Microsoft dumps AI into Notepad as 'Copilot all the things' mania takes hold in Redmond
- Reference: 1748017659
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/05/23/microsoft_ai_notepad/
- Source link:
The [1]updates come in the same week that Redmond released a [2]snappy, lightweight command line editor that is the antithesis of what the venerable Notepad has become.
Notepad's Write feature requires users to sign in with their Microsoft account, select where they want the new content to go (or make a selection for reference), and then choose Write from the Copilot menu to prompt the AI to generate text, which you can review and insert into Notepad if it fits your needs.
[3]
The output can then be kept, discarded, or refined with follow-up prompts. Copilot can be disabled in the app's settings.
[4]
[5]
It is unclear who asked for this, or why Microsoft thinks users of a once-simple text editor require this assistance. If it were necessary, then surely an app like [6]WordPad would have been a better place (if Microsoft hadn't killed it off, presumably so it could better focus on bloating Notepad).
At least with Outlook in Microsoft 365, the idea of letting an AI write emails for you could appeal to overly busy middle managers or people who struggle to come up with written communication. But Notepad is primarily used for quick and dirty tasks like jotting down ideas or pasting fussily formatted files into plain text to make the actual text more easily portable.
[7]
Microsoft's AI ambitions for Notepad [8]first appeared just over a year ago. In November 2024, a " [9]Rewrite " function turned up, with options to tweak text based on the tone, format, and length requirements of a user.
[10]Microsoft adds Grok – the most unhinged chatbot – to Azure AI buffet
[11]Microsoft rolls out AI-enabled Notepad to Windows Insiders
[12]Microsoft wants us to believe AI will crack practical fusion power, driving future AI
[13]30 percent of some Microsoft code now written by AI - especially the new stuff
Notepad dates back to Windows 1.0 and remained more or less unchanged for decades, with only an [14]occasional fix . In recent years, however, it has undergone multiple tweaks and enhancements at the hands of Microsoft, culminating in the new generative AI features.
Microsoft is adding more AI features to another inbox tool – Paint. After giving the aging tool a [15]reprieve in 2019, Microsoft wasted no time giving it a [16]makeover . The latest changes come from Microsoft's AI stable and include a sticker generator (type what you want, and a set of stickers will be generated from the prompt) and a smart selection tool for isolating and editing individual elements in an image.
For users who can't keep up with all the new features, there's also a new "welcome experience."
It is difficult to see many of these updates as much more than additions for the sake of adding them. We doubt that users were clamoring for AI in Notepad in the same way that they might be demanding Microsoft stops shipping updates that bork the operating system. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2025/05/22/paint-snipping-tool-and-notepad-updates-with-new-features-begin-rolling-out-to-windows-insiders/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/20/microsoft_edit_revived/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aDDv_Fs9Y8CBTdjUR5jdLAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aDDv_Fs9Y8CBTdjUR5jdLAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aDDv_Fs9Y8CBTdjUR5jdLAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/05/wordpad_off_windows_11/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aDDv_Fs9Y8CBTdjUR5jdLAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/11/microsoft_notepad_ai/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/07/microsoft_ai_notepad_paint/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/19/microsoft_adds_xais_grok_3/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/07/microsoft_ai_notepad_paint/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/09/microsoft_ai_fusion/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/30/microsoft_meta_autocoding/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2018/05/08/windows_notepad_unix_linux_macos/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2019/04/24/microsoft_paint_windows_10_1903/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/19/windows_11_the_pain_of/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Smells of desperation
Paying for it? You're paying for it already. This is enhanced advertising led engagement farming. Eliza with a mission to hijack your attention. Human programming. Opium for the people.
Re: Smells of desperation
Desperation indeed. But paying for it? No I am not! I went Linux years ago.
Mad
The AI mAnIa has got out of control. At this rate you'll need a minimum of 8TB storage just to install the bloated OS. Just keep the interns away from it, FFS.
Re: Mad
In Windows 14, you'll need a minimum of 4TB of memory in order to run the text editor. And with only 4TB you'll be swapping like mad so 8TB will be the practical minimum. Most people will want 16 or 32 TB. Storage? 800TB. And you'll use all of it.
Also, it'll take you a minimum of two hours to write anything because the AI assistant will constantly argue about your grammar, spelling, and content.
So sick of AI already. That horrid Copilot icon has become a horrid thing that I will go to great lengths to euthanise. I don't want it, and I definitely don't want it thrust in my face.
