What's new in Hex Workshop

Thank you for your interest in the newest Hex Workshop Hex Editor! Hex Workshop v6.7, our latest release, is considered a minor release and includes new features and enhancements.

Latest Version

Hex Workshop v6.7

Hex Workshop v6.7 features enhanced character set and code page support across the application, structure viewer enhancements, and other usability and stability improvements.

Hex Workshop v6.6

Hex Workshop v6.6 includes: wildcard hex searching, more versatile use of the find results windows (such as the bulk applying bookmarks and structures), defining search ranges, smart default selection when adding structures, structure library reloading, and greater export capabilities.

Wildcard Hex Searching

Hex Workshop now supports wildcard hex searching down to a 4-bit nibble. For example, the search string "FF?D" would match on 0xFF0D, 0xFF1D, 0xFF2D, etc. Wildcard searching is supported both in interactive search and Find All Instances.

Searching within Ranges

Users can now specify a range when searching a document. Range options include searching: the entire document, a selected region, or a specific offset and range.

Find Results Versatility

The Find Results Window now supports multiple selections. Users can select multiple findings for removal, highlighting, bulk bookmarking, and bulk structure application. Additionally, users can now copy the address or value from the Find Results Window.

Enhanced Export Capabilities

Bookmark results, structures listings, find results, comparison results, data inspector values, and checksum results are now exportable to tabbed text, CSV, HTML, XML or RTF by right clicking on the window and selecting "Export Contents" from the popup context menu.

Additionally, character distribution export capabalities were expanded to support XML, HTML, and RTF in addition to CSV and tabbed text.

Bug Fixes

Hex Workshop v6.6 includes the following bug fixes:

• Resolved issue where users where unable to copy and paste after pressing Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V in the editor without a selection.
• Resolved application start up issue when the sector editing feature is not included as part of installation.
• Copying using Ctrl+C keyboard shortcuts now work properly for all dockable windows within Hex Workshop.
• Character Distribution exports are now encoded using UTF-8 and are no longer truncated.
• Hex Workshop no longer faults when closing a document while Find All Instances is executing.
• A number of typos were fixed in the application error messages.
• Online help now displays properly from the Replace dialog.
• A number of memory leaks were identified and resolved.
• Default Font was changed from "Courier" to "Courier New".
• Hex Workshop now correctly calculates complex math equations according to the order of operations. Previously, Hex Workshop calculated "5-1-1+2" as 7 (5-(1-1)+2) instead of 5.

Hex Workshop v6.5

Hex Workshop v6.5 includes: the ability to define functions within structure libraries that automatically parse some file formats, an expression calculator for C-style expressions, and data manipulation, a data visualizer to help locate patterns with document data, a plug-in API, and many small enhancements.

64 bit Support

Hex Workshop is now fully 64-bit compatible. The installer will automatically install either 32-bit or 64-bit application software based on the target operating system.

Expression Calculator

A new Expression Calculator allows users to enter C/C++ style complex expressions including logical, bitwise, and arithmetic operations. Users can also read and modify document data. The expression calculator supports:

• Logical, bitwise, and arithmetic operations
• 8, 16, 32, and 64 bit signed/unsigned variables
• min, max, and byteflip functions
• Functions to read, modify, and insert data within the editor
• Functions to query and set the caret position and selection length
• Functions to add structures to the active document
• Conditionals: if, switch, and ? :
• Loops: while and for

Data Visualizer

A Data Visualizer feature allows users to view documents rendered as an image with custom palettes to help users identify patterns and interesting data within their documents.

Hex Workshop ships with three palettes and users can install custom palettes defined using the Microsoft(tm) .PAL file format. Users can zoom the height and width of the Data Visualizer bitmap independently or automatically match the palette to the editor view.

Structure Functions

Users can now add Functions to their Structure Definitions to help parse file formats and perform routine operations (e.g. updating a checksum). Structure Functions include a rich expression framework with variables, conditionals, and loops and can be executed from the Structure Viewer Toolbar.

Please see the ZIP File format structure library (<Installation Dir>\structures\zip-format.hsl) for an example of structure functions.

Plug-in API

Hex Workshop now includes a plug-in API that allows C/C++ developers to extend Hex Workshop's functionality through document manipulation. Developers can modify documents, update caret position and selection, and calculate checksums.

Hex Workshop ships with an example plug-in (with source code) that adds the following functionality to Hex Workshop:

• Fill Selection with random bytes
• Crop/Clip document to selection
• Copy Selection to new file

Please see the Hex Workshop Plug-in Documentation (<Installation Folder>\hwapi\docs) and Plug-in Examples (<Installation Folder>\hwapi\examples) for more information on our Plug-in framework.

All Changes

For a list of all changes, please see the "history.txt" file located in your installation directory or visit http://www.hexworkshop.com/version_history.html.