4 ms·

Hate is a weak word, basic stuff like notepad, snipping tool or terminal don't even work today https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/windows-11-ap

• anonymars 9mo ago
  My most recent astonishment was they've shoved copilot into notepad. Why did they get rid of Wordpad and ruin notepad again? It's like they've forgotten the entire purpose of Task Manager, Notepad, etc. Then again (gestures at World Economic Forum today)...feels like I'm mainlining crazy pills these days.
  • deltoidmaximus 9mo ago
    Telemetry said a lot of people were using notepad so if they shove AI into it the AI usage number goes up.
  • p_ing 9mo ago
    The purpose of Notepad, for Microsoft, is that it is an experimental playground, and always has been. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20180521-00/?p=98795 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20180521-00/?p=98...
    • einr 9mo ago
      I know who runs that blog, but that's a really exaggerated take. Notepad has had nearly identical UX from Windows 1.0 until 10. Sure, there's a search feature that appeared at some point, ditto with the status bar, at some point they made it able to open files larger than 64K, and apparently you can open files from URLs directly? Five or so noticable changes in an extremely lightweight and utilitarian application in thirty years is not at all like completely redesigning it into an AI slop machine.
      • RajT88 9mo ago
        Tabs and auto-recover are welcome additions (but still cannot compete with the likes of Notepad++).
        • einr 9mo ago
          Tabs are fine I guess but also: it's NOTEPAD.EXE. Its purpose to be super primitive and launch in 2 milliseconds and give you a place to paste or type some text real quick. Anyone who needs a good text editor with actual features will just download the good text editor of their choice.
        • JohnFen 9mo ago
          > Tabs and auto-recover are welcome additions They were very unwelcome to me.
          • anonymars 9mo ago
            Simple example of the newly poor UX. I try to start notepad to jot down some scratch. It sluggishly reopens whatever it previously had open (e.g. from before a reboot)...and in doing so, doesn't actually create a new document for me.
            • JohnFen 9mo ago
              That was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. For my use case, it rendered Notepad unusable.
            • p_ing 9mo ago
              Then turn off session resuming? Turn off Copilot? They're options in the Settings menu, if you don't want them.
      • anonymars 9mo ago
        To wit: "Second was how he got Notepad to load files so quickly" So much for that
  • WorldMaker 9mo ago
    Wordpad confused too many people looking for Word and not finding Microsoft 365 for Family Workgroups Home Edition, especially after they boosted Windows 10 Wordpad to have enough features/power to replace the lost word processor of Microsoft Works, so it was removed.
    • JohnFen 9mo ago
      That's a patently absurd reason (although I could totally see it). They could have just renamed it rather than destroy the value proposition of Notepad.
      • WorldMaker 9mo ago
        True. Though some of that destruction to Notepad isn't just the loss of Wordpad's fault but Microsoft's problems with Notepad++ eating its brand for too many years and making too many "must install" lists. I'm not entirely sure how Copilot integration helps them beat Notepad++, but I suppose that's why I'm not a PM.
        • JohnFen 9mo ago
          Why would they care about Notepad++'s impact, though? Nobody is deciding whether or not to use Windows based on Notepad. For some of us, Notepad was most useful in its original form and Notepad++ was not a good replacement. But at least an earlier, less bad, version of Notepad is still available on Win 11. There's just no icon or link to it, so you have to know it's there. It's C:\Windows\notepad.exe
          • WorldMaker 9mo ago
            As someone else who has never particularly liked Notepad++ either, I mostly agree that chasing after it is a mistake, especially this many years after Notepad++'s height in relevancy. Perhaps ironically, many of those same "must install" lists that included Notepad++ have moved on to other tools, one of them being Microsoft's own VSCode. VSCode is a "good, helpful" AI host to sell more AI, so I presume some "AI in Notepad" pressure is "capture the few remaining people not yet installing VSCode out of the box". > But at least an earlier, less bad, version of Notepad is still available on Win 11. There's just no icon or link to it, so you have to know it's there. It's C:\Windows\notepad.exe Also, for what it is worth, a new relative to EDIT.COM is now back, in almost its former glory, just not yet installed in every Windows by default: https://github.com/microsoft/edit https://github.com/microsoft/edit
  • bbradley406 9mo ago
    Today I ran an into an issue with Notepad while at work. I tried to open and print a .txt document for an order, and it completely failed with some type of filesystem read error. Didn't save the log, since I was in a hurry to place the order, but a quick google search didn't help at all. Granted, the file is in a Dropbox folder, so I thought could be affecting it somehow, but notepad++ opened it just fine. Sure, using notepad to type and print orders isn't the best possible work flow, but it's always worked for me in that same setup previously. I tried to explain why my document printed with line numbers to the recipient (who isn't particularly tech savvy), and felt like a crazy person while doing so. Looks like I'll be using notepad++ going forward, with line numbers off, and I'm pretty confident they'll respect that preference and keep shipping software that works.