Microsoft WordPad to be Discontinued in the Near Future
Microsoft has announced that WordPad, the text-editing tool that has been in use for over 30 years, will be discontinued in a future Windows upgrade. The app will no longer receive updates or new features, indicating that its journey has come to an end. Users who have relied on WordPad will need to find alternative editing and writing tools, as the app may no longer be available on their devices. Microsoft is promoting its own Word app as a replacement for WordPad. The decision to discontinue WordPad comes as a surprise, especially considering the recent upgrades announced for Notepad and Snipping tool. The exact reason why Microsoft no longer sees a need for WordPad remains unclear.
Microsoft Wordpad
WordPad has been part of Windows since Windows 95. In a blog post, Microsoft released a statement saying, “WordPad will no longer be updated and will be removed in a future Windows release. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents such as .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents such as .txt.”
According to a report by The Verge, WordPad hasn’t gotten much attention in recent years. The last major update to the word processor was when Windows 7 introduced the Ribbon interface. Later, with the minor redesign of Windows 8, the company has not made any significant additions. However, users are increasingly using modern tools like Microsoft Word and others, and now that Notepad has been updated, users may want to switch.
As of now, it is unclear when WordPad will actually be removed from devices, but it may be removed with the new release of Windows 12, which is expected to be released next year. Microsoft is currently planning to release the Windows 11 23H2 update, which may feature an AI assistant called “Microsoft Copilot”. Moreover, it is expected that the upcoming update will be announced at a launch event scheduled for September 21, 2023. With Microsoft investing heavily in AI, we may soon see more AI innovations like Bing AI.
