Microsoft pulls the plug on WordPad, the world's least favorite text editor
- Reference: 1704461585
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/05/wordpad_off_windows_11/
- Source link:
[1]We knew it was coming , but the [2]reality has arrived in the Canary Channel. A clean install will omit WordPad as of build 26020 of Windows 11. At an undisclosed point, the application will be removed on upgrade.
The People app is also being axed, as expected, and the Steps Recorder won't be getting any more updates and will instead show a banner encouraging users to try something else. Perhaps ClipChamp?
[3]
WordPad was always an odd tool. Certainly not something one would want to edit text with, but not much of a word processor either. It feels like a throwback to a previous era. However, it was also free, came with Windows, and didn't insist on having a connection to the internet for it to work.
[4]
[5]
Plenty of alternatives are available, but it was a handy thing to have around. Now on its way out, it was at least spared the indignity of having Microsoft's AI Copilot thrust into it.
And then there are the seemingly endless tweaks and changes being made to Notepad, a perfectly acceptable editor that managed to last decades before Microsoft decided [6]it needed a bit of polish . WordPad's fate is instead a swift termination.
[7]It's 2023 and Microsoft WordPad can be exploited to hijack vulnerable systems
[8]Microsoft says VBScript will be ripped from Windows in future release
[9]You patched yet? Years-old Microsoft security holes still hot targets for cyber-crooks
[10]Farewell WordPad, we hardly knew ye
Microsoft lists the removal in the "Changes and Improvements" section of its announcement, a section that does not include the [11]Start menu changes the Windows boss said the team would be pushed to implement.
As well as accessibility improvements – notably voice access over multiple displays – the build includes functionality to indicate when the energy saver is on and added the ability to pause and resume print jobs to permit printer maintenance mid-job. Microsoft plans to add the ability to rename a printer directly from the same settings screen too. [12]Assuming it hasn't already accidentally done the renaming itself .
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There are also improvements to Windows Share and the ability to give a device a friendlier name in Nearby Sharing, but it is the demise of WordPad once and for all that makes this build notable. Once upgrades start removing the doomed app, that will be that. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/04/microsoft_deprecates_wordpad/
[2] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2024/01/03/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-26020-canary-channel/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZZg1uREIf6kVi0iAxoPBUQAAAAM&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/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZg1uREIf6kVi0iAxoPBUQAAAAM&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/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZZg1uREIf6kVi0iAxoPBUQAAAAM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/06/notepad_update/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/october_2023_patch_tuesday/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/microsoft_says_vbscript_will_be/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/05/qualys_top_20_vulnerabilities/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/04/microsoft_deprecates_wordpad/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/03/windows_11_start_great_again/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/hp_smartapp_microsoft_issue/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZg1uREIf6kVi0iAxoPBUQAAAAM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Wordpad got me out of so many jams, this is sad news.
That said I'm sure there'll be a LibrePad port somewhere and I'm there for it.
To computer users who didn't have access to Microsoft Office or Microsoft Works, WordPad got us through secondary school when projects needed to be typed up.
I wouldn't use it now, but in a jam it did the job. So I'll raise a glass to it!
It was Write on Windows 2 back when I was at secondary school. Obviously I’m showing my age now.
The school’s server had a hard drive with one whole megabyte of storage.
I had a Windows 3.11 machine in Year 6 that I would write stuff up on Write. When I got to secondary school we got a brand spanking new eMachines with Windows ME on it. I was so annoyed when I couldn't find Write, but became increasingly impressed with WordPad when I had to use it.
I see pictures of Write from time to time, never fails to make me smile.
EOL characters
Wordpad had the advantage that it managed with Unix newlines, so if you got a file from Unix/Linux, you could view it without having find unix2dos somewhere to fix it. I think that was my main use of it over the years.
It's a passably usable word processor without any of the bells and whistles, but it's certainly capable of creating some simple documents with basic formatting. Hardly surprising they're ditching it, probably to encourage use of O365.
Re: EOL characters
This.
I used to use it on Windows 3.1x when I had files on a floppy created with RISC OS that Notepad completely choked on.
I have a dim recollection that Notepad might also have choked on files over ~64K.
Wordpad, on the other hand, didn't choke, supported basic formatting, and when your output was the sort of lowish quality lasers of the day, it was fast enough and good enough.
Word Processor?
I liked wordpad. For a short and simple (couple lines) job it worked without adding all kinds of extraneous formatting characters. But its main virtue was that it would try to open ANY file, and often come close to succeeding. If nothing else, you could probably figure out what the file was, and what programs worked with it.
the application will be removed on upgrade
Why?
I get the idea of saying that it's no longer supported and won't be present on new installs, but to actively remove it?
Re: the application will be removed on upgrade
Probably to replace it with 'Wordpad Copilot' which requires an a PC with 32GB RAM, and min of 8 core CPU, plus a Microsoft account and an internet connection to to type a one paragraph document.
It's all crap
The first thing I do on a new windows install is removing _everything_ that can be uninstalled. There is so much garbage installed by default and new garbage added all the time.
Re: It's all crap
Not sure what you're using, but if it's better than O&O AppBuster (I think El Reg mentioned it a couple of years ago) then please let me know. OOAPB is the first thing that runs on any new PC that crosses my path. Just why each PC has so much X Box crud on it, I don't know...
WordPad's sole purpose for me was in ye olden days when you opened a text file that was too large for Notepad and got prompted to open it in WordPad instead.
As for "removed in a future update", that message was on Snipping Tool for about 2 years and has now been removed so we shall see.
I distinctly remember this when I was hacking about in the file in Red Alert that changed all the stats of the units (rules.ini?) - Not sure how big it could've been but I remember notepad wetting itself at the prospect.
It's also a handy lightweight rtf editor. Admittedly the rtf it generates is a bit idiosyncratic (= completely non-standard) but it worked and for quick & dirty edit you could do the job in less time than it takes the latest incarnation of Word to load.
The only reason I used wordpad was that notepad had ridiculous size limitations... something like 64 kb for text file size. Other than that, wordpad was a crappy rich text editor. It wasn't long in Windows 95 until I switched to a third party editor called UltraEdit 32. Supported all text encodings you'd encounter, and it was also seamlessly a hex editor. You could right click and "open with UltraEdit 32"and it would open any file appropriately.
I used UltraEdit (newer version) in Windows 7 too, right up to the end. (don't need Windows even for games anymore)
Word Processing in the Cloud
“ WordPad .. didn't insist on having a connection to the internet for it to work. ”
At a local place of education, I've noticed both WordPad and NotePad have disappeared. The only word processor provided is an online one provided by the place of education - in the cloud.
Sure, WordPad wasn’t a great editor - but in the grand scheme of poor quality software, it really wasn’t that bad. Even in the grand scheme of the wider Windows operating system it was far from being the most egregious mis-feature. Anything that requires me to waste time uninstalling it / hiding it is going to come further up my personal list of Microsoft errors - not least the in-your-face advertising that Windows insists on throwing at users or the Xbox Game Centre (or any gaming stuff since I’m not a gamer).
I’m sure I must have used WordPad at some point, or more likely it’s direct predecessor (Write). I used to use that kind of stuff a lot until I graduated to just using plain text editors like Notepad++ and BBEdit.