For the first time in 40 years, Windows will ship without built-in word processor
For the first time in 40 years, Windows will ship without built-in word processor
WordPad is one of the few built-in apps not to be updated in Windows 11.
Thus ending our long national nightmare of accidentally opening things in WordPad on a fresh install.
It's still going to ship with Notepad.
53Notepad is one of those apps that actually received an update not long ago: >!They've added Search with Bing to the Edit menu... (－‸ლ)!<
41Iirc, the original meaning of Word Processor required formatting, which Notepad doesn't do.
But otherwise yeah, this is a non-story. No one uses Wordpad or wants to use Wordpad. Let's focus on the egregious privacy concerns of Windows instead.
16
So, I've been mulling this over. I know Microsoft Word web version is free and I suppose that's their replacement, but it needs to be more accessible if that's the case. Like, for my very Average Mom who buys a laptop, she actually was using Wordpad for years until I got her onto my M365 family plan because it was a built in program and she knows how to navigate the Start menu and open programs.
Assuming a parallel universe where she didn't have access to desktop Word, how does she know Microsoft Word Online is available to her? Is there a shortcut on the desktop, or directly from Edge? Should there be a start menu icon which opens it up directly? Has Microsoft considered this? I would hope they have.
25Just install Libreoffice. No reason for MSO unless you work in an org that supplies it.
15Libre Office is cool.
If you work with other people's really complex word documents where formatting is important, you kind of do have to use MS word because Libre Office still does not have 100% compatibility (probably Microsoft's fault).
I'm still a 360 holdout though. I hate the subscription model at the best of times and with Microsoft it just seems egregious.
7
Very valid points. I forgot WordPad existed and I use Notepad way more than I've ever used WordPad. But many people still havent really used computers much in depth beyond specific things they've been shown.
I know I could just use Google Docs or throw LibreOffice in there, but many people now in retirement age have still managed to dodge learning much about computers.
If you deliver a new computer that can't type a letter, send an email, and play YouTube out of the box, that seems like a fail. And I feel many that won't know what do do without something like WordPad also may not have an Internet connection, nor should they have to if they just need a presentable looking doc.
9Edge has a feature that lets you install websites as PWAs, which appear in the Start Menu like any other app. I assume they plan to have people use Word Online that way.
Whether or not this will be set up automatically is a different (and more important) question. But if they don't do it automatically, it's something that would only need to be done once.
3Ms makes it very obvious that O365 is available when you turn on a new machine.
2When you try to open a docx file the MS store opens and offers you like three versions of Office 365, one of which is free (which eventually opens up the web version of them).
LibreOffice is on the store, but it's also not free for some reason. Apache OpenOffice is free on there. Neither of them appear in the list of apps when you try and open a docx file, although it does show a few programs that appear to be very thinly reskinned versions of OpenOffice on there..
1A web version for a word processor? D:
Use libre instead:
1Doesn't fresh installs of windows 11 come with shortcuts in the start menu for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that opens the online versions of the software if you haven't installed office yet?
1Oh, if that's the case then it makes perfect sense why Wordpad is being deprecated, and I'm glad Microsoft is keeping things simple and sensible for average basic users. I've only ever used a corporate image for W11 so it didn't have those shortcuts.
1
Tbf I haven't used wordpad for a very long time. If ever.
I avoid it because if I'm editing a text file wordpad would just mess it up.
Maybe if it's an rtf file I need wordpad.
But word is available.
15But word is available.
Not for me. It's just too expensive for a task that I very rarely need and there are good free alternatives (like Wordpad - though that's not the one I use personally).
8[This comment has been deleted by an automated system]
7
TBH - I forgot it was there...
12Yeah I think most people use web apps these days
3
Handing it to LibreOffice or Abiword I guess. Or for cloud fans, Google Docs. I don't think anyone is going to go without a word processor because of this.
12Permanently Deleted
4
Damn shrinkflation.
10I honestly think people using comic sans is more nightmarish than anything inflicted on us by wordpad.
9Comic Sans is dead all hail comic shanns
(Also I've unironically loved Comic sans for 30 years)
9I too am a fan of Comic Sans. It sits in my heart the same place as overplayed dad rock.
I actually code in a monospace variant of comic sans because my life is basically a shitpost
2Thanks! I love it!
1
To be honest, I never use Wordpad.
Either I just need to edit something quick, where Notepad excels, or in going to use just about any other option for text editor or word processor.
It's surprising to see how much attention this is getting. And I can't help but think how many people commenting about it actually use it to any real degree.
8I don't care as long as they don't take away NotePad. NotePad has useful features I'd hate to lose - such as stripping out all formatting, and being able to search/replace wildcard characters as themselves, rather than as wildcards.
7CTRL+Shift+V to paste without formatting.
6Have a look at NotePad++, it even has regex-search.
3
A rather international nightmare I would say
6Not as good of a Gerald Ford reference that way, though.
2So would I.
1
Bring back Microsoft Write, cowards
4Go with open source Office alternatives or go with Microsoft Office Mondo, if you don't want to pay. Otherwise, Microsoft 365 seems good with that 1TB storage.
4🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
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For apps like Calculator, the changes have been merely cosmetic, but everything from Sound Recorder to Media Player to Paint to the Snipping Tool has gotten some kind of thoughtful redesign and new features, often for the first time in a decade-plus.
The company could decide to keep adding capabilities to Notepad, an app that has been getting substantial attention from Microsoft during the Windows 11 era after many years of neglect.
Or substantial user backlash could make the company reconsider, as it did several years ago when MS Paint was marked as deprecated.
Though it was once slated for removal during the Windows 10 era, Microsoft quietly backtracked a few years later and began adding new features to Paint shortly afterward.
Paint's history is even longer than WordPad's, and there's a history of people putting in lots of time and effort to make complex works of art within the software's limitations; Microsoft's official company accounts certainly don't post screenshots of documents created in WordPad, though.
Like WordPad, Write was meant to fill the gap between the plain-text Notepad and a more fully featured word processor.
Saved 66% of original text.
3Honestly, I always remove this component along with IE after installing Windows. Should have long ago been sent to it's grave.
3