GitPad: Write your commits in Notepad
For many developers getting started with Git on Windows, one of the confusing features of Git is that the default editor for commit messages is Vim. While Vim is a…
For many developers getting started with Git on Windows, one of the confusing features of Git is that the default editor for commit messages is Vim. While Vim is a great editor, many folks would prefer something a bit more user-friendly.
For those folks, we’ve created a great getting-started resource, GitPad. This is a portable, single-EXE program that will configure Notepad as your default editor for commit messages and other features such as interactive rebase, which lets you reorder and combine commits before you send them to others.

If you’re interested, grab GitPad.exe from the Download page and run it, then restart your CMD / Bash shell window.
Written by
Related posts
Take your local GitHub sessions anywhere
Kick off work in VS Code or the CLI, finish it from your phone. Remote control for GitHub Copilot sessions is now generally available on github.com and GitHub Mobile.
GitHub availability report: April 2026
In April, we experienced 10 incidents that resulted in degraded performance across GitHub services.
GitHub Copilot individual plans: Introducing flex allotments in Pro and Pro+, and a new Max plan
Starting June 1, our lineup of individual plans will update based on your feedback.