Line endings
- Detects & preserves CRLF / LF / CR on save
- Status bar shows current EOL and encoding
- Quality-of-life
- Drag & drop files to open
- Accurate cursor position and selection length in the status bar
- No bloat
- No telemetry, no network calls, no AI, & no external packages
- Single portable
.exe(no installer required)
Non-goals: This isn’t a code editor. No tabs, no plugins, no syntax highlighting—just a classic text editor.
Head to the GitHub Releases page and grab the latest assets:
ognp.exe— portable Windows executableognp.exe.sha256— checksum file for verification
Supported OS: Windows 10/11. The published build is self-contained. If you ever see a runtime prompt, it is for the .NET Desktop Runtime 9.0. If your system is up-to-date, with 'Windows Updates', you should NOT see this message. However, if you do, please install the .NET Desktop Runtime 9.0.
Windows (PowerShell):
cd "folder\where\you\downloaded\files"
$expected = (Get-Content .\ognp.exe.sha256).Split(" ")[0]
$actual = (Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 .\ognp.exe).Hash.ToLower()
if ($actual -eq $expected) { "OK: SHA256 matches." } else { "MISMATCH!" }Double-click ognp.exe to launch, or open a file from the command line:
ognp.exe "C:\path\to\file.txt"You can also drag & drop a file onto the window to open it.
- File:
Ctrl+NNew ·Ctrl+OOpen ·Ctrl+SSave ·F12Save As - Edit:
Ctrl+FFind ·F3Find Next ·Ctrl+HReplaceCtrl+GGo To ·Ctrl+ASelect All ·F5Time/Date - Format/View: Word Wrap toggles Go To & Status Bar availability (classic behavior)
- If a file has a BOM, ognp uses it.
- If not, ognp opens as ANSI (your system’s default code page).
- “Save As” lets you choose encodings explicitly.
- EOL style (CRLF / LF / CR) is detected on open and preserved on save.
Use File → Page Setup / Print for classic printing behavior. Long lines wrap across pages; headers/footers are intentionally minimal (in keeping with Notepad’s feel).
To make ognp your default editor for .txt files:
- Right-click any
.txt→ Open with → Choose another app - Browse to
ognp.exe, check Always use this app, and confirm.
- ognp has no network features and no telemetry.
- If you discover a security issue, please open a private advisory or email the maintainer (avoid public issues for security topics).
See SECURITY.md for details.
Does it support tabs or syntax highlighting? No—by design. ognp focuses on the classic Notepad experience.
Can I change the default encoding? Use Save As to choose a specific encoding for output. Files without a BOM open as ANSI.
Why is the Status Bar hidden sometimes? When Word Wrap is on, the status bar hides—this matches the original Notepad behavior.
- Bugs & requests: open an Issue on GitHub (include Windows version and repro steps)
- Discussions Q&A: use Discussions if enabled on the repo
For development guidelines, see CONTRIBUTING.md.
GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE for details.
- Inspired by Microsoft® Windows® Notepad.
- “Microsoft” and “Windows” are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
- This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft and/or its related entities.
- This project does not solicit funds, donations, or monetary gain in any capacity.