Microsoft Retires WordPad After Nearly Three Decades, But There Are Alternatives

Just the other day, Windows released Insider Preview Build 26020 to kick off the new year with a handful of new features and capabilities. However, this update also took away some features with the official execution of WordPad, which will no longer be installable in a clean install of the OS. Moreover, in a future update, WordPad will be removed from Windows installations overall.

Technically speaking, WordPad was announced as being deprecated back on September 1st, 2023, according to Microsoft’s documentation, after a 30-year run. However, the company is seemingly just getting around to taking the Notepad alternative out back for the Old Yeller treament. As noted, WordPad will no longer be available upon installation of Windows, and it will be removed in a future update as well. It is sad to see the more feature-rich and fast text editor go, but Microsoft now recommends using Notepad for .txt files and Word for everything else.


Of course, Word and Notepad are not the best for everything, especially when it comes to speed with the former and formatting with the latter. Thankfully, though, there are a few alternatives that may have contributed to WordPad’s downfall in the first place. The first of which is Notepad++, a free Notepad replacement that is pretty impressive overall, supporting formatting for various programming languages or other text formats.
 

Alternatively, Sublime is another good option that you can install on more than just Windows so you can experience the same environment across different devices. Sublime seems to be more feature-rich than Notepad++, which can be a blessing and a curse, depending on who you are. Regardless, this is a great option to replace WordPad if you are a habitual user.


Finally, if you are a bit of a masochist, you could always install Vim on Windows. The interface is significantly simpler, but with that, most everything is more easily done via command line and keyboard controls. It is also zippier if you navigate your files via the command line as well, but it may be more of a hassle if you use Windows Explorer like a plebian or haven't ever used Vim.

No matter what, the end of WordPad is not the end of the world, as many great alternatives can keep you editing those config files on the fly or whatever you do. If you happen to like any of our recommendations or have a better one, let us know about it in the comments below.