Microsoft plans to eliminate WordPad from Windows 12

The OG app WordPad that lets you do all the basic writing and editing tasks? Yes, it's not as popular or feature rich as MS Word (a paid application), but it gets the job done nonetheless. And it's absolutely free. However, the app hasn't received any updates in a long time, and according to recent reports, Microsoft is planning to get rid of it in a future version of Windows.

Microsoft plans to eliminate WordPad

According to an IANS report, Microsoft said that it is removing WordPad because it is no longer updated. The company also encouraged users to switch to MS Word for rich text documents or Notepad for plain documents.

"WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows.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 Notepad for plain text documents like .txt," a recent support note published by the company said.

The news of Microsoft's plans to remove WordPad comes just after the company announced updates to Notepad. The app, widely used around the world, didn't really allow users to do much more than type information and change its font, size, etc. However, Microsoft recently announced features like auto-save and tab retraction coming to the app.

About Windows 12 and Microsoft's priority on AI

Microsoft has been increasingly focused on generative AI and it is reported that Windows 12 will also roll out with AI-powered features. While Microsoft hasn't announced anything yet, Windows 12 is rumored to launch in 2024. Windows 12-exclusive features have been kept under wraps, as was the case with Windows 11, and we'll only know more about them as it gets closer the release date.

Returning to Microsoft's focus on generative AI, the company has released several updates to its new AI-powered Bing. From generating images to accepting voice input, the new Bing is being widely used by people all over the world. Microsoft Vice President Yusuf Mehdi told CNN in May of this year that Bing was getting "more than 100 million daily active users every day.

Bing, powered by artificial intelligence, launched as a competitor to Google in February of this year. Around the same time, Google had introduced its own AI chatbot, Bard. Little by little, Google also launched the new AI-powered Google Search that would change the way people search for things on Google.

At the time of Bing's launch, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called Google the "800-pound gorilla" when it came to the online search space, saying a little competition in the marketplace would benefit all.