Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#21

Post by embedding-shape » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 5:34 PM UTC

7bit wrote: post #13

Can Microsoft please stop? If I need Copilot and Markdown Support I use VS Code or any other software that supports it. I recently used Windows Sandbox and was surprised that it does not have notepad. And why? Because it's a Store App now and that's unsupported inside the Windows Sandbox. Notepad is supposed to be dumb, not Microsoft!

> Can Microsoft please stop? If I need Copilot and Markdown Support I use VS Code or any other software that supports it.

I can't even get visual studio code to stop showing that right-hand sidebar every time it opens up, regardless of what settings I use. It seems to work for a while, and then it appears again like magic.

I'm not sure how many more times they have to hit you straight in the face before you realize you're a victim here and need to get away from the abuser as much as you can, not try to "salvage" the situation.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#22

Post by aldousd666 » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 5:34 PM UTC

This would be a huge bonus for me if I ever had to use windows for anything.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#23

Post by pipeline_peak » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 5:34 PM UTC

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

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#24

Post by ChrisSD » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 5:34 PM UTC

For everyone that wants a simple, lightweight, alternative to notepad there's edit.exe on recent version of Windows. Assuming you don't mind TUIs.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#25

Post by aldousd666 » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

tencentshill wrote: post #3

It's becoming Word-lite, like Wordpad used to be. Paint is becoming Photoshop-lite, and now has conflicting functionality with the Photos app.

Word and wordpad are terrible for editing code snippets tho, markdown solves this problem.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#26

Post by BuckRogers » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

somenameforme wrote: post #16

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

And they were running on such a shoestring deployment that N++ was hacked by the Chinese last year. I'd stick with VS Code.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#27

Post by beart » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

p_ing wrote: post #12

Fervicus wrote: post #8

Stopped using notepad when they added co-pilot. Stop shoving AI down our throats.

Just disable Copilot?

In my experience, most of these features are just turned back on after a Windows update.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#28

Post by athorax » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

It's like they are trying to do the opposite of the Unix philosophy. Do many things very poorly.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#29

Post by bool3max » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 5:36 PM UTC

miroljub wrote: post #17

p_ing wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just disable Copilot?

Please show us the magic Windows settings that would disable Copilot everywhere.

At a certain point I used some "windows 11 debloat script" and I haven't encountered a bit of Copilot or any other AI nonsense anywhere in Windows since.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#30

Post by SamuelAdams » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 5:36 PM UTC

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...

For the absolute lightweight, there is vi, eMacs, nano, etc.

For a UI I’ve been using VSCode. It is quite quick when you disable all extensions and most settings.