Isn’t notepad an LLM client now?
Feels like everything is. Might as well describe every app by it‘s (now) secondary function.
Some apps just have it as primary function now…
Waiting for the rename to copad AI.
CopePad
See Copilot logo in top right
Disable the Copilot logo with three clicks.
(Don’t get me wrong - I hate that they shoved a fucking LLM front-end into Notepad, but let’s not be silly and pretend like it’s all shit now. It still does the exact same job it always did)
Notepad’s sole purpose is to remove formatting from copied text.
ctrl+shift+v is your friend
Doesn’t work everywhere…
Unsurprisingly Microsoft products are the least consistent with it
But but but that’s unacceptable!
Custom hotkey to trigger simple plaintext clipboard script, couldn’t live without it.
(“Script“ is a scary word for many of us but you probably only ever see the code once or instead use some free open source clipboard manager that has “replace clipboard with plain text“ built-in.)
—
Anyway you’re right, I probably still use a similar workaround once a week!
Not always (looking angrily at you Outlook, meanwhile your brother Excel excels (ha!) at doing this while inputting data).
Fuck excel. The default should be to leave whatever the fuck I paste in there alone. If I want you to reformat shit I’ll tell you to reformat it.
??
Everytime I paste something it there, the formatting (for better or for worse) stays on whatever the source was.But at least you can use the CTRL + Shift + V to paste it unformatted (Unlike Outlook)
Try doing upc codes and see how you feel about it.
Oh yeah…Data type pasting is…Interesting :p
Is it annoying enough you’d actually want to try fixing it or is the Notepad workaround good enough?
Neither.
I juat don’t really care as I’ll use the start menu to strip it.
Amd (at least ony machine at home and work, the default behavior is to strip the format and write plain text
that doesn’t usually work when copying between different Microsoft products. it always fucks it up somehow or simply doesn’t let you
That command gives me a bunch of more hoops to jump through
It still does that job perfectly fine.
You can use Neovim (or any CLI text editor) for that
So… they removed Wordpad to push people into using Word… and now they removed Notepad to push people into… this monstrosity? Why does Notepad support hyperlinks now?
Back when I used Notepad, it was to strip out rich text formatting and reliably get consistently distinct text, especially if I configured it to use a monospace font. Now I have to worry about embedded hyperlinks sending me to God-knows-where?
If you are stuck in Windows, use Notepad++.
Control + Shift + V pastes as plain text.
*sometimes
I always thought the default font used by notepad, courier, is monospace. But I mostly stopped using windows years ago so maybe that changed
notepad has formatting now? o_O
does it produce markdown or something?
Yep it’s markdown, and yep they had a CVE with second highest grade cause of it
heh, ofc. Apparently something to do with file:// and such uri handling, apparently executing local files? Yikes.
not just local files
if you click a link to file:///123.45.67.89:69420/files-download/virus.exe it will download and run virus.exe from that IP address
it still works, but now there is a “Dangerous Link Location: This is not a web link and may lead to the execution of malicious code” warning, but previously it would silently run the file.
kinda wild a file-link ever went straight to executing it after download - which on it’s own could be dangerous as well.
I guess the “the s in IOT stands for security” also applies to notepad: “the s in vibecoding stands for security”
Aren’t CVE grades meaningless anyway with how they are declared in real world?
We run CVEs through our software inventory and configuration and come up with a new score that measures how bad it is for us.
It’s a UWP (i think? they renamed the platform twice already) vibecoded app now, notepad.exe still around.
If you use the formatting bar to format text, it unlocks the View→Markdown menu which has two options - Markdown or Syntax. This allows you to toggle seeing the source or formatted markdown.
If you do not use the formatting bar to format text, markdown is not enabled. I manually typed in text in markdown format and the menu didn’t un-grey.
You can go into the app settings and turn off formatting, which will hide the formatting toolbar.
I think you really have to work hard to be offended by this.
Notepad++ gang, rise, claim your kingdom.
Well it’s a 23y old application that had one issue where the dev’s machine got infected, and it was handled ~instantly.
What’s the actual problem here?
This isn’t the first time that application has had problems either, the CIA hacked it because it was loading unsigned DLLs: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/v733-fix-cia-hacking-npp-issue/
To be fair it’s one of the most popular text editors so it’s not surprising nation states would target them, and it’s hard to block someone with those kinds of resources.
