Discussion Why is Windows Notepad getting 'active development'?

[mikeymikec]

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?

Notepad.exe, now an actively maintained app, has gotten its inevitable AI update

Other Windows Insider updates include new CPU instructions for Prism x86 emulator.

arstechnica.com

It just seems to me that they're taking a program with a very basic purpose but worked more or less perfectly well in that role to one that will inevitably be abandoned because it has no place in the Microsoft line-up as more than a plain text editor.

 

[sdifox]

Notepad++

notepad-plus-plus.org

 

[bigboxes]

@mikeymikec You've been doing this for a long time. There's been ways to get Office cheap. I always have Word (and Office) on my main rigs.

 

[mikeymikec]

@mikeymikec You've been doing this for a long time. There's been ways to get Office cheap. I always have Word (and Office) on my main rigs.

I've been using OO then LibreOffice for about twenty years. I wrote the OP to express my puzzlement about Notepad development.

 

[C1]

Ya, there are ways you can get MS Office inexpensively legally.

I always thought Notepad was provided for purposes of handling pure text. For example, handling program code (where you specifically dont want invisible control characters added/involved).

Notepad needs to be left alone.

For most operations, basic Wordpad is enough. It also needs to be left alone (and so does Paint).

If you need something more than use MS Word or some suitable alternative.

Jus say'n

 

[myindjon]

Windows notepad is a successful product that many still love. It seems Microsoft wants to turn it into a failure by adding AI and other bloatware. It will give Google Docs another victory.

But the sad news is that I don't trust Google anymore. They are actively trying to ruin their products with Generative AI.

 

[mikeymikec]

Since the OP I had one or two thoughts, and I'm wondering if Microsoft is moving Notepad away from what I consider to be one of its strengths being essentially a quick script / config file editor towards some kind of stateless note-taking app, what with the business of it saving your session without auto-saving the contents of an open file (in the traditional sense of autosave).

 

[Sgraffite]

Notepad++ has been around over 20 years now, if you want something strictly better than Notepad.

 

[MadRat]

The Win11 notepad is broken.

 

[mikeymikec]

Something I just learnt from a commenter on Ars Technica is that there's a Notepad app in Win11 and the original notepad.exe sitting in C:\Windows. According to them, if you uninstall the app, the original program takes over the job of handling text files, though they've only tested this on 23H2.

I can however confirm that C:\Windows\notepad.exe still exists in 24H2.

 

[mikeymikec]

Something I just learnt from a commenter on Ars Technica is that there's a Notepad app in Win11 and the original notepad.exe sitting in C:\Windows. According to them, if you uninstall the app, the original program takes over the job of handling text files, though they've only tested this on 23H2.

I can however confirm that C:\Windows\notepad.exe still exists in 24H2.

I tried this out today, it works. No more sad monochromatic notepad!

 

[KMFJD]

well i do see they've integrated that stupid fucking copilot within it.....

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I just feel mildly confused or anxious over observations such as those laid out in this thread.

I've always had a version of Microsoft Office -- usually an Office Pro or Office Home & Business edition, replaced one after the other over the years. Office Pro became the objective whenever I sought a new upgrade. I would look on surplus software sites, places like My Choice Software, which is still doing good business. Currently, I have a 5-PC installation version for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016.

Notepad is like a small pocketknife when you need one. It's handy for all simple ASCII text files you may want to create quickly, like a grocery list. I use it to hold URL links so I can cut and paste them to return to a particular site easily. I use Notepad to make notes to myself. You can write "*.BAT" files with Notepad.

Other times, when copying HTML content from the web-browser, I might use WordPad or I might open up MS Word.

So I'm not so sure I like what MS wants to do or is trying to do with Notepad. Keep it simple! It is a simple and reliable tool. How am I going to benefit from AI-enhanced Notepad when I use it for such basic and simple stuff?

 

[mikeymikec]

So I'm not so sure I like what MS wants to do or is trying to do with Notepad. Keep it simple! It is a simple and reliable tool. How am I going to benefit from AI-enhanced Notepad when I use it for such basic and simple stuff?

I think the overall problem is that Microsoft has no clear long term vision for Windows, and therefore Windows is another victim of the tech sector's belief that AI is going to revolutionise *everything*.

Personally I would have thought that Microsoft would have thought twice about reintroducing essentially the Office Assistant back into the picture, but that was over twenty years ago, the people who learnt that lesson have likely retired. We're probably going to experience Active Desktop: The Sequel soon as well; Microsoft's apparent notion that Windows is nothing but a vehicle of consumerism so therefore it needs increasing amounts of adverts aligns well with the idea of turning the desktop into a web page.

 

[manly]

A text editor is not a word processor.

Personally I don't use gen AI, but comparing modern ML to Clippy is quite off the mark. I don't really expect AGI within my lifetime, but we're only 3 years into the ChatGPT experience. Look at how disruptive gen AI already is in the realm of video creation. IF AI slop doesn't ruin the world (and that's a big IF), there could be some good uses for it as well.*

This should not be interpreted as Microsoft will add AI to Windows in useful or good ways.

* One interesting aspect is how Americans are largely lukewarm/skeptical towards gen AI, while consumers in China are eating the stuff up like it's the most addictive fast food.

 

[MadRat]

The worst part of win11 notepad is mouse cursor and notepad cursors often mismatch, making cut and paste sucky. And win11 in general likes to miss grab what is highlighted. The whole win11 gui is craptastic

 

[mikeymikec]

I tried this out today, it works. No more sad monochromatic notepad!

Addendum:

So Microsoft very helpfully removed some registry entries that allows one to associate txt files with Notepad. If you attempt to do the association the normal way through the UI, Explorer basically nuh-uh's you.

I found this:

https://superuser.com/questions/1750222/how-to-open-file-type-with-notepad-legacy-in-windows-11

With this reg data:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Restore Old Classic Notepad on Windows 11
;Created by Ramesh Srinivasan for Winhelponline.com
;Created on May 6, 2022; Revised on May 12, 2022.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\notepad.exe]
"NoOpenWith"=-

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\notepad.exe]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfilelegacy\DefaultIcon]
@="imageres.dll,-102"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfilelegacy\shell\open\command]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\notepad.exe \"%1\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\notepad.exe]
"UseFilter"=dword:00000000

Works for me.