About Microsoft Edit

Question

Hello,

I noticed a new version of Microsoft Edit is released from Github 4 months ago; is it possible to overwrite the OS-level version in Windows 11?

Thanks very much 😊

Answer 1

Hi Wilson T,

I know updating or installing Microsoft Edit can feel confusing, especially when Microsoft hasn't specified whether GitHub releases overwrite Windows built-in version. I haven't found any official answers on this yet, however, based on this article: Edit command line text editor | Microsoft Learn, here's what we do know:

1. Microsoft Edit is now included with Windows 11 (starting from 25H2 release), while also distributed as an open-source project through GitHub.
2. Microsoft supports installing Edit separately through WinGet (winget install Microsoft.Edit) or by downloading releases from GitHub.

Based on those points, we can interpret that Windows may include one version while newer releases can be published to GitHub independently. So logically, installing the newer version from GitHub will just replace the Windows-supplied executable, not making a side-by-side application, which means the answer for your question is Yes.

That said, since Microsoft does not officially state that level of implementation detail, you would need to consult in the Edit community or/and test for yourself.

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