Microsoft to remove WordPad from Windows in future updates

It looks like Microsoft is planning to remove WordPad from its Windows operating system. To those unaware, Microsoft announced WordPad 28 years ago as a successor to a text editor called Microsoft Write.

It is also worth noting that WordPad was launched as part of Microsoft's greatest operating system back then, Windows 95. Since then, the tech giant has offered WordPad in every Windows release.

WordPad allows users to edit basic texts and supports multiple popular formats including RTF, DOC, and ODT. However, Microsoft is prepping to kill WordPad almost three decades later.

It is time for software deprecations and removals

Microsoft is sparing no effort to improve various aspects of the Windows OS. For example, Windows 11 will reportedly stop changing your default browser choice in the coming days. In the meantime, the company has updated the official documentation with a notification that confirms WordPad deprecation.

In addition to confirming that WordPad is no longer in development, Microsoft noted that the app will not receive new features or updates. In fact, an upcoming Windows update will remove the programme from the Windows operating system.

"WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt.," the official documentation noted.

WordPad alternatives: Can the app be replaced?

However, there's no dearth of first and third-party WordPad alternatives. Alternatively, you can use Notepad for basic text editing. As part of a recently rolled-out update, NotePad received a tabbed interface and session autosave.

Lastly, you can even switch to Microsoft Word, which is a slightly more advanced editor. Aside from WordPad, Microsoft is gearing up to remove several other components from Windows. In line with this, the company recently got rid of its voice assistant Cortana.

On top of that, the tech behemoth announced the end of MSDT (Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool). Microsoft will also disable old Transport Layer Security protocols in a bid to make Windows 11 more secure.

The official documentation sheds more light on deprecated Windows features. It is worth noting that deprecation and feature removal are different. So, users will be able to access WordPad before Microsoft completely removes it from Windows.

To recap, Microsoft previously announced the classic Windows Paint app would be deprecated and removed with the release of the Windows 10 Fall Creator's Update in July 2017. However, the Redmond-based tech firm decided not to completely kill it citing love for the app.

Currently, Paint has been moved to the Microsoft Store. It will be interesting to see whether the company will actually remove NotePad from its OS. If it does, there is a possibility that Windows enthusiasts will figure out how to restore WordPad.