Known Bugs

The list below describes all known bugs in all released versions of Hex Edit.  If possible a workaround is given so that you can continue using the software until the bug is fixed.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 4.0 ---------

1. None.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 3.6 ---------

1. The Enter key does not work in the Find dialog.  The Enter key should begin the find (or replace) operation.  The workaround is to click the Find (or Replace) button.  This is fixed in 4.0.
2. When dragging the scroll handle in the vertical scroll bar if you drag too far to the left or right (ie, horizontally instead of vertically) then the display is moved to the start of file.  The workaround is to avoid moving the mouse horizontally too much.  This is fixed in 4.0.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 3.5 ---------

1. Save All command prompted you to save each unsaved file which sort of defeated the purpose.  Fixed in 3.6.
2. Taking the address of an undefined field in a template returned zero (0) instead of generating an error.  Fixed in 3.6.
3. On some systems HexEdit can take more than a minute to startup.  This can be addressed by removing the "Font Tool" from the Format Toolbar.  Addressed in 3.6.   Fixed in 4.0.
4. The status bar message area is too wide on systems with a wide monitor when HexEdit is made narrow.  Fixed in 3.6.
5. When "personalised menus" are on some of the sub-menus show no items until all the items appear after 2 seconds.  3.6 has "default" items in all sub-menus.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 3.4 ---------

1. HexEdit 3.4 can fail to start up with an access violation error.  The workaround is to download Backgrnd.BMP and replace the copy in the directory where HexEdit is installed (typically C:\Program Files\HexEdit).  Also replace any local user copies (eg C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\ECSoftware\HexEdit or C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\ECSoftware\HexEdit).  Or you can use any .BMP file as long as it has 24-bit color.
   
   Technical discussion.  HexEdit uses Backgrnd.BMP to display a background image for the main HexEdit window.  The the top left pixel of the image is used to fill the rest of the window not covered by the image.  However, it is assumed that the Backgrnd.BMP file uses 24-bit color (ie each pixel has 3 bytes for red, green and blue).  The Backgrnd.BMP file distributed with HexEdit uses 8-bit (paletted) color and this means that the top-left pixel is not read correctly and the background color does not get initialized and could contain an invalid value.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 3.3 ---------

1. When displaying a template with design mode turned off, you can still change the template using drag-and-drop.  For example, you can drag a DATA field into a STRUCT.  You should only be allowed to change a template when design mode is on.  This is fixed HexEdit 3.4.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 3.2 ---------

1. Some minor bugs were reported (see HexEdit » Feedback » Bugs » Various 3.2 bugs  in the forums).  These have been fixed in 3.3.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 3.1 ---------

1. Under Windows 9X the installer does not create shortcuts (on Desktop, Start Menu etc) as requested.  The workaround is to create these manually by opening the folder where HexEdit is installed in Windows Explorer and right-dragging HexEdit.exe to the Desktop, Start Menu etc and selecting "Create Shortcut Here" from the popup menu.
2. If regional settings are changed to turn off "thousands separations" in the Control Panel then HexEdit will crash with a divide by zero error.  (This is very unlikely as the setting is never used by default and it is unlikely to be set intentionally.)  HexEdit uses this option to display decimal numbers nicely and suited to the current locale, for example in the decimal jump tool and the Calculator.
   The workaround is to turn on thousands separation for decimal numbers: Open the "Regional and Language Options" applet in the Control Panel and select the "Customize" button on the "Regional Options" page, then on the Number page within the "Customize Regional Options" dialog about half way down find the "Digit Grouping" drop-down list.  Choose any option (eg "123,456,789") apart from the top one ("123456789").

