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Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2026/01/21/notepad-and-paint-updates-begin-rolling-out-to-windows-insiders/
26•andreynering•1h ago

Comments

tencentshill•1h ago
It's becoming Word-lite, like Wordpad used to be. Paint is becoming Photoshop-lite, and now has conflicting functionality with the Photos app.
awakeasleep•1h ago
What happened to WordPad? Is it still a thing?

I hope they give notepad a keyboard shortcut to transition to ascii only like textedit has on the Mac

rideontime•1h ago
Gone since Windows 11 24H2, according to Wikipedia.
aldousd666•1h ago
Word and wordpad are terrible for editing code snippets tho, markdown solves this problem.
TiredOfLife•32m ago
Word and wordpad were rich text editors. Markdown is plain text
Longhanks•1h ago
They’re turning Notepad into what Wordpad was (or was supposed to be). Now everyone looking for the light weightiest *.txt editor must find a new tool...
zer0zzz•1h ago
All we wanted back in the day was Unix line ending support, and they would give even that.
embedding-shape•1h ago
How about a CTRL+Z that don't undo the past 11 years of changes you've done, and instead just undos one smaller change?
somenameforme•1h ago
notepad++ is great, though they have a dubious habit of dumping political messages on releases.
BuckRogers•1h ago
And they were running on such a shoestring deployment that N++ was hacked by the Chinese last year. I'd stick with VS Code.
reactordev•1h ago
Sublime is good too without the political rhetoric. It boggles my mind that windows users refuse the ways of vim.
SamuelAdams•1h ago
For the absolute lightweight, there is vi, eMacs, nano, etc.

For a UI I’ve been using VSCode. It is quite quick when you disable all extensions and most settings.

tmtvl•1h ago
> absolute lightweight

> eMacs

I love Emacs, but I don't see how a Lisp platform with a web browser, a Tetris implementation, and 4 terminal emulators (shell, term, ansi-term, eshell) can be considered 'lightweight'.

SamuelAdams•55m ago
Ha, fair. Lightweight in this context is relative to Notepad or any modern Windows application.
hypeatei•1h ago
Notepad++ is solid but they had a recent kerfuffle involving their security practices and the response didn't inspire much confidence. But if you turn off auto-updates then it's a good alternative if you're still on Windows.
reactordev•1h ago
Vim is The Way.
5o1ecist•1h ago
> must find a new tool...

Interesting. This is not actually true anymore, even for the masses.

Nowadays everyone can just have their own tools made, "hand-tailored" with the features they want. Maybe I'm wrong, but it feels like everyday-software is now only a few sentences (and a python script) away.

soupfordummies•17m ago
Please show me the few sentence prompt to create a windows 10 level notepad.exe clone that I can quickly open and use by hitting win+r
baal80spam•1h ago
Uh oh... https://www.laws-of-software.com/laws/zawinski/
CivBase•1h ago
Is the value add for Notepad not that it is litterally the most bare bones graphical text editor available in Windows?

Microsoft has already positioned VS Code as its code editor and OneNote as its notetaking app. Why should Notepad compete with these offerings?

embedding-shape•1h ago
Why not? Microsoft's approach seems to be "the more the merrier" even if they have the same intended audiences. Not sure how it makes sense, but considering the company is still around, maybe in some twisted way it does make sense?
Fervicus•1h ago
Stopped using notepad when they added co-pilot. Stop shoving AI down our throats.
p_ing•1h ago
Just disable Copilot?
miroljub•1h ago
Please show us the magic Windows settings that would disable Copilot everywhere.
bool3max•1h ago
At a certain point I used some "windows 11 debloat script" and I haven't encountered a bit of Copilot or any other AI nonsense anywhere in Windows since.
avazhi•1h ago
Even with all the debloat scripts you can’t get rid of it in places like Edge. And if your solution is to tell me to use a different browser then… exactly lol.
jmclnx•43m ago
simple, replace Windows with Linux or a BSD :)
munk-a•1h ago
At this point I'll just switch vendors.

I don't have the bandwidth to babysit all the different ways MSFT tries to break tools to bother using them.

bigyabai•1h ago
Yep, same as the "just disable notifications asking you to Try the New Safari!" contingency.

Defaults should not be offensive. If you try to kill me with papercuts, I will stop using your software and never look back.

beart•1h ago
In my experience, most of these features are just turned back on after a Windows update.
dietr1ch•1h ago
Just disable recall, copilot, ai, intrusive cookies, ads.

It's not fine just because you sneak a button to (temporarily) get rid of it. Just make features worth enabling instead.

jajuuka•1h ago
Here's an even crazier idea, don't click the Copilot button. WHOA.
Thanemate•1h ago
What happened to "just enable X if you need it"? Why are we always okay with every new thing being enabled by default?

Is it because the average person isn't as tech savvy as most (if not all) HN readers to know any better, and those companies want the headcount of usage to look high to please stakeholders?

Enshittification at its finest stink.

7bit•1h ago
Can Microsoft please stop? If I need Copilot and Markdown Support I use VS Code or any other software that supports it.

I recently used Windows Sandbox and was surprised that it does not have notepad. And why? Because it's a Store App now and that's unsupported inside the Windows Sandbox.

