| Windows version | ST version |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 2.0.2 |
| XP | 3176 |
| Vista | ? |
| 7 | Current |
XP support was dropped in version 3.2, build 3200. The last stable build before that is 3176. A forum post by a dev suggests that dropping XP support for 3.2 was considered. Neither the announcement post nor changelog for build 3200 mentioned dropping XP support, despite the fact that build 3200 does not run on Windows XP (seems to exit immediately, no window is shown). Instead, the changelog for dev build 4050, the first dev build of ST4, mention that support for XP and Vista was dropped due to using Python 3.8, suggesting that the dropping of support in 3.2 was probably not intentional.
The update announcement of build 4200 stated that the minimum version of Windows supported will be Windows 10 some time in the future due to upgrading Python to 3.13, since Python dropped support for Windows 7 to 8.1 (although 8.1 might still be supported; see the linked page for details).
A forum thread and a page on the official website indicates that version 5.9.1 is the last to support Windows 98 and Me due to switching to VS2010. Maybe version 6.0 can still be run on Windows 98 and Me if built using VS2005.
Notepad++ uses Scintilla as its "text editor core". TextEditorsWiki has a page listing many editors that use Scintilla.
Notepad2e still supports XP in the project description, and in an issue comment in 2021 the author states that "support for XP is required".
Notepad4 specifically mentions the last build that still supports XP, and the latest build as of May 2026 still supports Vista.
Notepad3 requires Windows 8.1, and dropped XP support as early as 2017 according to the changelog.
Geany is famous on Linux but also available for Windows and Mac. I haven't tested compatibility with old versions of Windows (yet), but since versions since 2006 are still available for download, there's got to be something usable on old versions of Windows. 1.31 works on XP, 1.36 doesn't. 2.1 is 64bit.
A lot of editors are mentioned in this Hacker News thread.
EditPad Pro provides downloads of the last minor version for each major version, down to version 4.5.5 for Win95, for purchased users. I've seen some personal websites display a "Made with EditPad" banner.