Version history

January 25, 2026. Version 2.8.6.

• Fixed: floating-point rounding errors in the replacement language.
• Fixed: when a newline was inserted after the extensions to skip in the options window, Aba crashed.
• Sorted the default list of file extensions to skip (thanks to Kat for the idea).
• Fixed: memory leaks.
• Fixed: Ctrl+C now works without triggering a sound in the viewer for large files.
• Fixed: incorrect UTF-8 characters were not always replaced with U+FFFD in the decodeUrl function.
• Ctrl+click in the text viewer to search for the word under cursor.
• Smaller executable files.

June 29, 2025. Version 2.8.5. Fixed searching in binary files (thanks to Duane).

May 4, 2025. Version 2.8.4.

• Fixed: the Replace button was enabled when the search pattern was empty and you switched between tabs.
• Fixed: cursor position in the viewer for broken UTF-8.
• Fixed: matching patterns like [^ -~\r\n\t] in the UTF-8 mode.
• Fixed: replacement errors were sometimes reported with an incorrect message.
• Improved UTF-16 detection for Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.
• Generate a transparent pixel image.
• Copy to clipboard when generating.

March 23, 2025. Version 2.8.3.

• Fixed AltGr + 1, 2, 3, 4 (many thanks to Helmet).
• A minor change in the French translation (thanks to Richard).
• Fixed: don't show the Convert tab when called from the Explorer context menu.
• Fixed Ctrl+A in the path edit box.
• Scrolling under mouse pointer in Windows Vista.
• Fixed incorrect mouse cursor under Wine (thanks to Andreas).
• Fixed dark mode under Wine.
• Fixed: after switching to dark mode, the Copy buttons in the Date/Time dialog had white borders.

March 15, 2025. Version 2.8.2.

• Fixed converting dates in the local timezone.
• Fixed caret position when resizing the window.

March 9, 2025. Version 2.8.1.

• The Convert tab: hex/dec conversion; convert Unix/JavaScript timestamps to dates and vice versa; minor UI improvements.
• Fixed: a long file name was cut in the combobox (many thanks to Duane).
• Fixed: when reading from disk failed, Aba crashed (mostly applicable to old HDDs and network drives).
• Fixed: roll back the file when replacement fails.
• Updated translations.
• Syntax highlighting for Scala and Go.
• Fixed: incorrect cursor position for Chinese characters.
• Fixed: mnemonics for hidden controls.
• Fixed: in some cases, a previous file name remained in the status bar when the search did not find anything.
• Fixed: excessive completion sound when the search pattern was changed.

Also fixed the following beta version bugs:

• Fixed: dark mode in the Options window (thanks to Duane).
• Select a line by clicking on the line number.
• Fixed: transparency (alpha channel) was not preserved when copying and pasting images.
• Fixed: on the Convert tab, the encoding was sometimes not detected correctly.
• Fixed: under Windows Vista, copying an image failed.

December 22, 2024. Version 2.8 (beta).

• The Convert tab for encoding/decoding Base64, percent encoding (URL encoding), and HTML entities.
• These encodings are now supported in the complex replacements, allowing you to automate encoding/decoding tasks.
• Line numbers in the text viewer (thanks to Yonatan).
• An option to disable the dot matches newline mode (the \s modifier; thanks to Helmet).
• An option to preserve the files' date/time (thanks to Duane).
• Ctrl+Backspace, Ctrl+Delete in the text boxes (thanks to Yonatan).
• Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, etc. to switch between the tabs.
• Select the default tab from command line using /S, /R, or /T.
• Fixed search in Docker images under Windows 10.
• Fixed: in the Undo  > In files field, the vertical scrollbar was displayed for long directory names.

June 30, 2024. Version 2.7.2. Search and replace on network shares (UNC paths) including WSL 2 Linux drives; increased the stack size.

June 1, 2024. Version 2.7.1. Fixed changing the number of subexpressions in the regular expression without changing the replacement; fixed combobox border in dark mode under Windows 10; improved the dark mode color scheme.

May 12, 2024. Version 2.7.

• Dark mode (thanks to Yonatan).
• A larger, more modern UI font (Segoe UI).
• Syntax highlight for Java, C#, SQL, and Pascal.
• Drag and drop into the main window.
• Autocomplete in the path combobox.
• Allow to use a file name in double quotes.
• Fixed: when searching in a large directory and changing the replacement, the search was stopped (many thanks to Craig).
• Fixed: buffer overflow when excluding additional file extensions.
• Fixed: rare buffer overflow when the regular expression contains too many parentheses.
• Fixed: the viewer displayed a wrong file when the sorting criteria was changed.
• Fixed: \(Aba.searchPath()) was incorrect when searching in a root directory.
• Fixed: diff was not displayed correctly when attempting to undo a modified file.
• Fixed: custom colors in Options  > Appearance were not saved correctly.
• Fixed: when switching from the Replace tab to the Search tab, the selected match could be out of view.
• Fixed: scrolling in the path combobox.
• Fixed: a wrong line number passed to the viewer/editor for files larger than 1 MB.
• Fixed: control layout in the Manage favorites window.
• Fixed: tab order in Options  > Appearance and initial focus in Options.
• Fixed: when the language was changed in the found window, the sorting criteria in the status bar was not translated.

January 28, 2024. Version 2.6.2. Exclude node_modules and some binary extensions (thanks to Stewart).

