I Want To Make A Portable Version Of Microsoft Paint

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  1. pepanee
    Posts : 3,057
    Windows 10 Pro for the Bro
       New #1

    I Want To Make A Portable Version Of Microsoft Paint


    Hello, so what I've heard is that Microsoft will be removing MS Paint from the "C:\Windows\System32" folder and placing this app in the Windows Store instead. I have certain functions that are 'dependent' on MS Paint being a simple ".exe" file that opens.

    I am not intending to sound rude or anything here, but once MS Paint ends up as an app from the Windows Store, it will become slightly "junkified". I don't want that. I want the original exe file to open at such a fast speed and a very simple app.

    So this is what I tried to do: I copied mspaint.exe from the System32 folder to the Desktop to check to see if the app works outside of the folder, but of course, it didn't. I get an error: Unable to create new document.

    I want to make a copy of mspaint.exe on my backup drive to be able to use once it is no longer in the System32 folder. Does anyone know what other files are dependent on mspaint.exe that causes it to make that error? I'm assuming that there is at least one file (maybe more) that also resides in the System32 folder that mspaint.exe is dependent on. Anyone know what files they are?

    Thanks
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  3. Bree
    Posts : 33,730
    10 Home x64 (22H2) (10 Pro on 2nd pc)
       New #2

    pepanee said:
    I'm assuming that there is at least one file (maybe more) that also resides in the System32 folder that mspaint.exe is dependent on...
    That's unlikely to be the problem. The System32 folder is in the PATH, so Paint should be able to find what it wants from wherever it is launched.

    FWIW, an mspaint.exe copied from Windows XP does run on its own. The one from Windows 7 however has the same 'Unable to create document' error.
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  4. pepanee
    Posts : 3,057
    Windows 10 Pro for the Bro
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Darn... I wish Microsoft really kept their XP design. That was the BEST operating system that they released. It was reliable, and functioned 100% correctly all the time. It may not have looked as pretty as Windows does right now, but it was so awesome. Any ideas of how I can keep that exe and use that after the new update comes out?
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  6. Bree
    Posts : 33,730
    10 Home x64 (22H2) (10 Pro on 2nd pc)
       New #4

    Apparently this is how to run XP's MSPaint on Linux, may give you some hints...
    https://yauritux.wordpress.com/2011/...aint-on-linux/
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  7. pepanee
    Posts : 3,057
    Windows 10 Pro for the Bro
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    Thanks for that link:

    I tried copying all the dll files to that same folder where I put mspaint at, yet I still get the same error. I'm gonna look around on the internet some more on alternate methods to fix this.
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  8. Bree
    Posts : 33,730
    10 Home x64 (22H2) (10 Pro on 2nd pc)
       New #6

    Found it! The answer is here...
    https://www.reddit.com/r/mspaint/com...ackup_mspaint/

    What you need in addition to mspaint.exe is a copy of mspaint.exe.mui from the System32\EN-US folder (or whatever is your installed language, mine needed EN-GB). Create an EN-US (or whatever) subfolder in the same folder as your copy of mspaint.exe and put a copy of mspaint.exe.mui in it.
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  9. Berton
    Posts : 14,640
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       New #7

    Bree said:
    Found it! The answer is here...
    https://www.reddit.com/r/mspaint/com...ackup_mspaint/

    What you need in addition to mspaint.exe is a copy of mspaint.exe.mui from the System32\EN-US folder (or whatever is your installed language, mine needed EN-GB). Create an EN-US (or whatever) subfolder in the same folder as your copy of mspaint.exe and put a copy of mspaint.exe.mui in it.
    Your post got here before I got done but I copied mspaint.ex_ from my WinXP CD and used 7-Zip to decompress it then copied to a Thumb drive and can run it. [The .ex_ or anything with _ on the extension indicated compression 'back in the day'.] But it appears to use some of Win10's support and Help, About shows Win10. I recompressed it as a .zip if wanting to try.
    Attachment 152450
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  10. Bree
    Posts : 33,730
    10 Home x64 (22H2) (10 Pro on 2nd pc)
       New #8

    Berton said:
    ...I copied mspaint.ex_ from my WinXP CD and used 7-Zip to decompress it ... The .ex_ or anything with _ on the extension indicated compression 'back in the day'...
    Yes, I was around 'back in the day' too. For future reference, Windows 10 includes the command line utility EXPAND.EXE which still supports all the old compression methods, including the renaming function.
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  12. Berton
    Posts : 14,640
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       New #9

    Apparently I misread the Subject as wanting to run Paint from a Thumb drive, not back it up. I didn't bother about Expand as 7-Zip is set to handle all types of compressed files.
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  13. Bree
    Posts : 33,730
    10 Home x64 (22H2) (10 Pro on 2nd pc)
       New #10

    Actually, Win10's mspaint.exe accompanied by the appropriate subfolder with the .mui will run quite happily from a thumb drive too.

    Edit: I've just tested that by putting the 32-bit version from one system onto a thumb drive and sucessfully ran it on my x64 system.
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