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Microsoft Retires WordPad After 30 Years

Explore the journey of this beloved software and discover its recommended alternatives in this article.
The WordPad word processing software has officially been retired by Microsoft after nearly 30 years of being present in the Windows operating system. (TECHFITNOW.COM)
The WordPad word processing software has officially been retired by Microsoft after nearly 30 years of being present in the Windows operating system. (TECHFITNOW.COM)


TECHFITNOW.COM - Goodbye, WordPad. This word processing software has been retired by Microsoft after nearly 30 years of being present in the Windows operating system (OS). Microsoft announced this news on its official website in early September 2023. "The WordPad application will no longer be updated and will be removed in a future Windows release," wrote Microsoft, the developer of Windows.


WordPad, a word processing application, first appeared as a default program in the Windows 95 OS, released in August 1995. This means the application has officially retired at the age of 28. As of Monday, September 4, 2023, WordPad was still accessible and usable in Windows 11, specifically in OS build 22621.2134. However, after WordPad's official retirement, Microsoft recommends Windows users to utilize Microsoft Word software to open/create formatted .doc and .rtf text documents.


Users can also rely on the Notepad application available in Windows to open documents in .txt format. WordPad originally featured a user interface and features similar to Microsoft Word. The main difference lies in the fact that WordPad allows users to view text documents in various common formats and perform basic editing. In contrast, Word offers more extensive text editing and printing functions compared to the simpler WordPad. WordPad has not received significant updates from Microsoft for quite some time. The word processing application was updated with the Ribbon UI interface in Windows 7 in 2007. This update introduced seven new tabs, including Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailing, Review, and View.


In Windows 8, released in 2012, WordPad underwent a minor design overhaul. However, after that, Microsoft did not provide significant updates. Until August 2023, when Microsoft decided to remove WordPad from Windows. In contrast to WordPad's fate, Notepad, which also hadn't received updates for a long time, began receiving significant updates starting in 2018. In Windows 11, Notepad also began to receive tab features. Most recently, Microsoft announced that Notepad will receive new features, including automatic saving and automatic tab recovery, as reported by KompasTekno from The Verge on Monday, September 4, 2023.

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