January 21, 2024. Version 2.6.1. Fixed non-blinking caret; wider tabs; new menu items to copy the replacements; fixed replacements sorting (thanks to Craig).

December 25, 2023. Version 2.6.

• Complex replacements.
• 64-bit version; less pages in the installer.
• Flash the taskbar button and the window title when a long operation is complete.
• Pressing the left arrow in the list moves selection to the file name, so you can quickly jump to the next/previous file.
• Basic support for emojis (ZWJ sequences are displayed as separate characters).
• Updated case mappings to Unicode 15.1.
• Fixed: replacement in large files.
• Fixed: batch replacement from the command line when no matches were found.

January 7, 2023. Version 2.5.6. Fixed box character displayed under Windows XP; fixed the installer for standard user; don't uninstall preferences by default; store language files in the program files folder; updated the French language file.

Versions 2.5.1-2.5.5 were released internally for Microsoft Store and never published.

December 11, 2022. Version 2.5.

• Search and replace from the command line.
• Skip subdirectories when searching.
• The new folder browsing dialog.
• Sorting the found files.
• Escape sequences inside the character lists.
• Fixed: very short files were sometimes erroneously detected as UTF-16.
• Fixed: the icons were pixelated at 125% scaling.
• Fixed: incorrect search in files slightly larger than 4 GB.
• Fixed: false positives when searching for the replacement character U+FFFD (many thanks to Joe).
• Digital signatures for all executable files.

October 10, 2021. Version 2.4.1. Fixed the \n escape sequence in the replacement string.

September 5, 2021. Version 2.4. Support for the paths longer than 260 characters. Improved bug reporting. Support for 4K displays; a larger installer window. Excluded more binary file extensions by default. Fixed the annoying sound when typing a regular expression. Added a French translation (thanks to Pouemes).

June 7, 2013. Version 2.3.3. Updated Italian translation by Angelo. Fixed replacement at the end of a file and running Aba from USB flash drive (many thanks to Cameron Edgell).

November 15, 2012. Version 2.3.2. Spanish translation by Roberto Porcar.

April 13, 2012. Version 2.3.1. Fixed case-sensitive file search.

March 8, 2012. Version 2.3. C++ and Python syntax highlight. Minimizing ?? and atomic groups in regular expressions. Fixed a crash when using minimizing repetitions, a display bug, and typos in the help file (thanks to Andy).

January 3, 2012. Version 2.2. Lookaround and braces in regular expressions. Fixed: the program crashed when processing invalid UTF-8 or when changing a long replacement; incorrect PHP syntax highlight and other minor bugs. Implemented \b \B \A \Z anchors and non-capturing groups. Updated German translation by Stefan Schuck.

November 18, 2011. Version 2.1.2. Improved date/time display. Fixed: command-line parameters were not interpreted; the program crashed when inserting text of a certain length.

November 11, 2011. Version 2.1. Fixed: date/time was displayed incorrectly; it was possible to find the same file twice, and five other bugs. Added File menu.

October 25, 2011. Version 2.0 final. Fixed tools setup (thanks to Massimiliano Tiraboschi). Fixed a memory bug (leading to a crash) and two bugs, which caused Aba to skip more files than necessary. Fixed results pane resizing. The match case mode was not saved in favorites; it's fixed now. Added an option to remove preferences and undo items to uninstaller. Removed Close button from the Replacement complete window. Corrected color scheme. The buttons are now wider to accommodate translated strings.

October 5, 2011. Version 2.0 beta 2. Fixed the problem with character classes (thanks to Kyle Alons). A file is now skipped if you don't have enough permissions to read it (thanks to JJS). Fixed updating status bar on the Undo tab. Aba's shortcut is installed only for the current user now. Corrected terminology in the help file.

September 28, 2011. Version 2.0 beta.

• Added syntax highlight for context viewer and for regular expressions.
• Implemented search history and favorites.
• Now you can undo a replacement if you have started another search or closed the program (undo information is saved in a dedicated folder).
• An editor or a viewer can be called for the selected file.
• When search or replacement is finished, the program notifies you by playing a sound.
• Visual styles and Windows 7 taskbar are now supported.
• When you edit the Replace with field, the search is not restarted (except when needed).
• Non-greedy matches are faster than they were in the previous version.

January 5, 2010. Version 1.3.2. Fixed context menu under 64-bit Windows (thanks to Massimiliano Tiraboschi).

August 17, 2009. Version 1.3.1. Keyboard interface improvements (thanks to Kyle Alons).

May 23, 2009. Version 1.3. Fixed copying text in a non-ASCII codepage, searching in a large number of files, and other bugs. Added support for non-greedy matches and backreferences in replacement text. Implemented copying results to clipboard, reading configuration data from the program directory, and saving main window position and size. Improved keyboard interface.

Jul 21, 2008. Version 1.2.3. Fixed searching in the root of a drive; fixed status bar size in large fonts scheme. Updated to Unicode 5.1 character database.

May 14, 2008. Version 1.2.2. Added German translation (thanks to Stefan Schuck).

Feb 7, 2008. The copy of this help file was published online.

Jan 7, 2008. Version 1.2.1. Bugfix release. Added Italian translation (many thanks to Angelo from Geminisoft).

Jan 1, 2008. Version 1.2 released. Selected file name and encoding are now displayed in the status bar. Besides, several bugs were fixed.

Nov 25, 2007. Version 1.1 released. Aba can now be integrated with Total Commander.

Oct 21, 2007. Version 1.0. Initial public release.