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 3.0 ---------

1. Invalid enum syntax (used in integer fields in templates) will cause HexEdit to crash.  An example is forgetting the closing brace '}'.  The workaround is to ensure you use valid syntax.  Also remember to save your template regularly.  Fixed on 3.1.
2. Modifying the contents of a string in data column of the tree pane for a string field with unspecified length and terminated by a character other than a nul byte causes the string to be incorrectly terminated with a nul byte if the length of the string is changed.  Fixed in 3.1.
3. Some uses of the calculator are not correctly played back in keystroke macros.  Specifically any calculation involving more than one binary operation (eg "1 + 2 + 3 =") will give the wrong answer when played back.  Note that the calculator works correctly when not used in keystroke macros and even during recording of macros.  Fixed in 3.1.
4. Seeding of macros is not recorded in macros.  This was an oversight that is fixed in 3.1.
5. The display of Unicode strings in templates does not work.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 2.6 ---------

1. In the Create New File dialog (File/New) entering a file size in the hex field has no effect (even though the decimal field is updated with the corresponding decimal value).  The last value entered in the decimal field or using the spin controls is used.  The workaround is after entering the hex value click each spin control once then the entered hex value will be used.  This is fixed in the version 3.0 (including the currently available beta 2).
2. Search occurrences (displayed with a green background in default colour scheme) that span a printed page are not shown at the top of the second page.  The part of the occurrence on the first page is printed correctly.  (Note: highlights etc are printed with the correct background even when they span a page.)  This was found in our final test testing of version 3.0 and occurs in 2.6 and beta 3.0 versions, but will be fixed in the final 3.0. version.
3. You can't save a selection to file (Edit/Write Selection and Edit/Append Selection) if the length of the selection is greater than 2^32 (4 GBytes).   The workaround is to save in smaller chunks.  This was found in our final test testing of version 3.0 and occurs in 2.6 and earlier versions, but will be fixed in the 3.0 due for release very soon.
4. When both areas (hex and character) are displayed and the cursor is in the hex area then right-clicking in the character area (to display the Character Area context menu) moves the current cursor position to the wrong place (start of next row).  [The current cursor position is moved when you right-click so that context menu items that depend on the current position work on the place you clicked, as would be expected.  Note that by default there are no character area context menu items that depend on the current position but since the menu is customisable you could add one.]
   This was discovered in final testing for 3.0 but exists in 2.6 and probably all versions back to when customisable context menus were added in 2.1.  The workaround is to click (left-click) in the character area before right-clicking on the desired byte.  It is fixed in version 3.0.
5. Yet another bug we found in testing 3.0 that exists in 2.6 (and probably earlier versions).  The problem is that the Escape key does not always abort searches/macros under Windows XP.  Something appears to be intercepting just the Escape key.  The workaround is to change focus to another program then back again and the Escape key will now magically work.  We haven't been able to track down what is causing this - in version 3.0 we will probably just let any key abort searches/macros (since you are then prompted if you really want to abort anyway).
6. A bug reported some time ago (thanks Dave) that has only just been fixed is that recording of more than one operation in the calculator is not recorded properly in keystroke macros.  (The calculator works fine but playback of recorded macros is wrong.)  Eg "@Cursor, *, 2, +, 100, ="  is played back like "@Cursor,  +, 100, =".  The workaround is to record the "=" button after every binary operation in the calculator as in "@Cursor, *, 2, =, +, 100, =".  This is fixed in 3.0.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 2.5 ---------

