Forum Discussion
Why is Windows Notepad getting 'active development'?
Let's wind the clock back to ~2008. Microsoft's solutions for "word processing" were:
Microsoft Word (you had to pay at least ~£80 for this generally speaking)
Microsoft Works (often bundled free with big-name PCs or could be bought absurdly cheaply, e.g. £5)
WordPad (came with Windows)
Notepad (came with Windows)
Word was what Microsoft wanted you to buy. Works was purposefully hobbled to try and encourage people to buy Word (for example, Works could read and write Word <2007 documents, however if you saved a doc in Word format and then immediately closed Works, it would ask you if you wanted to save the document despite no changes being made since the last save).
However, Works's hobbling wasn't enough as many users with basic needs got along with it just fine so Microsoft turned the screws and ended Works development / availability. Microsoft also briefly flirted with Office 2010 Starter Edition (free with big-name PCs) being cut-down versions of Word and Excel 2010 but encountered the same problem as they did with users being satisfied with it, so they killed that too.
WordPad was more or less another Microsoft stillbirth. According to wiki the first release was with Windows 95 and apart from the fact that WordPad since can "kinda" handle Word =>2007 documents (to a similar extent as Works with pre Word 2007 docs), WordPad received very little love (e.g. no spell checker), and is due to be removed in Win11 24H2 apparently.
Notepad historically has been very much like WordPad but I don't think MS ever intended for it to be more than a very basic plain text editor for things like editing ini files. However, in the last ~3 years it's received various updates like spell check, tabs, and now some kind of AI plugin?
3 Replies
It’s funny how Notepad went from being the most ignored app in Windows to suddenly getting all this love. I think part of the reason is that plain text editing has made a comeback—devs, sysadmins, even casual users rely on it for quick edits, logs, configs, or just jotting down notes without Word bloat. With WordPad on the way out, Notepad is kind of being “promoted” as the lightweight editor that fills that gap. Tabs, dark mode, spellcheck, and now AI tie into Microsoft’s broader push to make every app AI-ready. Feels like Notepad is finally being treated as a first-class citizen after decades of neglect.
Many tech-savvy users have long used Notepad++ or other third-party editors. Microsoft is now aiming to incorporate some of those features directly into Windows.
Windows has become more user-centric and integrated with modern workflows. Users now expect more from even basic tools, especially with the rise of AI, cloud integration, and productivity features.
