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Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#411

Post by thekevan »

Notepad is turning into the text app I desperately want, except for the association with Copilot. And then with new changes, it had the recent security vulnerabilities issues. The only thing it doesn't have that I want is a sidebar that shows folders or files like so many text editors already do.

I never use Notepad anymore. I have been using Pulsar, which is okay, but not exactly what I want.

I want a text editor that can do markdown if I want, spell check, minimal tool bar with some formatting shortcuts, etc.

I'd love it if a "dumbed down Typora" had a love child with Notepad.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#412

Post by einr »

eurleif wrote: post #382
TeMPOraL wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. I was going to say, last time I saw this was 20+ years ago, and I forgot it exists - but I must be remembering something else. It seems `edit` is a new thing , if I'm to believe https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/edit/ I can confirm it exists on my Windows 11 machine, and I didn't install it specifically, though it's definitely not a base install (upgraded from Windows 10, and plenty of dev tooling instal…

The documentation doesn't make this entirely clear, but I think these are two separate things: the original `edit` command which is built into Windows 11 (and has been built into prior Windows releases), and a replacement written in Rust that can optionally be installed. Note that my link is dated 2023, whereas Wikipedia says that Microsoft Edit was first released in 2025: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS_Editor

The old EDIT never shipped with any 64-bit Windows IIRC, since it was a 16-bit MS-DOS application. I believe 32-bit Windows 10 has it..?

As someone who (mercifully) only occasionally has to touch Windows machines, I keep forgetting this, and then when I try to do stuff I’m flabbergasted that the operating system does not include a terminal text editor. (In a fit of pure desperation I even typed EDLIN into the Command Prompt — no go ;)

That was the case with Win11 about a year ago; if they finally started shipping EDIT64 then hey, that’s one positive recent change in Windows I suppose.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#413

Post by shakna »

Rohansi wrote: post #391
shakna wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats not the case here. Web browsers warn you about opening arbitrary protocols. And you have to select the program that will open it. This Notepad vuln, allows you to click things like ssh://x....

> This Notepad vuln, allows you to click things like ssh://x.... Which just opens up SSH connecting to a server. Is that really RCE? It'll also only work with URI schemes that are registered on your system. It's not running arbitrary commands - software you install on your PC registers URI schemes and sets what command it should run when opened. It's then up to that software to parse the URI and handle it properly. I…

It doesn't only work with protocols registered by "your system" - Notepad doesn't register protocols. And Notepad is the user agent, here.

It works with your _locally_ registered protocols, not just the _remote_ protocols.

Which is why it works with JScript. And Powershell. And Visual Basic.

This is a bug that replicates why IE 4 was called insecure. Its not something that should ever surface again, today.

It is... The exact example of what an RCE is. _Local_ code executed by a _remote_ command.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#414

Post by deafpolygon »

derefr wrote: post #263
deafpolygon wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you think about it, Wordpad was always just the free "lite" edition of Word for people who didn't buy Office to use. Like Outlook Express was to Outlook. But in the world we seem to be heading toward, where you can only log into Windows with a Microsoft account, and where your Microsoft 365 subscription state controls which "edition" or "desktop experience" of Windows you get as said logged-in user (regardless of…

they didn’t remove wordpad before pulling the trigger on this… you can use the online version of Word for free, effectively achieving what you are saying.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#415

Post by einr »

amyjess wrote: post #394

Are there any text editors for Windows that are feature-for-feature and bug-for-bug compatible with the Windows 95 build of Notepad? I'm looking for a plain and simple text editor with no programmers' features—no line numbers, syntax highlighting, etc.—no tabs or MDI whatsoever. No, I'm not looking for something with "you can turn these off", just a complete reimplementation of Win95 Notepad made via black-box testin…

Honestly, if you need this, just extract NOTEPAD.EXE from a Windows 95 (or NT 4) installation.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#416

Post by perching_aix »

drited wrote: post #409
perching_aix wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought it is by introducing an RCE vulnerability that you get an RCE vulnerability. I'm being facetious of course, but this recent rhetorical trend of people confidently vouching for "pet" in "pet vs. cattle" is not a sustainable decision, even if it's admittedly plain practical on the short to medium run, or in given contexts even longer. It's just a dangerous and irresponsible lesson to blindly repeat I think. C…

What does pet" in "pet vs. cattle" mean?

It comes from the world of systems operations. Something long-lived and trusted, so high emotional attachment (pet), vs. something short-lived that thus does not need to be trusted, so comparatively low emotional attachment (cattle).

For example, Bob's one-of-a-kind trusty server from which Bob is nigh inseparable, vs. a Docker container with a version controlled config you routinely tear down and bring up instances of, maybe even in an automated fashion.

Here this would map to trusty aged codebases you don't touch out of fear and caution, vs. codebases you can confidently touch because the spec, the code, the tests, the tooling, and the processes are solid.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#418

Post by orthoxerox »

GuB-42 wrote: post #367

Ironic how Notepad used to be too simple, making it useless as a text editor in many cases. In particular, it didn't support UNIX line endings and files larger than a few MB. The there was a brief moment where it became decent. Still a barebones text editor, but it could actually edit text, what I think most people expected Notepad to be. And now, it is going the other way, with "AI" features no one wanted, and also…

Yeah, Notepad was originally nothing more than a Win32 multiline textbox and two functions, one of which read the file and set the textbox value to the contents and the other took the textbox value and wrote it to the file. Every other menu option simply changed some existing property of the textbox.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#419

Post by barrkel »

jchw wrote: post #405

> Coloring book will be available only on Copilot+ PCs. To use Coloring book, you will need to sign in with your Microsoft account. Can someone please explain why these two things are ever simultaneously true? You buy the stupid Copilot+ PC that has "AI" NPU hardware, right? So the AI features should be able to run locally. But if you have to sign in with a Microsoft account, then surely, it doesn't run locally, whic…

The goal is obviously to onboard consumers to an app store ecosystem so MS can charge monopoly rents to app developers for access to Windows users.

Everything MS is doing in Windows is to this end.

Re: Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

#420

Post by barrkel »

orthoxerox wrote: post #418
GuB-42 wrote: post #367

Ironic how Notepad used to be too simple, making it useless as a text editor in many cases. In particular, it didn't support UNIX line endings and files larger than a few MB. The there was a brief moment where it became decent. Still a barebones text editor, but it could actually edit text, what I think most people expected Notepad to be. And now, it is going the other way, with "AI" features no one wanted, and also…

Yeah, Notepad was originally nothing more than a Win32 multiline textbox and two functions, one of which read the file and set the textbox value to the contents and the other took the textbox value and wrote it to the file. Every other menu option simply changed some existing property of the textbox.

Don't forget the .LOG feature.
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