What it does
Notepad3 is a lightweight Windows text editor built on Scintilla and Lexilla. It adds source-oriented features such as syntax highlighting, folding, bracket matching, auto-indentation, word completion, bookmarks and regular-expression search and replacement. Its download page offers an installer and a portable edition, while the project repository publishes the editor's source under a BSD 3-Clause license.
Edit source without setting up a project
For a quick code change, open the relevant file in Notepad3 and use its language highlighting and folding to navigate the text. The official feature list also describes bracket matching, automatic indentation, word completion, bookmarks, and regular-expression find and replace. It supports conversions between common text encodings and between DOS, Unix, and Mac newline formats, which can be useful when normalizing files before a commit.
The product page offers both an installer and a portable download. The portable edition is intended to run from removable storage without writing its settings to the Windows registry, while the installer can coexist with Windows Notepad or replace it through the documented registry-based option. Those paths make Notepad3 suitable for a focused source-editing task, though it remains a text editor rather than a complete project build environment.
License and scope
Rizonesoft describes Notepad3 as free, and the official repository identifies it as open source. Its repository license file permits source and binary redistribution subject to notice and other conditions. The editor is Windows-only; the repository and product page do not present macOS or Linux builds.
Strengths
- The official feature list covers syntax modes for many programming and markup languages, plus folding, bracket matching and regular-expression search.
- A portable edition can run from removable storage without writing settings to the Windows registry.
- The editor's source is published under a BSD 3-Clause license.
Watch out for
- Notepad3 is limited to Windows rather than being a cross-platform editor.
Best for
- Windows developers making quick edits to source, configuration or markup files.
- Users who want a portable editor for working from a USB drive.
- Programmers who need text-format conversion and regular-expression search in a compact editor.
Sources
- Notepad3 | Rizonesoft (Oct 25, 2026)
- Notepad3 (Oct 25, 2026)
- Notepad3/License.txt at 710ac461fe1771620f45172ddf567ea238189585 · rizonesoft/Notepad3 · GitHub (Oct 25, 2026)