WordPad being discontinued; looking for a Replacement

Windows 10 Pro, Ver. 22H2 (OS Build 19045.3930)

Re: WordPad Replacement

Howdy Folks,

I've been seeing news that WordPad is being discontinued by MS.

I'm looking for a replacement and have found a few options, but thought I'd be better off checking with my friends here for suggestions as similar to WordPad as possible. i.e.: Notepad with optional fonts, text and highlight colors, standard text formats: B, I, U, strike-through, etc.

I'm also interested to know if there might be a way to keep WordPad after it is officially removed from Windows 10.

TIA to all who read this post and those with replies.
Cheers!

Microsoft bids adieu to WordPad | Computerworld

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,” said the Windows Insider blog announcing the discontinuation of WordPad.

Some ideas:
EditPad Lite - Free Text Editor for Windows
Download Atlantis Word Processor Lite - MajorGeeks
Download AbiWord - MajorGeeks
Download PolyEdit Lite - MajorGeeks

Of course there are the well-known suites such as Libre Office.. but if you want something smaller that launches quickly but is relatively familiar... try one of the above.

More options if you want something that supports coding of course. It becomes a matter of personal preference.

AbleWord is old but still works.

AbleWord the Free Word Processor and PDF editor

I'm told by various articles that the way to keep WordPad is back it up by copying this folder:

C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories

I've no idea if a simple copy/ paste the contents after Wordpad is removed will work.

jdUnionngarden said:

I've been seeing news that WordPad is being discontinued by MS....
.....interested to know if there might be a way to keep WordPad after it is officially removed from Windows 10.

The term is 'deprecated' and means no longer in active development. Microsoft's exact wording is that "WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows".
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...cated-features

But MS have also said that 22H2 will be the last release of Windows 10, and as W10 22H2 retains Wordpad it should continue to do so until its EoL in October 2025.

The only planned 'future release of Windows' in the pipeline is Windows 11 24H2, that's the one that won't include Wordpad. It has already been removed from the Insider 24H2 builds, its C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories folder is now empty.



Yes, just copy all the files and folders from C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories. Place them in another folder of your own, and you can run Wordpad from there instead.

WordPad is a 'lite' version of Microsoft Word [part of Office] so a successor could be any number of free or paid-for alternates like LibreOffice or OpenOffice which are suites and contain other programs that may not be needed but also take more room on the drive. NotePad++ has more features than Notepad. The only real difference between LibreOffice and Microsoft Office is LibreOffice has no comparable program like Outlook E-Mail Client and Publisher. One issue to watch for is whether there is any need to open the newer versions of Office, those files with the x on the extension such as .docx. Any of those mentioned here should work:
12 Best Free Alternatives to MS Word

Thanks very much to all!
It's great to see the replies from all of you with many ideas, suggestions, etc.
Cheers!

@dalchina

Saw this on ElevenForum.... don't know if it will work on Windows 10, or on Win 11 for that matter.
It sounds... workable?


Do this now if you wish to retain Wordpad for the future. | Windows 11 Forum



I see @Bree has mentioned this in post #5 as well.