It’s official — Microsoft WordPad is dead after 29 years

By Willow Roberts Published October 2, 2024

The Windows 11 2024 Update, otherwise known as version 24H2, started rolling out yesterday, but if you’ve already updated, you might notice something is missing. WordPad’s deprecation has become a reality, as it has been completely removed from the new version of Windows 11.

This might not be a big deal to most users — the lack of people using the app is part of the reason it was deprecated, after all. If you don’t know, WordPad has been around since Windows 95, and in terms of features and functionality, it offers more than Notepad, but less than Microsoft Word.

This naturally makes it a bit of a niche application, but if you do like to use it, you might want to wait a few seconds before you press the update button. If you’d prefer to keep the application, you can back up the Accessories folder under C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories and add it to 24H2 once you’ve installed the update.

This way, you’ll be able to keep using WordPad for as long as you want, though it won’t receive any updates from now on. If you already updated and you want to get WordPad back, Windows Latest has you covered — just go check out its backup archive.

If you’re willing to roll with the deprecation, Microsoft recommends using Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf from now on, and Notepad for files like .txt. The company has also told developers who depend on wordpad.exe, wordpadfilter.dll, or write.exe binaries to update their apps and rely on Word or Notepad instead.

If you can’t find the Windows 11 24H2 update yet, don’t worry. Microsoft is taking a “phased approach” to the rollout, starting with people on versions 22H2 and 23H2 who have the Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available option turned on (you can find that in the Windows Update settings). The update will come to more people over time, based on hardware eligibility, reliability metrics, and other factors, according to Microsoft.