Shortly before turning 30 years old, WordPad will be discontinued from Windows. The successor to Microsoft Write, which made its debut in Windows 95 with basic text editing features supporting RTF, DOC, ODT, and other popular formats, is no longer in development and will not receive new features or updates.
According to new official documentation from Microsoft, a future Windows update will remove the program from the operating system. Now, the company recommends using Microsoft Word, which is already available for free online, for rich-text documents, and Notepad for simple text documents like TXT.
Microsoft WordPad and Upcoming Windows Changes: What You Need to Know
It’s worth noting that the Notepad app has received some notable features for basic text editing, including a tabbed interface and automatic session saving.
However, WordPad won’t be the only component that Microsoft is removing from its system. The company recently deactivated Cortana, its neglected voice assistant, and announced the end of the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT). Additionally, Microsoft will soon disable old Transport Layer Security protocols to make Windows 11 more secure.
WordPad will remain accessible for some time before Microsoft removes it from Windows. Naturally, it won’t be long before enthusiasts find a way to restore WordPad for those who aren’t ready to bid farewell to the veteran and straightforward text editor.