It’s no surprise We already knew that WordPad’s life was numbered, since it was Microsoft themselves who told us about it back in September of last year (2023, for those who haven’t finished processing the year change yet). However, as we told you at the time, Redmond had not yet revealed when it would start taking the first steps to remove it from Windows, so we didn’t know if it was a matter of months or if, on the contrary, they would take it much more calmly.

Well, now we have a rough answer to that question. As we can read on the official blogs of the operating system, Preview Build 26020 deployed in the Windows 11 Insider Canary channel marks the beginning of the end for WordPad.and with it, the lightweight text editor that has accompanied Windows for decades will no longer be installed in clean installations, and it will not be possible to install it manually either.

For now, it will remain installed on systems where it was before, but that will also change in the future. In this regard, we can read the following «In a future version, WordPad will be removed during the update. WordPad cannot be reinstalled. WordPad is a deprecated Windows feature«. Of course, they’re not telling us what version it will be, but since it seems like they’ve taken its completion pretty seriously, It’s quite likely that we won’t have to wait too long..

Halfway between Notepad and the Microsoft Word word processor, WordPad has fulfilled a very creditable role in providing new installations, a basic text editor, but allows you to use formatting optionsadd images, insert objects… in short, a solution that is quite suitable for basic needs and which nevertheless never gained the popularity of other Windows applications, such as the aforementioned Notepad or also the veteran Paint, which Microsoft wanted to remove some time ago, but in in response to popular backlash, he backed down and promised to restore (which he did).

Microsoft’s lack of interest in Windows’ lightweight text editor has been evident in recent years because, unlike other elements of the system, it has not undergone any restoration. The complete lack of news was already evident in September. But for all of us whose lives it once saved, and even more so for those of us who adopted it after using Microsoft Write, one can’t help but feel at least a little nostalgic.