10 Must-have Windows Apps for Coding

We often get asked about what's the best Windows apps for coding utilities? Well, you can use Notepad++ for sure, but there are also some other good alternatives. That's why we have rounded up 10 must-have Windows apps for coding.

Crimson Editor

Crimson Editor is a professional source editor for Windows. This program is not only fast in loading time, but also small in size (so small that it can be copied in one floppy disk). While it can serve as a good replacement for Notepad, it also offers many powerful features for programming languages such as HTML, C/C++, Perl and Java.

Version 3.7 features drag and drop text editing, reduced memory footprint, Unicode support, and saving project workspace whenever there is a change in the project tree.

Notepad++ (32-bit)

Notepad++ is a source code editor which supports several programming languages under the Windows environment. It's also a lightweight replacement of Notepad. The supported languages by Notepad++ are C, C++, Java, C#, XML, HTML, PHP, JavaScript, RC file, makefile, NFO, doxygen, INI file, batch file, ASP, VB/VBS, SQL, Objective-C, CSS, Pascal, Perl, Python, Lua, Unix Shell Script, Fortran, NSIS and Flash action script. Notepad++ main features are syntax highlighting and syntax folding, regular expression search, WYSIWYG (If you have a color printer, print your source code in color), Unicode support, full drag-and-drop supported, Brace and Indent guideline highlighting, two edits and synchronized view of the same document, and user language define system.

EmEditor Professional (32 bit)

EmEditor Professional is a lightweight text editor for Windows which supports Unicode (allowing for multi-language support). EmEditor allows you to quickly and easily open or edit huge files (up to 248GB or 2.1 billion lines), using a large file controller, and is optimized for speed and reliability. The program features JavaScript or VBScript macros, text encoding support (automatic encoding detection, Byte Order Mark support, file reload with a different encoding, detection of encoding errors), plug-ins, syntax highlighting (including embedded scripts in HTML, ASP, and PHP files), drag-and-drop, and menu and keyboard customizations.

TextPad

When just getting the job done is work enough, the last thing you need is to waste time having to learn yet another computer application. Your experience with other tools should be relevant to each new application, making it possible to sit down and use that new application right away. That's why TextPad is so popular. Whether you simply need a powerful replacement for Notepad, a tool for editing your web pages, or a programming IDE, TextPad does what you want, the way you would expect.

TextPad is an affordable shareware text editor for Windows that is suitable for coding or as a feature-packed replacement for Notepad. It's neither the most powerful nor most expensive shareware text tool, though many users will find it more than meets their needs at a fraction of the cost of similar tools.

Major features of this Windows coding app:

Advanced editing: TextPad can shift and block indent text, change case, transpose characters, words, and lines, check spelling in multiple languages, run macros, and perform other editing duties.

Warm Start: Warm Start lets you pick up right where you left off.

Customizable: Ten optional toolbars, vertical and horizontal scroll bars, the document selector sidebar, and the ability to configure and access external tools are just a few of TextPad's many options. An extensive Preferences menu enables deep customization.

Some downsides of this Windows app for coding:

Neither free nor pro: While TextPad is affordable and maybe even a bargain, it faces competition from similar freeware that meets the needs of most users who don't require coding capabilities, on one hand, and pro-level tools that may be more expensive than TextPad yet are still affordable for their performance on the other.

We like to use an aftermarket text editor in Windows, and TextPad has more features than most users will ever need.

Resource Hacker

Resource Hacker has been designed to be the complete resource editing tool: compiling, viewing, decompiling and recompiling resources for both 32bit and 64bit Windows executables. Resource Hacker can open any type of Windows executable (*.exe; *.dll; *.scr; *.mui etc) so that individual resources can be added modified or deleted within these files. Resource Hacker can create and compile resource script files (*.rc), and edit resource files (*.res) too.

EditPlus

EditPlus is a text editor, HTML editor, PHP editor and Java editor for Windows. While it can serve as a good Notepad replacement, it also offers many powerful features for Web page authors and programmers. Syntax highlighting for HTML, PHP, Java, C/C++, CSS, ASP, Perl, JavaScript, VBScript, Python and Ruby on Rails. Seamless Web browser for previewing HTML pages, and FTP commands for uploading local files to FTP server. Other features include Hex Viewer, code folding, HTML toolbar, user tools, line number, ruler, URL highlighting, auto-completion, Cliptext, column selection, powerful search and replace, multiple undo/redo, spell checker, customizable keyboard shortcuts.

