MS Paint On Death Row

Microsoft’s next major Windows 10 update may finally ditch MS Paint after 32 years. It will be replaced by a 3D version.

The Guardian spotted the death notice in a list of deprecated features in the Fall Creators Update, the next bi-annual major update that adds new features and, with less ceremony, sometimes removes old ones.

The execution won’t necessarily be immediate. Being added to the deprecated list simply means the application is “not in active development and might be removed in future releases.”

Paint is one of the few features that has survived since Windows 1.0 in 1985 (alongside Clock and Calendar, Calculator and Notepad) and has certainly improved since its original 1-bit monochrome version.

To be fair, it was never really loved for its amazing capabilities, though for a quick crop or resizing, it arguably beat out the fiddliness of GIMP or the cost and resource-hogging of Photoshop. Instead its main appeal was in people either using it extremely badly or overcoming its limitations to create impressive artworks.

The app has been superceded by Paint 3D, which debuted earlier this year with the Creators Update. It’s officially a spinoff rather than a new edition, merging elements of MS Paint and 3D Builder.


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