Adios, WordPad: Microsoft to remove rich-text editor in future Windows OS

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US-based technology company Microsoft has announced that it would remove the WordPad from the future release of its Windows operating system. For the uninitiated, WordPad is a free rich text editor and word processor that has been part of the Windows operating system since Windows 95, which was announced in 1995. It is part of Windows 11, but would not be updated. And in the future Windows release, the software would altogether be removed.

As an alternative, Microsoft recommends Word, its paid word processor that is feature-packed and far more useful than WordPad. Word is part of Microsoft 365, which is a subscription package offered with a suite of productivity-centric software and cloud storage.

“WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt,” said Microsoft in a note published on September 1.

Ahead of announcing the removal of WordPad from future Windows release, Microsoft announced that it is upgrading its NotePad on Windows with features like autosave and tab retraction. Like WordPad, NotePad is a free software from Microsoft bundled with Windows. It does not support rich text editor functions, but a simple text editor that gets saved in simpler .txt file format. Surprisingly, NotePad has been part of Windows long before WordPad.

Microsoft has been integrating generation artificial intelligence to its software and services. WordPad may not have fit in its AI-focused ambitions and that is why the company may have decided to retire it. Speaking of AI, Microsoft announced Microsoft 365 Copilot earlier this year. It is a software suite of apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and more powered by generative AI.