The EditPlus installer offers more options than most software, whatever the type, including three different installation directories and context menu association. When we first ran the program, we selected the Evaluate button to start our 30-day trial. EditPlus has what can be considered the classic utility layout: Menu bar above toolbar; sidebar on the left, tabbed for Directory and Cliptext, and offering tree view navigation; and a main window. The lower half of the Directory tab is a list of executables, scripts, templates, syntax files, and other items most users need most often. The Cliptext tab is equally handy; it displays ANSI characters, Control characters, CSS2 and CSS3, HTML 4.01 and 5, and XHTML 1.0. All are default settings, though, and can be configured through the User Tools Preferences and Groups, the program's View menu, and through the Windows menu and other settings and preferences. And that's just the start; for example, there's an extensive Zen Coding menu, text-to-speech and keystroke recording tools, and an impressive array of User Tools. If it seems like a lot, just do what EditPlus recommends: For Help, press F1, and the EditPlus Online Manual will appear. Despite the name, the manual is a fully indexed and searchable Windows Help file that seemingly explains every detail of this simple but powerful tool's extensive capabilities.

Simple? Yes, but EditPlus isn't for casual users who simply want a better Notepad; it's for those who want to build a better mousetrap. It did everything we asked of it, though we had to click through a nag screen in the evaluation trial. Despite the fact that the average Windows user will find most of what EditPlus does overwhelming, those who need what it has to offer can (and do) rely on it.

Programmer's File Editor (32-bit)

Programmer's File Editor is a 32-bit text editor primarily oriented toward program developers. Though it contains features such as the ability to run compilers and development applications, it also makes a good general-purpose editor for any other function. Features include multilevel undo, active buttons on a tear-off toolbar, automatic C-aware indenting, Unix file support, remappable keys, keyboard macros, and more.

While this file is still available, the developer is no longer updating or supporting this product.

CD Recovery Toolbox Free

CD Recovery Toolbox Free was developed for recovering damaged files CD, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-Ray and etc disks. You can use it to restore information lost as a result of some mechanical damage of the disk (scratches, chips, different spots on the surface) or as a result of incorrect recording.
Program can recover data that was considered lost. Tool scans any CD and DVD disks and finds files and folders located there. We should mention that there can be some information on the disk that cannot be recovered. Not all of the files and folders can be found - that depends on the degree and location of the damage. Therefore, tool finds the possible maximum amount of information. After that, it shows a list of all files and folders available for recovery. Now the user can select the files and folders to be recovered. Those specific objects will be recovered while the others will be ignored. The program recovers the maximum amount of information in the damaged file. This reduces the risk of data loss considerably. Program features: - Recovering information from any CD and DVD disks - Recovering files larger than 4 Gb - Detecting possible lack of free space on the hard disk for storing the recovered files Tool not only has a complete set of data recovery features, but is also user-friendly and convenient. The program interface is designed as a step-by step wizard, where the user has to perform a single action on each page of the wizard. The wizard makes the use of the tool very simple and convenient even for a beginner. As for the fact that practically every PC user needs a tool for recovering information from CD and DVD disks, there is no doubt about it. As you know, these storage media are the most widely spread nowadays. They are rather capacious, all-purpose, durable and, what's important, inexpensive. The problem is - they aren't very reliable.

Hex Workshop

The Hex Workshop Hex Editor by BreakPoint Software is a complete set of hexadecimal development tools for Microsoft Windows.
Hex Workshop integrates advanced binary editing and data interpretation and visualization with the ease and flexibility of a modern word processor. With the Hex Workshop, you can edit, cut, copy, paste, insert, fill and delete binary data. You can also work with data in its native structure and data types using our integrated structure viewer and smart bookmarks. Data editing is quick and easy with our extensive features that allow you to: jump to file or sector location, find or replace data, perform arithmetic, bitwise, and logical operations, binary compare files, generate checksums and digests, view character distributions and export data to RTF or HTML for publishing.

Hex Workshop includes a Sector Editor with disk imaging tools, a Base Converter for converting between hex, decimal and binary data types, a Hex Calculator supporting arithmetic and bitwise operations, an expression calculator supporting variables, conditionals, iteration and arithmetic and bitwise operations, and a data visualizer designed to help you visually identify patterns and interesting data from rendered images. Also included is our Data Inspector that allows you to quickly edit and view data in decimal, floating point or time and date representations.

UltraEdit

UltraEdit will allow you to write and edit for HEX, HTML, PHP and other programming language. There are many advanced features that include syntax highlighting/coloring for many languages, as well as code folding, brace matching, hex editing, style builder and column/block editing, text formatting, alignment, and centering are also featured. It supports files sizes 4GB and larger.