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Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#131

Post by tracker1 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #121
tracker1 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this was actually (pre)installed with Windows, I wouldn't mind the changes to notepad nearly as much.

While I'd love it installed by default, I still very much mind that they're ruining Notepad. Plus this Markdown preview functionality just caused Notepad to have a Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in it.

Oh it's still pretty stupid, and I think they should have simply resurrected the Wordpad name for this, and maybe a conversion utility for opening doc/rtf files to markdown in the editor for older file support.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#132

Post by cogman10 »

ActionHank wrote: post #113

This is why I uninstalled Notepad. They are convinced it needs to be a worse vscode when all I want is something to edit plain text files.

What I want in windows is Notepad++ or Kate (and even Kate is a bit much). That's the full extent of the features that I'd want in something like notepad.

Adding RTF and a wysiwyg markdown editor is the last thing that I want from something like notepad. When I open notepad, I still want to see the characters that are present. Heck, I'd like to be able to see the difference between a space and a tab. I'd want to be able to see which type of line ending are being used (and switch to the correct one, \n) Hiding characters is antithetical to the reason I'd use notepad in the first place.

I want to be able to search text and see text. Not compose a document or talk to an LLM.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#133

Post by john_strinlai »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #40
pipeline_peak wrote: post #23

I don’t see why people are complaining. If you use notepad for txt files, nothing changes.

The concern is that more features introduces more risk. See CVE-2026-20841 for a recent example. If the application remained a simple text editor, it is unlikely exploits like this would be possible. https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-20...

true! more features is more risk.

but i dont think most people here are complaining because of security risk... otherwise they wouldnt be recommending things like notepad++, other obscure editors, or editors with way larger code bases.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#135

Post by cogman10 »

LatencyKills wrote: post #126
tracker1 wrote: post #93

I still say this is stupid AF, and that notepad should stay as simple as reasonable as a plain text editor and they should have resurrected "WordPad" for this purpose if they wanted it in Windows. I'm mixed on the enhancements to Paint... but this just feels a bit off. Maybe I'd mind it less if they put the new MS Edit in Windows by default, so again, there's a minimal plain text editor in the box.

I was an engineer on the Visual Studio team. Internally, the Notepad project existed to provide a minimal, shippable product that we could use as a testbed. We used it to validate everything from compiler changes to kernel32 loader behavior on beta versions of Windows. If Notepad didn’t run, your feature didn’t work. This doesn't seem like a good idea.

Well, you see, they got rid of all the QA so those tests stopped adding value ;)

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#136

Post by ronsor »

deafpolygon wrote: post #104
tracker1 wrote: post #93

I still say this is stupid AF, and that notepad should stay as simple as reasonable as a plain text editor and they should have resurrected "WordPad" for this purpose if they wanted it in Windows. I'm mixed on the enhancements to Paint... but this just feels a bit off. Maybe I'd mind it less if they put the new MS Edit in Windows by default, so again, there's a minimal plain text editor in the box.

Wordpad presented a “free” tool that they couldn’t monetize anymore. They want you to use Office. Copilot is shoved into Notepad so they can monetize your data stream.

They could've shoved Copilot in Wordpad

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#138

Post by noinsight »

pvdebbe wrote: post #111

Notepad going the way of Wordpad, EDIT.COM becoming the new Notepad. What's next, in a few years we're rocking EDLIN when we need to operate on a text file safely?

> EDIT.COM becoming the new Notepad.

edit.exe[1,2] actually. And it runs on Linux too! Linux had a real lack of good text editors.

[1] https://github.com/microsoft/edit

[2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/edit/

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#139

Post by well_ackshually »

5o1ecist wrote: post #71
soupfordummies wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please show me the few sentence prompt to create a windows 10 level notepad.exe clone that I can quickly open and use by hitting win+r

[flagged]

>python

>tkinter

so you missed the part where notepad starts instantly, doesn't choke on files larger than 25KB and uses native Win32 controls ?

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#140

Post by Someone1234 »

hypeatei wrote: post #34
Longhanks wrote: post #4

They’re turning Notepad into what Wordpad was (or was supposed to be). Now everyone looking for the light weightiest *.txt editor must find a new tool...

Notepad++ is solid but they had a recent kerfuffle involving their security practices and the response didn't inspire much confidence. But if you turn off auto-updates then it's a good alternative if you're still on Windows.

The issue Notepad++ is having, is the same as a lot of open source projects: They don't have a ton of money, don't have a business entity, and are struggling to get/keep a software-signing key in those circumstances.

So the people taking pot shots at the developers, I guess, maybe be more specific with what they did wrong and what they should have done instead. Because if you actually understand the history/circumstances (and the fact it was a third-party hosting provider compromised), one would expect more blame on the systemic under-funding of OSS than "developers bad."

Are people wanting them to create a business, monetize Notepad++, so that they no longer have issues with hosting/certificates? I'm guessing not.

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