Instantly? The article says “lasted for almost half a year”
We’re talking geologic timescales here. Did you miss the memo?
Didn’t it got patched?
Kate FTW!
But disable automatic updates…
Probably prudent anyways. What agent they broken recently?
No? That’s already been long-fixed?
I’m talking about this incident, fixed in February 2026
What’s an update?
I really hope that’s sarcasm considering latest news xd
Metapad still strong.
If for some reason you’re stuck on windows, might I recommend notepad++ ?
Kate is great and available for Windows, too!
But also beware as notepad++ has had a security breach recently.
So has everything.
A text editor shouldn’t be having security breaches.
Technically it was the server for updates that got breached, not the editor itself.
Neither should Windows itself. But here we are. And have been for some time.
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the point and strength of notepad was that it opened immediately, no bullshit, you can write text and that’s all.
I suspect that’s not the case anymore.
Nope, now (by default) it opens all the files you had open the last time you used Notepad. You can turn it off, but it’s annoying.
Tabs were a welcome addition, but that’s where the good idea train swiftly leaves the rails.
What we needed was a built-in hex editor, and maybe some better tools for working with unicode that you can’t just type in on whatever keyboard you have.
Instead, they turned it into WordPad, which we already have.
Its not even wordpad. It only supports markdown not rtf… it only exists so they could easily shove copilot into it.
True, but IMO it makes a lot more sense to support markdown under Wordpad than Notepad since the controls and doc-style layout/rendering support is already there.
it only exists so they could easily shove copilot into it.
I get the saltiness about Copilot but this is getting ridiculous.
It got dark mode, sessions, tabs, and a Markdown viewer. How are these bad changes? How do these “only exist so they could easily shove Copilot into” them?
(btw, you can disable Copilot from Notepad with three clicks)
Notepad was supposed to be the simplest lightest weight text editor. It didn’t need to change.
Let’s try from a different angle: which functionalities of Notepad have been lost?
Well I’m not on Windows anymore so I can’t test it out. Does it still have the option to only show text raw and uninterpeted? I absolutely would not want it to, like, show bold instead of
**bold**I wouldn’t want it to do anything other than show the literal text, and anything in that direction is a loss via added friction.
Does it still have the option to only show text raw and uninterpeted? I absolutely would not want it to, like, show bold instead of bold
- You have to manually switch the display mode from raw to formatted for the formatting to show.
- It only works for saved
.mdfiles.
hex
Does windows power toys have one?
No idea. I want to say ‘yes’, but the last time I installed Power Toys was under Win2k.
The Notepad getting junk added is a Microsoft Store app. The old notepad.exe is still usable.
And as for all things Windows 11 a tutorial is needed to painstakingly wade through every inch of bullshit.
Huh. That write up seems pretty useful. It’s so weird that the redesigned app is just an alias to the old and untouched app that’s still sitting in system32
Probably as usual: Legacy reasons.
Same way the rest of the OS is built.
All those fucked up snapins and apps and pretty pretty nonfunctional interfaces (try changing an ip) are utterly negated by start-run-“control”
Not all of them anymore. Some control panel icons just throw you into the new settings app.
Whomever was involved with the creation of the “new” printer settings menu should be killed by dumping a whole nest of fire ants high on bath salts into their rectum and then stapling it shut.
Well, as far as you consider the bugs usable.
The junk being: tab support, dark mode, sessions, and Markdown support. Oh, the horror!
I’ve totally fallen for markdown. I want more normies to know about it.
All the nice things about rich text with none of the Word.
Sad RTF noises.
RTF requires special software, whereas you can easily read Markdown in a console. It’s superior in every way.
If you use the formatting bar to format text, it unlocks the View→Markdown menu which has two options - Markdown or Syntax. This allows you to toggle seeing the source or formatted markdown.
If you do not use the formatting bar to format text, markdown is not enabled. I manually typed in text in markdown format and the menu didn’t un-grey.
You can go into the app settings and turn off formatting, which will hide the formatting toolbar.
I think you really have to work hard to be offended by this.
Additionally, for those Notepad Purists™ who are offended by any features being added… Tabs are handy. And having it auto-save drafts and auto-open them is also handy - for me. Maybe you don’t like that, but you can disable the auto-save in settings. Can’t turn off tabs, but you can set it to open in new windows, so pretty close to disabling that.