Notepad is supposed to be dumb, not Microsoft!

embedding-shape•1h ago
> Can Microsoft please stop? If I need Copilot and Markdown Support I use VS Code or any other software that supports it.

I can't even get visual studio code to stop showing that right-hand sidebar every time it opens up, regardless of what settings I use. It seems to work for a while, and then it appears again like magic.

I'm not sure how many more times they have to hit you straight in the face before you realize you're a victim here and need to get away from the abuser as much as you can, not try to "salvage" the situation.

Avicebron•1h ago
have you tried adding this to your settings json? workbench.secondarySideBar.defaultVisibility": "hidden",
gigel82•1h ago
Windows 11 LTSC still has the old school notepad.exe (and calc.exe) instead of this UWP abomination. Also: https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-20...
embedding-shape•1h ago
Is LTSC still impossible to get as someone who doesn't want to run cracked software or "license unlockers" on the same machine they do their banking on? I never found a way of buying it that didn't involve having to survive an interrogation by a sales team.
zaruvi•1h ago
Haha, I always guess whether or not there will be an LTSC comment before checking the comments. These days it's always there, even early after posting.
metalliqaz•1h ago
Isn't Markdown how they managed to get a Severity 8.8 RCE into notepad.exe?
ceejayoz•1h ago
Yup. https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20841
aldousd666•1h ago
This would be a huge bonus for me if I ever had to use windows for anything.
pipeline_peak•1h ago
I don’t see why people are complaining. If you use notepad for txt files, nothing changes.
SamuelAdams•1h ago
The concern is that more features introduces more risk. See CVE-2026-20841 for a recent example. If the application remained a simple text editor, it is unlikely exploits like this would be possible.

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-20...

jajuuka•1h ago
That's a false sense of security. We have a LONG list of vulnerabilities in open source software that were "simple" programs for decades. The house of cards approach to security is just not it.
whynotmaybe•1h ago
Because we collectively used to make fun of users that were complaining whenever an icon moved 42 pixel to the right and now we're them.

But we think we're right and still we thought they were wrong.

If we were in a PHP forum, this would be my signature: I'm getting too old for this shit.

jajuuka•1h ago
It's fashionable to hate on anything Windows. Especially in tech circles.
pipeline_peak•1h ago
Oh I’m well aware, I just think this reaction is ridiculous.

Just make your own damn notepad if it bothers you lol.

ChrisSD•1h ago
For everyone that wants a simple, lightweight, alternative to notepad there's edit.exe on recent version of Windows. Assuming you don't mind TUIs.
beart•1h ago
Hey that's neat! Where do you find out about new features like this?
athorax•1h ago
It's like they are trying to do the opposite of the Unix philosophy. Do many things very poorly.
pipeline_peak•1h ago
Why’s this poor?
0cf8612b2e1e•1h ago
My work machine is Win11 and the new Notepad is hilariously buggy. Repeatedly encountered bugs where the screen fails to paint, takes multiple seconds to load, hard refuses to open files of a certain size, etc.

Notepad was never fancy, but it was a reliable tool to strip formatting or take a quick note, and now I cannot even count on that.

helle253•1h ago
Notepad++ already exists, is more reliable, and already has a md support plugin

recent vuln asside (big caveat ill admit) idk why you would use notepad at all when N++ exists

avazhi•1h ago
TIL Windows still has Notepad.

Somebody should probably tell Microsoft we’ve all moved on to better things like Notepad++ (even when their update supply chain gets compromised).

5o1ecist•1h ago
Wow, what a time to be alive in this year of 2004!

(2004 is the year Markdown was invented. Notepad got introduced in 1983 and actually predates Windows)

mFixman•1h ago
> We’re also adding a fill tolerance slider, giving you control over how precisely the Fill tool applies color. To get started, select the Fill tool and use the slider on the left side of the canvas to adjust the tolerance to your desired level. Experiment with different tolerance settings to achieve clean fills or creative effects.

This tool would have been so useful 25 years ago when I had to manually recolour every pixel in the contour of the cool photo I was editing for my new desktop background because the fill tool didn't recognise the background properly.

TeMPOraL•1h ago
Markdown support isn't a bad idea, actually, as long as they don't break the most important (IMO) property of Notepad: binary WYSIWYG. I.e. if I type in some plain text and then open the file with anything else (including after moving to another machine/platform, or even viewing raw data stream in transit or on drive), I can trust to see that text, as is, and nothing else. In particular, if I restrict myself to lower 127 bytes, I expect byte-to-byte correspondence.

(Modulo CR/LF, of course.)

java-man•52m ago
Remember this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_hid_the_facts

TeMPOraL•24m ago
Ah, the times when computing used to be full of wonder and discovery.
ChrisArchitect•40m ago
Janaury 21st post including 'additional' Markdown support;

Meanwhile, 2 weeks ago:

Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46971516

carcabob•28m ago
This has been supported for a while now, so I wonder why this is being treated as news. But I guess it’s news to some people, so that’s fair.

I tried to take advantage of it, but the implementation felt really clunky (formatting seemed to be via menus only), so I’ve stuck with .txt files.

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