Microsoft Retires This Program After 28 Years

After nearly three decades, Microsoft is officially retiring WordPad, one of its oldest and most recognizable programs.

The simple text editor, which first appeared in Windows 95, will be completely removed in the upcoming Windows 24H2 update, reports Muropaketti and Trend.

WordPad is no longer included in the Windows 11 Canary Build, used by Windows Insider testers.

While WordPad has served many users as a lightweight, built-in text editor for quick document creation, Microsoft declared the program obsolete earlier this year.

The company now recommends that users rely on Microsoft Word for creating and editing Rich Text Format (.rtf) documents.

“WordPad is no longer being updated, and users are encouraged to use Microsoft Word for richer document editing,” Microsoft previously stated.

Though advanced users may still find ways to reinstall or manually run WordPad, Windows 11 will no longer support it as the default app for opening .doc or .rtf files.

WordPad first launched in 1995, bundled with Windows 95 as a simple alternative to the full Microsoft Word suite.

Over the years, it remained a default part of Windows, quietly serving millions of users who needed a basic editor for notes, quick letters, or other simple tasks.

With the arrival of Windows Server 2025, WordPad will disappear completely from both consumer and enterprise systems, a clear sign that Microsoft is pushing more users toward its subscription-based Office products and cloud services.

For users who don’t want to subscribe to Microsoft Word, alternatives like Google Docs offer similar functionality—and much more—for free.