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Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

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Re: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

#281

Post by xattt »

bragr wrote: post #217
13of40 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like there were three options: 1. Ship Word with Windows and not get paid for it, even though they had hundreds of engineers working on it. 2. Ship no word processor with Windows, and make the end user find one on their own. 3. Ship a basic one and let the user upgrade to Word if they needed something more. At the time with option 2, it's not like you're going to hit google and download some FOSS solution - you…

Microsoft had a cheaper office suite that they sold as a middle ground. I remember the "poor" kids in highschool couldn't edit their papers in certain ways at home and had to do some things on school computers instead. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Works

> I remember the "poor" kids in highschool couldn't edit their papers in certain ways at home

The irony was that Microsoft included Microsoft Money in the Works suite, likely to give an aspiration of saving and making enough in order to upgrade to the Office suite.

Re: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

#282

Post by throwaway2990 »

hulitu wrote: post #243
j16sdiz wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notepad.exe have lots of improvement in past 10 years. A major revamp in 2022 It is no longer a "thin wrapper".

I noticed that it needs more than 3 seconds to start on my work laptop. Truly an improvement. /s

On none of my laptops running latest windows does it take 3s… it’s instant…

Re: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

#283

Post by geokon »

supermatou wrote: post #61
niutech wrote: post #46

Which free/open source alfernatives to WordPad for Windows do you recommend then? LibreOffice is huge and slow, MS Office Online requires Internet. How to edit simple RTF/DOC documents offline on Windows without downloading >300MB full LibreOffice suite? Only Abiword comes to my mind.

Focus Writer. Open-source, minimalist interface (but enough useful options in settings) and many more. I've been using it for years, very happy with it https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/ Edit: Also available for Linux (deb/flatpak)

Hard to complain about free, but overall it feels a bit .. unpolished. On Ubuntu 22.04 jammy you can't change the font reliably

Re: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

#284

Post by troupo »

404mm wrote: post #194
xmonkee wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not use the notes app? you get in built folders and shari g options too

Notes would be a total killer app if it supported Markdown.

They forced people to upgrade the full operating system when they ever so slightly changed Notes' format recently. I shudder to think what it will take them to support Markdown.

(And yes, I use Notes for everything :) )

Re: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

#285

Post by jstummbillig »

throwaway2990 wrote: post #282
hulitu wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed that it needs more than 3 seconds to start on my work laptop. Truly an improvement. /s

On none of my laptops running latest windows does it take 3s… it’s instant…

But how would you create engaging internet content around that.

Re: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

#286

Post by troupo »

mrob wrote: post #277
hilbert42 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"(by compiling it from source, or by using a ready-to-use version provided directly by the maintainers of the software itself, which is often, if not always, a possibility)," This is fine for those of us who know how to compile the source or find a ready-to-use version. Trouble is, I've often been in situations without updated sources being available and or where maintainers haven't been contactable. Ordinary users a…

If ordinary users don't want to learn they have the option of paying somebody to do it for them.

That's why ordinary users they pay for Windows. And iPhones. They couldn't be bothered with "you should learn to compile arbitrary programs from source for the particular version of a particulr linux distirbution with particular library versions and available software".

In all fairness I, as a programmer, couldn't be bothered to do that either.

Re: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

#287

Post by komadori »

throwaway_75369 wrote: post #40

One interesting thing about WordPad (at least from the Windows XP / 7 era) was that it supported the complete OLE2 / ActiveX stack. This let you do all kinds of things like embed other types of controls (like canvases or images from Paint, or Excel tables) inside your document, and WordPad's UI would jump through all the hoops to update and transform into the embedded application's UI when that control gained focus.…

I have a story which predates WordPad, but concerns OLE support in it's predecessor Write:

At my secondary school, a long time ago now, they used PCs from educational vendor Research Machines (RM). These ran a locked down version of the Windows 3.11 Program Manager which didn't allow you to start any unapproved programs. I discovered you could embed EXEs from a floppy disk as OLE objects in a Write document and then start them from within Write by double clicking. In this manner, I could bring my LibertyBasic programs in from home and run them on the school's machines :-).

Re: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

#288

Post by kotaKat »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #63

>There’s no reason to be outraged by this decision Actually, I have a reason to be outraged by this decision. I like using WordPad, and it will take me time and effort to find an adequate replacement for a simple note-taking application.

Rip C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories and back it up somewhere. WordPad.exe is standalone. If you're running Win7+ you'll need the en-us/muis/etc, if you pull from an XP install wordpad.exe is all you'll ever need to do.

Re: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

#289

Post by kotaKat »

badsectoracula wrote: post #238
throwaway_75369 wrote: post #40

One interesting thing about WordPad (at least from the Windows XP / 7 era) was that it supported the complete OLE2 / ActiveX stack. This let you do all kinds of things like embed other types of controls (like canvases or images from Paint, or Excel tables) inside your document, and WordPad's UI would jump through all the hoops to update and transform into the embedded application's UI when that control gained focus.…

One neat OLE object (btw this works even in Windows 10 - i don't know about 11) is the "package" which allows you to embed any file as an OLE object. So basically you can drop an image file, PDF, video, program or anything else in WordPad and it'll put an icon representing it that if the user double clicks it'd be equivalent to them doubleclicking a file. Of course most of the time it isn't very practical (and WordPa…

I was tinkering last night and it was amusing to have Windows XP Wordpad spawn a Windows 10 Wordpad instance in OLE mode.

https://i.imgur.com/51BySZ0.png

Re: Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows

#290

Post by tsss »

davnn wrote: post #94
not_your_vase wrote: post #78

I'm always sad to see applications go (especially if the recommended alternative is a paid software), but did that thing ever work properly? In the past decade I used Windows only when someone held a gun to my head, but before that I remember that WordPad always messed up all documents I have ever opened: weird page and line breaks, picture and textbox formatting all over the place, and saving a document was a good w…

Nobody uses WordPad, nobody wants to improve WordPad, WordPad will be sunset.

I always use wordpad to take notes. It's fast, no-nonsense, always pre-installed but has just the right amount of rich text formatting.
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