It makes me happy
That I couldn't upgrade my mom's PC to Windows 11 even if I wanted to, so it'll remain on Windows 10 forever. She doesn't do any banking or investment stuff on it at all (doesn't trust computers with money at all) so if it is p0wned I'll just reinstall it with no harm done.
I'd hate to have to keep swatting at crap like Copilot trying to get in her face and confusing her. She already has enough difficulty with anything that impacts her rote memorized set of steps to accomplish the things she uses her PC for that I don't need the Terminator version of Clippy popping up and trying to help her write an email or point out a missed move in Solitaire!
At least Notepad++ is still available
I am so glad I am finally retired and so don't have to suffer corporate (coprolite?) Windows any more.
Re: At least Notepad++ is still available
In development since [1]2003 , and Borkzilla still hasn't been able to make its own version half as useable or a tenth as quick.
Also, NPP can load large files without you needing to go brew a pot of coffee.
AI isn't going to help you here, Nadella.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notepad%2B%2B
text editor
Does it handle large files? Does it handle various character encodings? Who cares about dorky crap like that, AI gibberish generation is where it's at!!!
Re: text editor
My guess is that as soon as you try and open an enormous multi-line text file, it will fall over in a heap as copilot tries to scrape all the information in the gigabyte txt file
My copilot shopping list...
Banamanas
Bodge rool
Mink
Provided it doesn't get into vi (nvi) I'll be OK.
Sticking an AI interface in every application doesn't make a lot of sense
There is no way to save the context - all that work is lost.
A good AI interface for MS windows would have a single entry point to bring up a window with a menu which included a list of tasks/contexts in progress or archived, which would also be searchable. If the user wanted help in writing something they could select new task, and interact with the AI. An application could be invoked, perhaps, but it's no challenge for the user to cut and paste
If they need to go back to it later for revision they could reload the task which includes all the context including the written text. Or they could ask the AI to interactively help find and load the relevant task and its context.
Not to mention, there are tasks where AI's "help" is not wanted or desired - thanks but no thanks - don't become the nosy relative that nobody wants to be around.
If MS want's to increase AI use there is good parable to reference - "The North Wind and The Sun (Fables of Aesop)"
Enshitification on steroids
FUCK! Just FUCK!!!
Straight into 365/SharePoint after a decade of pure Linux, and before that 2000 series. Deep shock.
They hate Notepad with a passion and make SharePoint play badly with it to pressure you onto the unexportable OneNote.
Yet my indispensible utilities remain Paint and Notepad. We all would appreciate a couple of extra features here and there - multiple undo for Notepad is one, an 8-bit palette for Paint is another. But AI Gobshite all over them? Holy FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just more evidence (as if we needed it)
of TWO things.
1) MS Has lost the Plot (Again)
2) This AI enshitification of everything has gone way too far.
AI has its place (in the shitter) and that is not inside a basic text editor.
As a Crime Writer I am waiting for publishers to start rejecting manuscripts for the inclusion of AI generated content without declaring it.
Yep Notepad (notepad++ if I am allowed) and paint get me most of the way there, VS Code if I'm knee deep in tracking a flow through multiple developers each using their own preferred scripting language or something. Yeah, I know, I got parachuted into this mess.
There's nothing a quick, lightweight editor needs more
than an embedded LLM.
People take screenshots and throw it into MS Paint to redline the issue rather than GIMP or Photoshop because Paint is lightweight and can do the job in a few seconds.
Likewise, software developers edit 30 line text files in Notepad rather than Visual Studio because it's quick and efficient.
Notepad has no benefits over the likes of Notepad++ or any other freeware/open source editor other than the fact that it is lightweight and blazingly fast. No one uses it for coding or writing long works, there are better tools for that.
Notepad's sole use case is quick and dirty changes to small files. By embedded a gargantuan LLM into it, it invalidates Notepad's sole use case. It Notepad+LLM is going to be as bulky (if note moreso) than Notepad++, why would anyone use it?
A.I. is so over-hyped it is dang ridiculous.
Had to upgrade to Windows 11, found that Notepad.exe was not the same ol' friend I've used for over 30yrs, so I REMOVED it, and now it went back to the older Non-AI version, but that wasn't enough for me, so to punish Microsoft for their lunacy, I downloaded and installed Notepad ++
Smells of desperation
Nobody wants it, so they're adding it everywhere in the hope of tricking people into accidentally paying for it.