Microsoft has stopped updating its ancient WordPad software and says it will remove it from a future version of Windows – likely Windows 12, which is set to arrive next year.
The rich text application has been around since Windows 95 and sits somewhere between Microsoft’s full-featured Word software and its very basic Notepad offering, which has been around even longer than WordPad.
While in most cases a subscription is required to use Word, the WordPad application is free and can be used for basic editing tasks.
But for a long time now, those wanting something more powerful and also free have been able to use open source software like OpenOffice or services like Google Docs, which both offer very capable functionality.
Still, not everyone is happy about Microsoft's decision to ditch its aging text editor. “I use WordPad for RTF files because it loads faster than MS Word,” said one WordPad fan on Microsoft’s Feedback Hub, adding: “I keep reference notes in RTF format since Notepad doesn’t allow text formatting."