Windows will no longer have an integrated basic rich-text-based word app.
Wordpad, as I recall, only existed because back in the Windows 95 days nobody had Office and couldn’t open Word documents.
As long as you have notepad, you’re good.
Notepad++
idc what people say mswrite was always > wordpad > word
WordPad 3d
What, they couldn’t add AI to it?
You wouldn’t add AI to a hand bag?! You wouldn’t add AI to a car?! You wouldn’t add AI to a baby?! You wouldn’t shoot a police man?! … and then steal his helmet?! … and then add AI to it?!
Sad to see such a great program go…
Wordpad always seemed like an annoying and unnecessary half-step between notepad and word to me.
its pretty neat if you dont have access to word, which is likely why they want to get rid of it
Doubtful. There are a myriad of free and FOSS options that are available right now to people of even limited technological skill. WordPad isn’t damaging their bottom line, but since it’s certainly not adding to it, there’s no point in maintaining it.
Rtf is far more lightweight than docx. It’s closer to markdown.
Can’t say I ever needed it in the 28 years I’ve been using Windows. I’m sure there are plenty who did, though.
I used it all the time to save text temporarily in. Note worked too, but i like the line break that WordPad had. It made reading and formatting easier.
Word is now so bloated that I fear using it. It’s nice to have Wordpad.
T
Ah. Are you trying to write about Theodore Roosevelt? Bing can help!
The
Here are 10,000 links to Theodore Roosevelt
The fox…
As if Clippy wasn’t doing that 25 years ago.
Yeah but Clippy was attractive. All those curves on display.
I liked having the minimal formatting options in WordPad without the bloat of Word.
Wordpad is also able to open large text files without having a stroke. RIP
This is my most common use. It is grrat for opening large log files on servers.
I read that like you’re Tony the Tiger. “It is GRRRRRREAT for opening large log files.”
The holy spirit help you with your servers that run on windows.
I’d also suppose this update won’t affect you, cuz you’re hopefully not running latest win11 on a server.
It was very niche, but it’s great for viewing docs or other light work on a system you don’t want to install a whole office suite onto.
You can still do that but it’s through word webview. Some people won’t like that option.
I don’t want to install “word webview” on a server in order to look at a large log file or peruse some XML.
You don’t, it’s a browser. You shouldn’t be doing anything interacting from a server anyways.
As others have said, fast opening quick notes with basic formatting.
For example, if I get an unexpected call I need to write down more than a call back number, Wordpad was my go to.
Well, at least when back when I used Windows regularly.
Microsoft’s business model has often gotten in the way of anything they do making sense.
Microsoft: We can’t spy on your usage when you use wordpad, use O365 instead! (guessing since MS recommends using O365 Word in its place).
TBH, I haven’t used wordpad since Windows 98. Not saying others don’t use it, but Notepad++ and a myriad of other options are better anyway.
If they just wanted telemetry they’d just “enhance it” they way they did with the monstrosity that is new Paint or AI assisted notepad.
AI assisted Notepad is a thing?
Yeah, though I don’t know if it graduated beta, because I don’t use windows 11.
Does Notepad++ allow rich text?
On a default install on NP++ you can only save as rtf, but there are addable plugins that give some rtf functionality. So as a direct answer, no, it doesn’t, but it can.
Meh. I’m not sold enough.
vim with global ls_colors and dircolors kinda user huh? Nothing wrong with that.
TBH, I haven’t used wordpad since Windows 98
which is why they’re getting rid of it
it would probably be pretty easy to just patch telemetry into it, except nobody uses it because why would you
And so the bloodline of windows write is extinguished
This is kinda sad that if you want to do even basic word processing with Microsoft software, your only option now is an ongoing subscription to do so.
…your only option now is an ongoing subscription to do so.
You can also still buy the Office package without subscription. The latest release is from 2024 and 2021 before that. But of course its expensive for basic stuff.
Oh I didn’t actually realise that, I thought they’d just gone full Adobe with office 365
Oh get fucked Microsoft. Now I have to use notepad when I put the tape measure on the spacebar so teams doesn’t change my status to idle.
Just select yourself to chat with in Teams (top option in contacts) and put a battery on the delete key like a professional…
I’m a frequent host and participant of a meeting for one.
I like the cut of your jib. I’ll put a word in for you with the Bobs.
MouseJiggle.exe
I’ve used windows since the 90s. Not once have I intentionally used WordPad.
It did open by default for some file types for a long time (.doc), usually mangling the content cause it couldn’t actually handle them properly. I think it was also the default for .txt files at some point, causing many curse words when editing plain text files, that invisibly weren’t so plain any more after… Programs expecting a configuration fine really don’t like that sort of thing.
So: I’m very ok with this. Just install LibreOffice or something if you needa Word-like experience. Install notepad++ for anything “plain”.
More brilliant decisions from Satya Nadella. 🙄
It is an obvious maneuver, to be fair to Nadella. Not only will this push more over to subscription based word processing, but it also closes one of the easier avenues useds have to avoid aggregated data farming. Their next move should be to turn Notepad into a complementary tiered program:
Tier 1) Use at no charge, but your data pays for it instead.
Tier 2) Notepad becomes an extra pay to unlock feature of 365.
And they’re making notepad pretty unusable also
I’ve had no real issuses with the new notepad.
I just hope that they don’t continue adding too much stuff to it and it becomes the new wordpad and we don’t have a basic box to put text anymore.
One of my biggest problems with the new notepad is you’ve lost using it as a forgettable scratch space. Anything you put in the new Notepad now gets written to your drive, even if you don’t save the file.
You can’t type or copy/paste anything sensitive into notepad anymore as a temporary space even if you don’t save the file.
There is a setting to start with a fresh window. But rereading the text kinda concerns me. Starting a new session is when the previous one is discarded?
Here’s a great video going down to the hex level for how to extract the cleartext out of unsaved Notepad files using the temp cache files: video
win + R
copy it into run box
Sure, and I do that too, but that a problem: you’re limited to only a single line of text about 200 characters long
i was using it as a screen whenever i was leaving my computer unattended, when i used windows.
Sad but expected. Most people are using either office or one of the free alternatives by now.
