They also introduced a critical security vulnerability into notepad where they just had the markdown links shell execute
open linkwhich allowed just installing arbitrary software as long as the link was valid instead of just opening a browser.If you managed to get the file onto a person’s you could execute it by having the person click on the link.
Wordpad? I’ll stick to Word Perfect 5.1, thank you very much.
Word.
(or actually, Word. The one that ran on DOS and looked like an Emo version on QBASIC. I liked that thing).
wait what the frick since when were they updating Notepad
Since Microslop Windooze 11:Enshittified Edition.
Win 11 has been a privacy/anonymity/usability nightmare. Thanks in no small part to MS enshittifying absolutely every corner of it with AI. Right down to grabbing it by the notepad.
Since last year.
GNU EMACS is RIGHT THERE in WINDOWS
You can INSTALL IT
(Well you can’t install it, you kinda just dump it in Program Files)
PEOPLE have been EXTENDING it for DECADES SAFELY
WHAT are you WAITING FORWell, since you asked… I’m waiting for guile-emacs to make a breakout like neovim did.
If for some reason you’re stuck on windows, might I recommend notepad++ ?
Kate is great and available for Windows, too!
But also beware as notepad++ has had a security breach recently.
So has everything.
A text editor shouldn’t be having security breaches.
Technically it was the server for updates that got breached, not the editor itself.
Neither should Windows itself. But here we are. And have been for some time.
As much as I liked old notepad, it is a pretty decent markdown editor.
I love most of the changes they made, but Copilot can fuck right off my Notepad. It’s supposed to be fast and offline.
Both classic Notepad and classic WordPad can be downloaded and installed from third-party sites.
However, to thoroughly neuter the enshittified versions and ensure the classic versions are used in all workflows can take a bit more than what the installers recommend. Primarily, I would recommend adding the *.bak extension to the enshittified versions then make (IIRC) junction links from the classic ones to where the enshittified ones are sitting. This ensures that if anything reaches for the enshittified ones, the junction links are there to redirect the action to the classic versions.
They updated the screenshot tool. Now its like paint.
Its really a shame. Every OS needs a simple text editor, possibly without formatting support of any kind. You’re not supposed to use it, it just makes it possible to edit basic configurations on the fly and things like that. Instead they support half of word pad and cram in copilot for some reason.
Although I do admit, I haven’t seen the need to move away from kwrite for a long time. Basic text editor that does what it should and does it right!What’s the equivalent in Linux? I’m using an Arch-based distro with KDE, the only editor I can see is Kate, but I might be missing something due to the Linux naming conventions.
I think kwrite on kde. Arch may come more barebones though.
It’s hard to point to one because linux isn’t an operating system per se… and many distros come with different software packages with different DE’s. That’s where a GUI text editor’s home is, so it depends on that, the distro.
Then just types into and don’t do any formatting. I use it daily at work for pasting text I want to keep. That’s it I type or paste I never save, I never click any menus etc.
I hate this person. It makes me want to scream. One of the dumbest stupidest things about Windows is a fucking useless programs go on with it that haven’t been updated in 20 years. Please update them. You want to update notepad? Go look at Notepad+. Please please please update all the shitty little programs that exist around Windows that no one uses cause they’re so goddamn shitty.
Holy fuck update Windows programs. For the love of God update ALL the Windows programs. Make the goddamn search tool work. Make the goddamn voice to text work. Make the image viewer not suck. Please don’t listen to the people who are resistant to change. Leave an old shitty version on there just for them, but please please make Windows programs better because they suck right now!!
What a bad take. Notepad was never meant to have formatting, as the post states. Notepad’s purpose was to open war text files as raw text. For formatted text, there was WordPad. What made notepad great is that it was the fastest and easiest way to just know what is in the damn file.
Unfortunately it has a use. Microsoft discontinued WordPad
I hated wordpad. New notepad is so much better than the old. An undo on old notepad would undo the last 1-7 sentences randomly, and wouldn’t redo. Remembering notes is also good, and I love markdown.
I don’t use the ai and it never was in the way of what I needed, so whatever.The last time I used notepad the undo option worked both as undo and redo, since it only kept the latest change and undoing was also a change that could be undone.
Both classic Notepad and classic WordPad can be downloaded and installed from third-party sites.
However, to thoroughly neuter the enshittified versions and ensure the classic versions are used in all workflows can take a bit more than what the installers recommend. Primarily, I would recommend adding the *.bak extension to the enshittified versions then make (IIRC) junction links from the classic ones to where the enshittified ones are sitting. This ensures that if anything reaches for the enshittified ones, the junction links are there to redirect the action to the classic versions.
That’s a funny way of saying “Re-install Windows 10” or “install Linux”
(I don’t use Arch btw)
(also, yes. The .bak thing works)
I was devasted when I heard this
What am I supposed to use when ms-word breaks itself while I’m offline now
notepad
Images don’t work very well, but I guess you don’t need those if you have an imagination
I understand Notepad++ is pretty cool?
Yes, it’s not made by Microsoft.
I wish they’d release a version for Linux so I could experience the "pretty cool"ness for myself :)
I’ve been enjoying Kate as my Linux alt
There’s notepadqq which appears to be a clone of notepad++, but it’s not maintained anymore.
Geany is pretty similar.
It probably runs on Wine/Proton.
I use Neovim (and Kate sometimes)
I use Helix.
Tabs were a welcome addition, but that’s where the good idea train swiftly leaves the rails.
What we needed was a built-in hex editor, and maybe some better tools for working with unicode that you can’t just type in on whatever keyboard you have.
Instead, they turned it into WordPad, which we already have.
hex
Does windows power toys have one?
No idea. I want to say ‘yes’, but the last time I installed Power Toys was under Win2k.
Its not even wordpad. It only supports markdown not rtf… it only exists so they could easily shove copilot into it.
I get the saltiness about Copilot but this is getting ridiculous.
It got dark mode, sessions, tabs, and a Markdown viewer. How are these bad changes? How do these “only exist so they could easily shove Copilot into” them?
(btw, you can disable Copilot from Notepad with three clicks)
Notepad was supposed to be the simplest lightest weight text editor. It didn’t need to change.
Let’s try from a different angle: which functionalities of Notepad have been lost?
Well I’m not on Windows anymore so I can’t test it out. Does it still have the option to only show text raw and uninterpeted? I absolutely would not want it to, like, show bold instead of
**bold**I wouldn’t want it to do anything other than show the literal text, and anything in that direction is a loss via added friction.
Does it still have the option to only show text raw and uninterpeted? I absolutely would not want it to, like, show bold instead of bold
- You have to manually switch the display mode from raw to formatted for the formatting to show.
- It only works for saved
.mdfiles.
True, but IMO it makes a lot more sense to support markdown under Wordpad than Notepad since the controls and doc-style layout/rendering support is already there.
it only exists so they could easily shove copilot into it.
