Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

blogs.windows.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 558 posts

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#181

Post by CivBase »

embedding-shape wrote: post #11
CivBase wrote: post #7

Is the value add for Notepad not that it is litterally the most bare bones graphical text editor available in Windows? Microsoft has already positioned VS Code as its code editor and OneNote as its notetaking app. Why should Notepad compete with these offerings?

Why not? Microsoft's approach seems to be "the more the merrier" even if they have the same intended audiences. Not sure how it makes sense, but considering the company is still around, maybe in some twisted way it does make sense?

I'd think the answer to "why not?" would be because in being a bare bones, dead simple text editor is Notepad's core feature. And by adding these redundant featues, they are effectively removing Notepad's core feature without even providing a replacement.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#182

Post by mikestew »

SllX wrote: post #156
deafpolygon wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it would still compete with Word. They want you to switch to Office 365 (I mean, Copilot 365).

You jest but they did name change it to Microsoft 365. Confused the hell out of me recently when I was looking for Office 365 on their website. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_365

That’s Microsoft 365 Copilot” to you, buddy.

https://www.office.com/

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#183

Post by Dylan16807 »

well_ackshually wrote: post #139
5o1ecist wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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 ?

It only takes a few megabytes to make notepad have serious delays. Are you sure the linked program is any worse?

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#184

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

wk_end wrote: post #109
somenameforme wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

notepad++ is great, though they have a dubious habit of dumping political messages on releases.

I don't have any use for Notepad++, but reading about this makes me wish I did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notepad%2B%2B#Political_messag... The possibility of software being a personal, creative, expressive endeavor (which often includes politics), something I believed in back when I was in university twenty years ago, is a feeling that's receded deeply into the past. That might be as much about me as it is about…

reading about political messaging in any software should make you AVOID it, not "wishing to have it"

the moment software stops being neutral, it becomes a target

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#185

Post by lunar_rover »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #166
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.

Wouldn’t VSCode be a better alternative to wordpad?

VSCode needs Electron which is too big IMO. It's also a specialised code editor instead of a general text editor, with features like builtin terminal and traditional menus instead of ribbons.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#187

Post by EvanAnderson »

numpad0 wrote: post #158

psa: you can "uninstall" the bad sloppad and disable "App Execution Alias" for notepad.exe to get the better notepad back. just fyi

Just uninstalling the new "Windows Notepad" application is sufficient. No registry changes necessary. I've put a command line in another comment.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#188

Post by larrybud »

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.

The minimal text editor shipped with Windows is now Edit https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/edit/

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#189

Post by j2kun »

password4321 wrote: post #179

I believe Markdown support is what led to CVE-2026-20841 earlier this month. 20260211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46971516 Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (804 points, 516 comments) 20260210 https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-20... > "An attacker could trick a user into clicking a malicious link inside a Markdown file opened in Notepad" Other recent Notepad issu…

This is my favorite part of this story. Do you want remote code execution? Because [fixing things that aren't broken] is how you get remote code execution.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#190

Post by hirako2000 »

escapeteam wrote: post #137

Why is progress always assumed to be about adding more stuff? Sometimes, taking something away would be best, but humans tend to overlook it. Article: People systematically overlook subtractive changes - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03380-y

We are hard wired to perceive addition as value.
Post reply on HN