Microsoft to omit WordPad in future Windows versions

After a slight Windows 8 redesign, the word processor hasn't seen any major updates since Windows 7's Ribbon interface

Microsoft plans to remove WordPad from future releases of Windows since it is no longer being updated. Microsoft will instead recommend Word, its paid word processor that has always been far more feature-rich than the basic WordPad app that ships with Windows since 1995, according to a report by the Verge.

“WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows,” read a support note published by Microsoft on September 1, the report added. “We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt.”

Microsoft recently announced it was upgrading Notepad with features such as autosave and automatic tab restoration. In 2018, Microsoft updated its Windows Notepad app for the first time in years and added tabs.

WordPad, however, hasn't received the same attention. After a slight Windows 8 redesign, the word processor hasn't seen any major updates since Windows 7's Ribbon interface. Microsoft will now remove WordPad entirely in a “future release of Windows,” which will most likely be the Windows 12 version we’re expecting to see in 2024 with plenty of AI-powered features.

Earlier, after iOS and Android, Microsoft had announced shut down of its digital assistant Cortana app on Windows 11. Despite the deprecation of Cortana in Windows, Cortana will be supported in Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams Rooms until 2023.