A tiny text editor called RetroPad recreates the full feature set of Windows XP Notepad in just a few thousand bytes. It is written entirely in x86 assembly language. The project comes from Dave W. Plummer, a developer known for his work on Windows.
A tiny clone with dark mode and line numbers
RetroPad aims to match Windows XP Notepad's functionality while keeping the file size extremely small. The initial build weighs 2,749 bytes. An optimized version drops to 2,686 bytes. Adding all keyboard shortcuts brings it to 2,794 bytes.
The editor includes optional line numbers and a dark mode. It supports every keyboard shortcut from the original Notepad. Plummer made the source code and executable available on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license.
For comparison, the modern Windows 11 Notepad is about 5 MB. That larger size comes from the UWP/WinUI framework and added features. RetroPad shows how much can be done with minimal code.
RetroPad was released on June 4, 2026. Anyone can download it from Plummer's GitHub repository. The project is open source.
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