MS Paint is here to stay • Hacker News Board

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#221

Post by e12e » Tue, Jul 25, 2017, 1:04 PM UTC

malekpour wrote: post #206

There are much better free [web based] alternatives for WordPad, Paint and Notepad these days and I prefer to use those over these obsolete applications. These are not useful applications, we just like them because of nostalgia. I doubt if Microsoft is removing Paint because of OS base image size. It should be more about source code maintenance and UI consistency. Both WordPad and Paint got ribbon user interface for…

In general, Web based apps aren't useful when taking notes or screeenshots trying to figure out/document why/that networking isn't working...

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#222

Post by orf » Tue, Jul 25, 2017, 1:07 PM UTC

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #214

toxican wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really MS's fault then, is it? If IT doesn't want you installing apps, that's on them.

But you can install any app from Sourceforge/ , it's just that MS has chosen not to offer their App Store in the Win10 Long Term Support Branch, which most enterprises use. So they've actually locked you out of the walled garden, which is a bit funny.

Sounds like a bad IT department that doesn't know how to configure group policy rather than anything to do with Microsoft to be honest.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#223

Post by Jaruzel » Tue, Jul 25, 2017, 1:08 PM UTC

wila wrote: post #179

Jaruzel wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just me then. I hated Windows 10 Calc so much, that I copied over calc.exe from Windows 7 and made the following registry change: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\CALC.EXE (Default) C:\ \calc.exe Path C:\ Presto! Whenever you Win+R, Calc.exe - you get the Windows 7 one instead. This would work for any of the other apps listed in 'App Paths' too (or you can add your own).

Had tried to do this before and did not work. As I'm curious, just tried it again and the Win7 calc just does not want to run. So wondering why it would work on your end. Do you have an old .net runtime on your machine perchance?

Possibly. Or it's an earlier version of calc.exe I'm actually using - I'm not sure.

If you think you can trust me (you can!) - try this one:

http://www.jaruzel.com/files/calc.zip

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#224

Post by chiph » Tue, Jul 25, 2017, 1:11 PM UTC

richev wrote: post #109

chrismorgan wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was how it was branded—Paint 3D replaced mspaint.exe and it was positioned as an upgrade (Paint → Paint 3D). But there was substantial backlash when Paint 3D didn’t do all that mspaint.exe had done, and Microsoft caved to pressure and put mspaint.exe back a build or two later.

Hardly an "upgrade" if functionality that people use gets removed...

The folks in Cupertino need to learn this.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#225

Post by autokad » Tue, Jul 25, 2017, 1:16 PM UTC

opdahl wrote: post #11

What is, and has been great about MS Paint is that no matter what Windows machine I have been on, I know that I have had it available. No matter if it's my old grandma's computer, if I have needed to quickly do something simple with an image, MS Paint has always been there for me. Now that will no longer be the case. If I have to download and install it on the computer before I use it, then what is the point? It will…

paint on windows 3.1 had more features. for example, it had the ability to erase one color to another color. I was a bit shocked when I opened paint in '98

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#226

Post by kristianc » Tue, Jul 25, 2017, 1:17 PM UTC

gurkendoktor wrote: post #215

kristianc wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't massively new either: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Desktop

Active Desktop was always optional, wasn't it? And was it really used for advertising by default? I thought it was mostly arbitrary browser windows that you could attach to the desktop.

Active Desktop was on by default in Windows 98 and had channels from content partners that pushed to the desktop.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#227

Post by gwbas1c » Tue, Jul 25, 2017, 1:22 PM UTC

Where's the link? Specifically, how come this blog page doesn't link to the app in the app store?

Anyway, I agree that MS Paint needs to be built-in to Windows. It's like Notepad for images. Something that's reliable that we know that works and how to use.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#228

Post by sathackr » Tue, Jul 25, 2017, 1:23 PM UTC

orf wrote: post #222

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you can install any app from Sourceforge/ , it's just that MS has chosen not to offer their App Store in the Win10 Long Term Support Branch, which most enterprises use. So they've actually locked you out of the walled garden, which is a bit funny.

Sounds like a bad IT department that doesn't know how to configure group policy rather than anything to do with Microsoft to be honest.

One main paramount of security is to reduce your attack surface. One of the first steps to that is to uninstall/remove things that don't belong or that you will not use. An ad-riddled(with ads likely served by a relatively insecure ad network) game is not something that belongs in a corporate network.

Try removing CandyCrushSaga and Facebook, and XBoxIdentityProvider(among many others)...they come right back after the next round of updates.

If you're going allow Windows Store with all of its junk(that you have very little control over), might as well allow Bonzai Buddy, Ask Toolbar, and Super PC Cleaner 2017 Premium Edition Recommended Microsoft!

And the argument that Windows Store apps are more secure so even if a ad or application is malicious the damage is limited doesn't hold water. A quick google will bring up tons of examples of code escaping sandboxes, even entire virtual machines. Any environment, no matter how secure, will always benefit from a reduction in attack surface area.

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#229

Post by silassales » Tue, Jul 25, 2017, 1:25 PM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #195

philtar wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is not like literally every other application. It does not appear in the Programs and Features list with an uninstall option. I googled it just to make sure I wasn't misremembering since you seem so certain, but others have the same problem. And the solutions are unpleasant: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-completely-remove-paint-3... . Are you going to try to tell me that using the command line and editing t…

What are you trying to achieve here? What would you like me to say?

He "just wants to complain".

Re: MS Paint is here to stay

#230

Post by Jwarder » Tue, Jul 25, 2017, 1:26 PM UTC

etatoby wrote: post #186

positivecomment wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When that "Get Office" thing first popped-up, I was sure my PC was infected with malware and came to the brink of formatting my hard drive. Later came the random console pop-up from the automatic WSL updates [1] and then I did panic enough to actually format all the things but that's another story. [1]: https://github.com/Microsoft/BashOnWindows/issues/841

The random console popups give me the jeebies! I still don't know what causes them. Never had such things on older Windows/Lenovo machines.

You might want to review the scheduled tasks. My system had "OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration" set to run every hour. It only pops up for an instant, but it would grab input focus and thus do bad things to my blood pressure.