If this is what drives you over the edge to use Linux… okay, bud, have it your way - and I’m a Linux enthusiast, so I’m all for it. But being pissed off by something you have to specifically enable seems a bit silly to me. It’s the hallmark of fascism - “Other people have the right to exist! FUCK THAT!” - a little hyperbolic, but the principle is vaguely the same. :P (And what’s the internet without hyperbole? :) )
This, but he’s yelling “plain text” instead of drainage.
Markdown support is actual nice and useful.
Not embracing every bullshit data mining change tech companies shove down our throats is fascism, got it. An intelligent, well reasoned, not at all fucked up thing to say
Yes, you have accurately characterized what I said and didn’t miss any of it in the slightest. Well done, you. Congrats on not completely missing the entire point. I am honestly impressed by the complete lack of comprehension. Nicely done.
STOP DOING “STOP DOING MATH” BUT ACTUALLY WANTING TO STOP THE DOING
- TEMPLATE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO ACTUALLY STOP DOING MATH
- YEARS OF SNOWCLONING yet NO REAL-WORLD USE FOUND for “greaphic desgni is my PASSION:”
- Wanted to play satire straight anyways for a laugh? We had a tool for that: It was called “FORREST GUMP”
- “Yes please give me pictures of BAD TEXT on backgrounds. Please give me BADDIES of it” - Statements dreamed up by the utterly Deranged
LOOK at what Memers have been demanding your Respect for all this time, with all the imgurs & reddits we built for them:
STOP DOING ‘STOP DOING “STOP DOING MATH” BUT ACTUALLY WANTING TO STOP THE DOING’ SINCE IT WANTS TO STOP THE DOING
They have played us for absolute fools
wut
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Unfortunately it has a use. Microsoft discontinued WordPad
Both classic Notepad and classic WordPad can be downloaded and installed from third-party sites.
However, to thoroughly neuter the enshittified versions and ensure the classic versions are used in all workflows can take a bit more than what the installers recommend. Primarily, I would recommend adding the *.bak extension to the enshittified versions then make (IIRC) junction links from the classic ones to where the enshittified ones are sitting. This ensures that if anything reaches for the enshittified ones, the junction links are there to redirect the action to the classic versions.
That’s a funny way of saying “Re-install Windows 10” or “install Linux”
(I don’t use Arch btw)
(also, yes. The .bak thing works)
I was devasted when I heard this
What am I supposed to use when ms-word breaks itself while I’m offline now
notepad
Images don’t work very well, but I guess you don’t need those if you have an imagination
I hated wordpad. New notepad is so much better than the old. An undo on old notepad would undo the last 1-7 sentences randomly, and wouldn’t redo. Remembering notes is also good, and I love markdown.
I don’t use the ai and it never was in the way of what I needed, so whatever.The last time I used notepad the undo option worked both as undo and redo, since it only kept the latest change and undoing was also a change that could be undone.
I sometimes put together long bash commands to pull docker image updates. I would take five minutes building up a command, make a typo, pressed undo by muscle memory and most of what I typed out would be gone with no way to undo.
This was no one time occurrence, because I’m too lazy to pull up vscode or something else, it would be a weekly occurrence.
I cried when that old piece of junk updated to the new notepad. Never had that issue since.
My week as a windows forced office worker just peaked having seen this meme.
GNU EMACS is RIGHT THERE in WINDOWS
You can INSTALL IT
(Well you can’t install it, you kinda just dump it in Program Files)
PEOPLE have been EXTENDING it for DECADES SAFELY
WHAT are you WAITING FORWell, since you asked… I’m waiting for guile-emacs to make a breakout like neovim did.
I mean you’re right, but also look at what emacs or vim are doing on the linux side. Overloading your notepad application is hardly a concept birthed on Windows.
I’d argue the Linux equivalent is more something like nano, and I wouldn’t say nano is overloaded
Are you saying that extensibility is the same thing as bloat? Weird take if so.
Vim has kept to simple sanity.
We don’t talk about LazyVim.
Edit: I heard Emacs might be getting a text editor added soon.
I’m not so sure about that. Vim has syntax highlighting, programming language support (assisted via ctags), two terminal emulators, a window manager, two (arguably three) programming languages, transparent remote file editing…
So anyway, I use an editor that doesn’t waste my time: Ed, man! !man ed.
Makes perfect sense. It is the standard editor.
