Microsoft is pulling the plug on this popular writing app after nearly 30 years!
By
VanessaC
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It seems that even in the digital world—nothing lasts forever.
It’s been a sad week for some Microsoft users as the tech giant announced that it has stopped updating its basic writing app, WordPad, after almost 30 years.
'WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows,' said Microsoft.
Unfortunately, this means that users looking for a basic writing app should switch to a different program.
'We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt,' they added.
WordPad was introduced with Windows 95 back in the mid-1990s and offered basic editing functions such as adding images and Excel spreadsheets.
The app allowed people to write simple documents. However, it lacked several functions available on Microsoft Word including spelling checks and word counts.
The app hasn’t been updated with any new functions since the release of Windows 7 over a decade ago, and Microsoft has now decided that it won’t receive any additional updates moving forward.
Unfortunately, WordPad is not the only Windows stalwart being removed. In June, Microsoft announced it was ending support for its virtual assistant Cortana as a standalone app.
There are many other apps being discontinued by these tech giants—the most recent one being the Messenger Lite app.
Meta has recently announced that it will discontinue the Messenger Lite app for everyone except current users, who will have access to the app until September 18, after which it will no longer be available.
The app has already been removed from the Google Play Store.
First introduced in 2016, this app was tailored for those with older Android devices—which at the time meant devices from 2009 or 2011—with a small download size of just 1MB. Not only did it use less memory and data, but it also ran smoothly on minimalist processors and low bandwidth connections.
You can read more about this announcement here.
Have you ever used these apps before? Will you be affected by Microsoft’s latest decision regarding their WordPad app? Let us know in the comments below!
It’s been a sad week for some Microsoft users as the tech giant announced that it has stopped updating its basic writing app, WordPad, after almost 30 years.
'WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows,' said Microsoft.
Unfortunately, this means that users looking for a basic writing app should switch to a different program.
'We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt,' they added.
WordPad was introduced with Windows 95 back in the mid-1990s and offered basic editing functions such as adding images and Excel spreadsheets.
The app allowed people to write simple documents. However, it lacked several functions available on Microsoft Word including spelling checks and word counts.
The app hasn’t been updated with any new functions since the release of Windows 7 over a decade ago, and Microsoft has now decided that it won’t receive any additional updates moving forward.
Unfortunately, WordPad is not the only Windows stalwart being removed. In June, Microsoft announced it was ending support for its virtual assistant Cortana as a standalone app.
There are many other apps being discontinued by these tech giants—the most recent one being the Messenger Lite app.
Meta has recently announced that it will discontinue the Messenger Lite app for everyone except current users, who will have access to the app until September 18, after which it will no longer be available.
The app has already been removed from the Google Play Store.
First introduced in 2016, this app was tailored for those with older Android devices—which at the time meant devices from 2009 or 2011—with a small download size of just 1MB. Not only did it use less memory and data, but it also ran smoothly on minimalist processors and low bandwidth connections.
You can read more about this announcement here.
Key Takeaways
- Microsoft has announced it is discontinuing support for its long-running WordPad app.
- WordPad, a basic writing app that was introduced with Windows 95, will no longer be included in any future release of Windows.
- Microsoft suggests customers use Microsoft Word for rich text documents and Windows Notepad for plain text documents.
- This follows Microsoft's announcement in June to end support for Cortana, its virtual assistant, as a standalone app.