Here is how to download WordPad for Windows 11, the original classic app that Microsoft has removed from Build 26020 and onward. You will get it back again with all its shortcuts and features restored.
Microsoft first announced their intention to get rid of the classic WordPad app in the beginning of September 2023. The company said it is outdated, so they deprecate it in flavor of Word and Notepad.
Many did't agreed. It offered more features than any plain text editor, and supported several widely used formats, such as ODF and RTF. Without having to install anything, it allowed you to quickly compose a rich formatted document with little to zero efforts.
The app existed in Windows since its third version, Windows 3.1 under the name Write. It survived many releases and has got nice improvements over time, such as the above mentioned ODF support and a nicer UI. So the app has a strong fan base who miss it a lot.
Starting with Build 26020, if you clean install Windows 11, you won't have WordPad. It is no longer shipped, is not available as a feature on-demand, and in the Store. It is not even listed in the Start menu.
That's why a custom package has been created for everyone who miss the app.
To get WordPad back in Windows 11, do the following.
Download WordPad for Windows 11
- Navigate to the following website and download the WordPad installer.
- Run it and follow the simple steps of the setup program.
- Specify the desired folder where the app files will be stored. By default it installs to Program files\wordpad.
- Now choose to create a desktop shortcut for either current user or all users, and finish the setup.
- Finally, you can launch WordPad from the desktop shortcut or from the Start menu.
You are done.
The package is built with original app files, of the latest version released by Microsoft. They are not modified or tampered with.
The package supports all multi-lingual resources and installs them when needed. So the app will always be in your operating system's language, e.g. in an OS with the German MUI it will be in German, in Finnish Windows it will be in Finnish and so on. Here's the list of all supported locales:
ar-sa, bg-bg, cs-cz, da-dk, de-de, el-gr, en-gb, en-us, es-es, es-mx, et-ee, fi-fi, fr-ca, fr-fr, he-il, hr-hr, hu-hu, it-it, ja-jp, ko-kr, lt-lt, lv-lv, nb-no, nl-nl, pl-pl, pt-br, pt-pt, ro-ro, ru-ru, sk-sk, sl-si, sr-latn-rs, sv-se, th-th, tr-tr, uk-ua, zh-cn, zh-hk, zh-tw.
The installer uses a smart detection of locales and won't fill your drive with MUI files that you have no use for.
The installer will also register wordpad.exe and write.exe aliases, so if you used to launch it from the Run dialog (Win + R) with these commands, they will continue to work.
Finally, you can uninstall the package like any other app.
Uninstalling
For that, right-click the Start menu button and select Installed apps.
In the list of apps, scroll down to WordPad, click the three dots button, and select Uninstall. This will remove all traces and files of the app.
That's it.
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Thanks, Sergey. I have been using WordPad principally as an intermediate stage when dealing with pictures, because Word is just too big and clumsy.
QUESTION 1: Suppose that I email someone a Wordpad document. Suppose that either he has a new PC and has not installed your software, or Microsoft has removed WordPad sometime in the future. Will he be able to open the file?
QUESTION 2: If Microsoft does decide, in their lack of wisdom, to remove WordPad from PCs where it is installed, will your package be removed also?
1) Opening a WordPad document is possible with Word, LibreOffice, and other similar apps. The recipient must have one installed. Alternatively they can upload the document to OneDrive or Google Drive and open it online from there, as both support opening.
2) It depends on their implementation. If they want, they can remove anything installed on your PC.
Thank you a lot ^^. I’m still using it everyday and I don’t want to miss it.
You are most welcome
Thank You!
Hopefully MS comes to its senses and brings this back.
I use a combination of Word, Notepad and Wordpad depending on the documents I am working with.
So all three are essential in my daily workflow.
Portable WordPad! For Windows 11 in 2024
I installed LibreOffice, OpenOffice
Office of other companies like WPS
No one gives the speed and ease of working with WordPad
I really hope there will be a Portable WordPad version
that I can run on any computer in the university,
Only such a version that can be downloaded by email
In a ZIP file, deploy \ run without installation, you will be most comfortable
Is it possible to turn this into a Portable WordPad?
Luckily there are some who knows how to fix win annoyances that MS is screwing up intentionally. Functionality in Win11 is mowing backwards not forwards the “stratospheric” MS way. At some point Linux will surpass Win (at some point already has) … and then. Until then sadly we have to live with it.
Thanks to the author.
Thank you! Winaero was the second place I looked after my Wordpad shortcut didn’t work (first place said to get on a computer with older version of Win11 and get 3 files –pffft! I don’t have one…who would? Winaero will know :-) )
Thanks for your guide to reinstall the missing WordPad resulting from the latest windows update. But after some further windows updates, the WordPad is messed up and the original text couldn’t be read anymore.
This is part of the corrupted text:
“. ”
Hope you can work out a fix.
Or you can just get the free Wordpad clone “RWordpad”, which was developed for Linux users and ported back to Windows:
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Text-editors/RWordPad.shtml
I’m using it and it works great… Quite nostalgic, too.
Thank you so much! I wasn’t aware that Wordpad was being removed, and thought for some reason the icon on taskbar had unpinned itself. I was so sad to find out they had removed it and I’m overjoyed to be able to use it again. Thank you.