Windows 10

In future versions of Windows 10, Microsoft is making it so you can now completely uninstall the venerable Notepad, Paint, and WordPad programs from the operating system.

The popular Notepad and Paint programs have been automatically installed by the Windows operating system since 1985 when Windows 1.0 was released. WordPad was also automatically installed starting in 1995 as part of the Windows 95 operating system and has provided users with a basic document editor integrated into the operating system.

These programs, though, could not normally be uninstalled from Windows.

In Windows 10 Insider Build 19551, we now see that Microsoft has made these programs optional features that you can uninstall if you wish using the 'Optional features' control panel.

Optional features control panel
Optional features control panel

According to WindowsLatest, Microsoft Paint and Wordpad are already slated to become optional features in the upcoming Windows 2004 (20H1) build being released in the Spring.

When uninstalling the programs, you will be prompted to restart Windows. After Windows has been restarted, the programs will be entirely removed and even searching for them does not prompt you to reinstall them again

Notepad Uninstalled
Notepad Uninstalled

For now, these programs will continue to be installed by default, which makes sense as they take up little space (Microsoft Paint is 6.58 MB, Notepad is 627 KB, and WordPad is 6.24 MB) and are useful to those who do not need more feature-rich alternatives.

By being able to remove them, though, it allows users to install more feature-rich replacements in an easier and more organized manner.

Much easier to install Notepad replacements

Over the years, Windows users have become comfortable launching Notepad by simply typing Notepad and pressing enter in the Run dialog box or the Start Menu search field.

As Windows Notepad is a system program located in C:\Windows, installing a Notepad replacement like Notepad2 and Notepad++ and being able to launch them using the 'Notepad' command has never been simple.

To do so, users would need to make changes to the Registry using the "Image File Execution Options" key.

Now that users can uninstall Windows Notepad completely, they will be able to rename a Notepad replacement's executable to Notepad, add the replacement program's folder to the system PATH, and launch the new text editor as if it was Notepad.

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