Windows desktop · local files · free and open source

A markdown editor that does almost nothing.

Open a .md file, edit it, save it. It reads and writes the files already on your disk — nothing is imported, indexed, or copied anywhere.

Download for Windows View the source

An .exe from GitHub Releases — not an app store.

The editor with a file tree on the left listing folders and .md files, and a markdown document open for editing on the right.

Why it exists

If you like Obsidian or Notion, that's great. But sometimes you just want to edit a markdown file without an app trying to manage your notes for you.

There's no vault to create and nothing to import. It opens folders you already have, and if you uninstall it tomorrow every file is exactly where you left it.

The list below is the whole product. Free, open source, and not trying to grow into anything bigger.

no accounts
no cloud
no sync
no database
no workspaces
no telemetry

What it does

Browse the real filesystem: A sidebar tree over your actual folders — lazy loading, navigate up, and jump between drives (C:, D:, …).
Multi-tab editing: Many files open at once, each tracking its own unsaved changes. Middle-click or × to close.
Live preview: Toggle between the monospace editor and rendered markdown.
Drag and drop: Drop a .md file from Explorer onto the window to open it. Drag files and folders around the sidebar to move them on disk.
Create, rename, delete: Inline, from the sidebar's right-click menu. Deleting asks first.
Keyboard-first: Ctrl+S save · Ctrl+N new · Ctrl+O open · Ctrl+W close tab · Tab inserts two spaces.
Warns before you lose work: Closing the window with unsaved changes prompts you instead of quitting.
Light and dark: Follows your OS theme automatically.

Live preview

Write it plain. Read it rendered.

Edit in a plain monospace pane, then toggle to see it formatted. One view at a time — no split-pane bookkeeping, no export step.

The same document shown as rendered markdown, with headings, a table and a code block.

Privacy

It doesn't track you. It can't.

No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reports, no update pings, no unique ID, no "anonymous usage data". The app makes no network requests at all — it ships without an HTTP client, so there is nothing for it to phone home with.

Nothing you write, and nothing about how you use it, leaves your machine. We think software that watches the people using it is a bad idea, so this one was built without the ability.

You don't have to take our word for any of that. It's open source — go read it.

Download

Download for Windows

Both artifacts need the WebView2 runtime, which ships with Windows 10 and 11. The installer pulls it in automatically if it's missing.

Open GitHub Releases

github.com/algusaem/simplest-markdown/releases

Simplest.Markdown_<version>_x64-setup.exe preferred

Installer. Adds a Start-menu entry and an uninstaller.

simplest-markdown.exe

Portable single executable. Nothing to install, nothing left behind.