# Editing in the Terminal: edit

edit opens a text file in Microsoft Edit, an editor inside the terminal where the arrow keys and the mouse both work, Ctrl+S saves and Ctrl+Q quits, and notepad and code open the same file in a window.

Novice · PowerShell · Operating System · Updated November 10, 2026

## After this lesson you can

- Open a file with edit, change a line, save it with Ctrl+S and quit with Ctrl+Q
- Choose the right tool for a file job, such as edit to change a line, Set-Content or Add-Content to write, or Remove-Item to delete

## Key takeaways

- `edit` and a file's name open the file in Microsoft Edit, a small text editor that runs inside the terminal and comes with Windows 11.
- Move with the arrow keys or the mouse, type to change the text, press Ctrl+S to save and Ctrl+Q to quit.
- `notepad` opens the same file in Notepad's window, and `code` in VS Code, if you have it.
- Use an editor to change part of a line. Set-Content and Add-Content write whole lines.

You've moved, and your smart speaker still thinks you live at the old address, so its weather and its "how long to get to work" are for the wrong street. The fix is one line in its settings file. This happens with computers all the time: a tutorial says "change the port in `settings.json`", an app's settings live in a `.ini` file, a project's `README.md` has a typo. `Set-Content` would rewrite the whole file, and `Add-Content` only adds to the end. To change part of one line and keep the rest, you open the file in a **text editor**, a program for changing text files.

This lesson works in the `moving-day` folder from *Deleting Safely: Remove-Item, -WhatIf and -Confirm*. Make the speaker's settings file there with the command from *Writing to Files: Set-Content, Add-Content and >*:

```powershell
Set-Location ~\terminal-practice\moving-day
Set-Content speaker-settings.ini '[speaker]', 'name=Living Room', 'volume=40', 'address=12 Elm Street, Apt 3'
Get-Content speaker-settings.ini
```

```text
[speaker]
name=Living Room
volume=40
address=12 Elm Street, Apt 3
```

## Open the file: edit

`edit` opens **Microsoft Edit**, a small text editor that runs right inside the terminal and comes with current versions of Windows 11:

```powershell
edit speaker-settings.ini
```

The file fills the window. A menu bar runs along the top (File, Edit, View, Help), the file's lines sit in the middle, and a status bar along the bottom shows where the cursor is.

![Microsoft Edit in Windows Terminal with speaker-settings.ini open: the menu bar at the top, the file's four lines in the middle, and the status bar at the bottom](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/TODO)

If PowerShell says the term `edit` isn't recognized, your Windows doesn't have it yet. Install it once with `winget install Microsoft.Edit`, then open a new terminal tab.

## Change, save, quit

Microsoft Edit works the way most Windows apps do, so many of the keys are ones you already know:

- **Move:** the arrow keys, or click where you want the cursor. The mouse works here, even inside a terminal.
- **Change:** go to the end of the `address=` line, press Backspace until the old address is gone, and type `48 Maple Avenue, Apt 4B`.
- **Save:** **Ctrl+S**.
- **Quit:** **Ctrl+Q**, which takes you back to the prompt.

If you quit before saving, Edit asks whether you want to save the changes you made, so a change is never lost or saved by surprise. Ctrl+Z undoes your last change, Ctrl+F finds a word in a long file, and every command is also in the menus, with its keys beside it.

Back at the prompt, check the file:

```powershell
Get-Content speaker-settings.ini
```

```text
[speaker]
name=Living Room
volume=40
address=48 Maple Avenue, Apt 4B
```

One line changed, and the other three are exactly as they were. One more trick: `edit speaker-settings.ini:4` opens the file with the cursor already on line 4, handy when an error message names a line.

## Other doors: notepad and code

`edit` is one way in. Two others open the same file in a window of its own:

- `notepad speaker-settings.ini` opens it in **Notepad**, the editor every Windows PC has. The prompt comes back at once, and the file stays open in its window.
- `code speaker-settings.ini` opens it in **VS Code**, a free editor made for code, if you've installed it. *Writing Scripts in VS Code*, in Module 6, sets it up.

Which door you use is up to you. `edit` is quickest when you're already in the terminal, and it's the one that works on a computer you reach with no screen of its own. Notepad suits a quick change with the mouse, and VS Code suits a project with many files.

As a rule of thumb for any file job: to change part of a line, open an editor; to write or add whole lines, use `Set-Content` or `Add-Content`; to read, use `Get-Content`; to throw a file out, use `Remove-Item`, with `-WhatIf` first.

**On a Mac or Linux**, Microsoft Edit needs installing before `edit` works, and `notepad` is Windows only. Windows PowerShell 5.1 opens all three editors the same way.

## Check yourself

2 questions to try on the lesson page.

## So what

Settings files, notes and scripts are all text, and sooner or later one of them needs a one-line fix. Now you can make it without leaving the terminal, or open a window when that suits you better.

## Key terms

- [Microsoft Edit](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/microsoft-edit)
- [Text Editor](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/text-editor)
- [VS Code](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/vs-code)

## Cheat sheets

- [Editing in the Terminal: edit](https://www.ask-codey.com/cheat-sheets/powershell-editing-with-edit-cheat-sheet)

## Related

- [Writing to Files: Set-Content, Add-Content and >](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-writing-to-files)
- [Reading Files: Get-Content](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-reading-files)

Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-editing-with-edit