Windows’ 30-year old Notepad app comes to Microsoft Store with new features

The new Notepad app can let you edit text-based files and source code ‘instantly’, shows more options to customise the view and more.

The new Notepad app can let you edit text-based files and source code ‘instantly’, shows more options to customise the view and more. (Microsoft Store)

Most of us are aware of the Notepad app that has been there in Windows operating systems since decades now. Until now, the app was spotted inside the OS but it now users will see it on Microsoft Store as well. It is worth adding that Notepad was announced for Microsoft Store in August last year as well but was pulled by Microsoft for some reason. It is now back with new features.

"Notepad has been the fast and simple text editor on Windows for over 30 years, and now it's available in the Microsoft Store! View, edit, and search through plain text documents and source code files instantly," states the description of the app on the Microsoft Store.

Although it still stays as the no-nonsense app, some of the new features it has got is the ability to edit text-based files and source code 'instantly', more options to customise the view and the ability to save multiple encodings including UTF-8, UTF-16, and ANSI.

As spotted by Beta news website, the new Notepad app comes with a revamped find/replace functionality. The firm has added the option to do wrap-around find/replace and the app will also remember previously entered values and the state of checkboxes so it can automatically populate them the next time you open the find dialog. "Additionally, when you have text selected and open the find dialog we will automatically populate the search field with the selected text."

In addition to this, the app now gets options to make it quick and easy to zoom text. This can be found in the new menu option under View > Zoom to change the zoom level. In addition, you can use keyboard shortcuts to use this feature - Ctrl + Plus, Ctrl + Minus and Ctrl + MouseWheel.

Lastly, the Notepad now shows lines and column numbers when word wrap I enabled. All this comes in addition to some other minor improvements.