As you may remember, the good old Paint app was destined to become an optional feature in Windows 10. The latest Insider Preview build 18963 indicates that WordPad shares the same fate as Paint.
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The optional features page in Build 18963 now lists both Paint and Wordpad apps. This means that both apps can be uninstalled, and they can also be eventually excluded from the default app set of Windows 10.
If you are a Windows Insider running build 18963, you can check out the change as follows.
- Open Settings.
- Navigate to Apps > Apps & features.
- Click on the Optional features link on the right.
- On the next page, click on the button Add a feature.
- Finally, on the next page you will see the classic Paint and Wordpad apps in the list.
Wordpad is a very simple text editor, more powerful than Notepad, but still less feature rich than Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer. It is good for creating a simple text document without complicated formatting.
As you may remember, starting with build 17063, the classic Microsoft Paint app in Windows 10 had a "Product Alert" button. Clicking on the button opened a dialog that suggests that the app will be occasionally replaced with Paint 3D, and would be moved to the Store. Many people were not happy with this move from Microsoft. They were not ready to exchange the good old mspaint.exe with a completely different Store app because the old Paint has its own advantages and Paint 3D does not surpass it in every way. Classic Paint always loaded much faster, and had a more usable and friendlier user interface with superior mouse and keyboard usability.
Starting in Windows 10 Insider Preview build 18334 Microsoft has silently removed the Product Alert notice. See the screenshot from that build:
The button is missing in the toolbar.
As of now, MSPaint is still included in 1903. Also, it was updated with a set of accessibility features.
So, the change introduced in build 18963 hints that Microsoft will eventually remove the Paint and WordPad apps from the OS by making them optional.
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Hypocrites. How about making their crappy Chrome clone browser a removable feature? How about Cortana? The non-removable “Apps”? The Settings “app”?
Sergey:
Not only that,
You NEED to make a 3rd party Notepad app similar to the Paint one you created, because the Store Notepad transition that is happening in Build 18963 is bullsh*t!!!
Sorry for the rant and Thank You for considering this! :)