1. The precedence of unary operators (-, ~ and !) in expressions is wrong (lower even than comma operator).  This affects use of expressions in jump tools and designers of templates.  The workaround is to place brackets around expressions involving these operators.  For example, "-1-x" is treated as "-(1-x)" and should instead be written as "(-1)-x".  Not only does this affect the unary-minus operator but also the bitwise-not (~), the boolean-not (!) and unary-plus (not often used).  This if fixed in 2.6.
2. If you try to save a file with a different name but the new name is the name of an existing file you are prompted to overwrite the existing file.  If the existing file is opened in exclusive mode in another program HexEdit becomes confused and may display parts of both files.  The workaround is to not attempt to save to a file that is open elsewhere.
3. Replace All where the replacement text is of a different length to the find text does not work properly when replacing forwards.  If the replace text is longer, some replacements near the end of the file may be missed.  If the replace text is shorter HexEdit may hang.  This will be fixed in version 2.6 but the workaround is to replace each occurrence one at a time or use backwards replacement.
4. Using BookmarkAll (Find dialog) in a macro means that all the bookmarks set when the macro was recorded are re-set every time the macro is replayed.  (New bookmarks are also created for found occurrences of the search text during replay).  These extra spurious bookmarks overwrite the previous ones of the same name (if still present) and set them all to the current cursor position when the macro is run.  This will be fixed in the next release.
5. Creating an unnamed bookmark (Ctrl+F2 in default keymap) in a macro results in a bookmark of the same "unnamed" name being created when the macro is replayed.  If the bookmark with that name still exists from when the macro was created or last run, it is overwritten.  In HexEdit 2.6 this will be changed to create a distinct unnamed bookmark every time the macro is run.
6. Under Windows 95 when you start HexEdit 2.5 you will see a message like "missing export KERNEL32.DLL:GetFileAttributeExA".  If using Windows 95 you will have to run HexEdit 2.2 or 2.6.
7. When you jump to a bookmark the "accessed" time for the bookmark does not change in the Bookmarks dialog until the next time you run HexEdit.  Fixed in 2.6.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 2.2 ---------

1. Selecting context-sensitive help and then clicking on the background displays "Page not found" in the HTML help.  Fixed in 2.5 which brings up the help "Display" topic in the overview section.
2. The "undo changes" command undoes multiple file changes rather than just one if they are consecutive.  Ie if the last 2 or more operations changed the file without intervening window changes (eg. cursor movements) then "undo changes" will undo all these changes rather than just the last one.  This is fixed in 2.5 so that (a) if the last operation did not change the file then all operations up to but not including the last file change operation are undone else if (b) the last operation was a file change operation then only that (last) operation is undone.
3. Some users undo NT4 and Windows 98 were missing a Microsoft DLL called HHACTIVEX.DLL which is used by HTML Help to display browse sequences.  In some cases this triggered IE (which Windows uses for HTML Help files) to try to connect to a Microsoft web site to download this file, which in turn caused problems such as an attempt to connect to the Internet by modem or firewall errors.  This file is now distributed with version 2.5.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 2.1 ---------

1. The default font size (for both the ANSI and OEM default font) is lost when you close HexEdit.  That is if you go into the Defaults page of the Options dialog click the "Font" button and change the default font size to a value other than 12 when you run HexEdit again the default font size is set back to 12.  This was fixed in version 2.0 but has resurfaced.  Thanks to Jamie Kowinsky for reporting this bug.  The workaround is to change the registry setting at HKCU\Software\ECSoftware\HexEdit\Options\OpenFont (and OpenOEMFont) manually.  This problem has been avoided in version 2.2 due to changes in the storing of these settings.
2. If selecting backwards (eg. clicking on a byte and dragging the mouse towards the start of file) and the shadow cursor is enabled then the previous cursor byte still appears to be selected in the other (hex/character area).  This artefact disappears when that part of the screen is redrawn, for example, if you press Ctrl+L.  This bug has been fixed in version 2.2.
3. If the starting offset in the display (set with Alt-Enter or using the Offset control in the Window Options page) is not zero then the first line on the printed page (and in print preview) is missing and the start address is wrong.  To avoid this only print when using an offset of zero.  This bug has not been fixed in version 2.2.
4. In 64-bit mode the calculator would sometimes erroneously signal an overflow when multiplying 2 numbers.  (Somehow the abs() macro disappeared from Visual C++ and passing a 64 bit int to the "int abs(int)" function did not generate a warning.)  This is fixed in 2.2.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 2.0 ---------

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 1.2 ---------

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 1.1 ---------

1. Unicode characters are converted to ANSI before being displayed in the Unicode field of the "Character Properties" page (Windows 2000 and NT).  This means that some characters that do not convert to an ASCII/ANSI character are displayed as a question mark (?).  Others are converted to a similar character, eg., the character may lose any accents. If you need to view such a Unicode character you can use the standard Windows Character Map tool (under Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Character Map on the Start Menu) rather than HexEdit 1.1.  This is fixed in version 1.2.

--------- Known bugs in Hexedit 1.0 ---------