WordPad, the free word processor included with Windows, is to be discontinued presently. In a blog post about the next preview build of the Windows 11 operating system, the company snuck in the news under “Changes and Improvements” after announcing new features.
Starting with this build, the WordPad and People apps will no longer be installed after doing a clean install of the OS. In a future flight, WordPad will be removed on upgrade. WordPad will not be reinstallable. WordPad is a deprecated Windows feature.
WordPad doesn’t seem to be well-liked software, neither minimalist (like Notepad) nor fully featured (like Word), but this is quite the ignominious send-off for a 28-year-old app.
