End of an Era: Microsoft Pulls the Plug on WordPad in Windows
Microsoft has announced that WordPad, the basic word processor included with Windows since 1995, is being retired and will no longer be updated. WordPad has been outdated for years and is barely usable for its intended purpose. Microsoft recommends using Microsoft Word for rich text documents and Windows Notepad for plain text documents. While WordPad had some updates over the years, it looks outdated in modern Windows versions. The timing of its removal is unclear, but Microsoft's decision is not surprising given the availability of free web versions of Word and the declining use of RTF files.