From BleepingComputer: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows after 28 years

[britechguy]

Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows after 28 years

1. You mean it's been under development? Who knew?

2. Deprecated, just like Backup and Restore (Windows 7)? Well, if it takes as many years, and counting, to remove it . . .

 

[Sky-Knight]

Good riddance honestly. The app was always wonky, and usually resulted in more problems than it has ever been worth.

MS Word is much better, but obviously paid option. Then we have LibreOffice and others for the freebies, which are also objectively better than WordPad ever was. It really has no place anymore.

 

[britechguy]

Good riddance honestly.

I concur. But my main point was that the "riddance" is likely a very long way off. There are may things that Microsoft deprecates but that hang around for years afterward.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I concur. But my main point was that the "riddance" is likely a very long way off. There are may things that Microsoft deprecates but that hang around for years afterward.

In this case I'm not so sure. MS has been punting more and more of the OS and the stock tools it historically shipped with to the Microsoft Store, and then once there... they just go away.

Given the announcement, I'd say it'll drop with the next feature release of Windows 11 at the earliest. To be clear, that's the 2024 feature release.

I could make a strong argument for this change to happen with the Windows 10 termination in 2025 as well. But I really cannot see them waiting much longer, there are so many changes int he pipeline for both of those two years! And punting old code is a priority, as it shrinks the available code to exploit on the platform.

But in terms of history you aren't wrong. I guess we'll see.

 

[DRPCNZ]

BUT it loads so fast and works really well well I want to test s barcode reader is working properly

 

[HCHTech]

BUT it loads so fast and works really well well I want to test s barcode reader is working properly

Right - uses like this is the only time I've ever used it - mostly because the client machine I'm working on doesn't have and Office app.

 

[Diggs]

Wordpad is still included with Win10? Who would have thought. (chuckles.....) (I either use Notepad or jump to a word processor. Haven't thought about Wordpad in many years - heh!

 

[Sky-Knight]

BUT it loads so fast and works really well well I want to test s barcode reader is working properly

What you don't use notepad like a normal person?

 

[britechguy]

Wordpad is still included with Win10?

And Windows 11. I, like you, fall into the, "Who would have thought?," camp. The main reason I'm kinda-sorta aware of WordPad somewhere in the back of my mind is it comes up occasionally on blind and low-vision centric technology groups, mostly in the context of using it for troubleshooting in some way.

I either use Notepad for true plain text or a word processor (currently Word 365) for formatted text documents. notepad++ for code.

 

[Metanis]

And Windows 11. I, like you, fall into the, "Who would have thought?," camp. The main reason I'm kinda-sorta aware of WordPad somewhere in the back of my mind is it comes up occasionally on blind and low-vision centric technology groups, mostly in the context of using it for troubleshooting in some way.

I either use Notepad for true plain text or a word processor (currently Word 365) for formatted text documents. notepad++ for code.

I've made the switch to VSCode from Notepad++. I absolutely hate VSCode but it's what all the "in" kids are using. It's really funny in a way, because VSCode really pushes you to learn a myriad of keyboard shortcuts. So 40 years in all this graphical stuff is too hard if you want to be a "real" coder!

 

[britechguy]

@Metanis

"Everything old is new again."

I still find it amazing to use things such as notepad++ and similar that actually color code syntax and catch errors for you. My last period of real, full-time coding was in the 1990s, mostly in C and a couple of RDBMS languages, using vi under Unix.

But being a coder, or at least if you're a good, natural coder, is much like riding a bike. My main issue these days is dealing with what I consider to be the grossly excessive verbosity of a great many languages I've had to teach myself. The syntax of PowerShell is an abomination as are the syntaxes of many object-oriented languages. They obscure what's being done rather than revealing it.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Notepad++ is a very solid app, but I made the jump to VSCode ages ago because it's a dark mode interface I have a vastly easier time to read from, support automatic color coding for a VASTLY larger language set... And it has plugins to do even more.

Again I love Notepad++, it's just been beaten on every level.

 

[britechguy]

because it's a dark mode interface

Just FYI, notepad++ has a dark mode interface if you want to use it. The options are light, dark, or follow Windows.

 

[DRPCNZ]

What you don't use notepad like a normal person?

For some reason Word is easy to type than note for me I would say bring back vi sometime I miss my SCO Unix days

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'll be one of the ones that says "bummer" to this news.
Honestly......I fired up Wordpad for people a lot...when they say they need to have Word...but..don't want to pay for it, I show them Wordpad..and what it can do, and they're happy. It does at least 75% or more of what people need a text editor to do. Yeah, doesn't support the "fancy" features of Word...but 99.999999% of the time most people don't need the "fancy" features of word...they're just typing up...like the name says..."word documents". Letters, characters, sentences, paragraphs. And Wordpad can open and save .DOC files (DOCX files too)...as long as they didn't get created with fancier forms that you need Word for (like graphics).

 

[Markverhyden]

I concur. But my main point was that the "riddance" is likely a very long way off. There are may things that Microsoft deprecates but that hang around for years afterward.

Like Internet Explorer......

 

[Markverhyden]

Just FYI, notepad++ has a dark mode interface if you want to use it. The options are light, dark, or follow Windows.

The thing I like most about notepad++ is it's continuously saving the editor buffer. No worries about forgetting to save, machine crashes, etc, etc.

 

[Blues]

Word pad had rare but occasional uses the notepad and Word didn't do well with but usually apps like Notepad++ worked and if you needed word but not for the Word price LibreOffice was a good option mostly just used it on rare instances on client systems where I avoid installing apps not requested.