Microsoft bids farewell to WordPad

WEB DESK: Microsoft has officially announced the discontinuation of support for the WordPad feature in the Windows client, marking the end of its 28-year run.

As Microsoft transitions to Windows 11, it’s systematically retiring older Windows features. One notable example is the discontinuation of support for Cortana, a virtual assistant introduced in 2014 to compete with Apple’s Siri.

However, the WordPad was introduced with Windows 95 in 1995 and served as a replacement for the earlier Windows Write software. Since its inception, WordPad has been a staple in all versions of the Windows client.

Positioned as a more advanced alternative to Notepad but simpler than the Microsoft Word writing tool, WordPad functioned as a straightforward yet effective text editor capable of handling various writing tasks and saving documents in both rich text and plain text formats. However, it will no longer receive support in future Windows versions, effective immediately.

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In a recent blog post on Microsoft’s website, a list of deprecated features and functions in the latest Windows version was provided. The deprecation stage signifies that a particular component of Windows is no longer actively developed. Among the items listed, such as the Snipping Tool and Cortana, WordPad has been categorised as deprecated and is slated for removal in an upcoming release.

The blog post advises users that, with the removal of WordPad from Windows, alternative software options are available for text editing purposes. It suggests using Microsoft Word for editing rich text documents like .doc or .rtf files, while plain text documents like .txt files can be easily edited using Notepad.

WordPad lacked advanced features such as spellcheck or a thesaurus. The emergence of Google services like Google Docs and other online document writing software as competitors to Microsoft’s software suite may have contributed to a decline in WordPad usage. While both WordPad and Google Docs are freely accessible, the latter has gained popularity due to its ability to save documents on Google Drive and its provision of many features similar to Microsoft Word.