Big blow for users, Microsoft WordPad to be killed off soon

In a move that has caught users by surprise, Microsoft has revealed that Wordpad will be discontinued in a future release of Windows.

WordPad may not receive any further updates and features, as it will be discontinued. (HT Tech)

Microsoft text-editing tool, WordPad will be discontinued in a future Windows upgrade. After functioning for over 30 years, the app will not receive any further updates and features, signalling that it has reached the end of the road. People who have been reliant on the app till now will have to look for other editing and writing tools soon as you may not see the app on your devices anymore. Microsoft is plugging its own Word app to users of WordPad. The upcoming demise of WordPad does come as a surprise as the company had recently announced some cool upgrades for Notepad and Snipping tool. Exactly why WordPad is no longer required by Microsoft is not clear.

Microsoft Wordpad

The WordPad has been part of Windows since Windows 95. Microsoft has released a statement in their blog post saying, “WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows.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.”

According to a report by The Verge, WordPad has not received much attention over the past few years. The last major update to the word processor took place when Windows 7 introduced the Ribbon UI. later with the minor redesign in Windows 8, there have been no significant additions introduced by the company. However, users are increasingly utilizing modern tools like Microsoft Word and others and now that Notepad has been updated, users might want to switch.

For now, it is unclear when the WordPad will be actually removed from the devices, however, it may be removed with the introduction of the new Windows 12 which is expected to launch next year. Microsoft is currently planning to introduce the Windows 11 23H2 update which may feature AI assistant “Microsoft Copilot”. Additionally, it is expected that the upcoming update will be announced at the launch event which is scheduled for September 21, 2023. As Microsoft has invested a vast amount in artificial intelligence, we may soon see more AI innovations like Bing AI.