Microsoft Paint to be killed off after 32 years

[Mr. Analog]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/24/microsoft-paint-kill-off-after-32-years-graphics-editing-program

Microsoft?s next Windows 10 update, called the Autumn (or Fall in the US) Creators Update, will bring a variety of new features. But one long-standing stalwart of the Windows experience has been put on the chopping block: Microsoft Paint.

I really don't understand the thought process at Microsoft, why get rid of Paint of all things? It makes no sense.

Full disclosure: I use MS Paint a lot for quickly editing screenshots / doodling. It can be a powerful tool if you learn it.

https://youtu.be/MGOLqU8AZpo

[Tom]

The new version of paint is actually quite good. I don't understand why they'd get rid of it.

[Tom]

Oh man, the controls in octoprint are so much nicer than messing with the stupid rotary encoder on the mp mini 3d

[Mr. Analog]

I have the urge to open MS Paint and actually do a good drawing in there for once

[Tom]

In high school I got to watch a guy do some really really good art pixel by pixel in ms paint. And this was the ms paint from 9x or maybe xp.

[Thorin]

Oh man, the controls in octoprint are so much nicer than messing with the stupid rotary encoder on the mp mini 3d

Wrong thread?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/24/microsoft-paint-kill-off-after-32-years-graphics-editing-program

Microsoft?s next Windows 10 update, called the Autumn (or Fall in the US) Creators Update, will bring a variety of new features. But one long-standing stalwart of the Windows experience has been put on the chopping block: Microsoft Paint.

I really don't understand the thought process at Microsoft, why get rid of Paint of all things? It makes no sense.

Full disclosure: I use MS Paint a lot for quickly editing screenshots / doodling. It can be a powerful tool if you learn it.

https://youtu.be/MGOLqU8AZpo

Yeah, it's dead-simple to manipulate print-screened bitmaps in.  It'll be weird to push Start and type mspaint and it not find what has always been there.

[Melbosa]

I've substituted MS Paint with .NET Paint, which is free.  Quick launching and editing program.

[Mr. Analog]

I've seen a lot of snarky comments talking about using alternative apps but almost every single one had load time and a large memory footprint. Nothing beats Paint for when you need to do a quick / dirty crop or image edit

Heck even adding annotations to something is easy.

At least we don't have any apps that use MS Paint through OLE...

[Thorin]

Hmm, the article says MS Paint has been marked as deprecated, not that it has been removed yet.  So it might still be around for a while, just not updated anymore.

I use Paint.NET as well, and as Mr. Analog says, MS Paint is still the easiest tool to crop/annotate screenshots in.

[Mr. Analog]

Theoretically Paint 3D is a replacement, but practically its bloated and not as user friendly (modern design = bury everything in sub-menus)

[Lazybones]

Theoretically Paint 3D is a replacement, but practically its bloated and not as user friendly (modern design = bury everything in sub-menus)

The snipping tool also included in windows is kind of better for screen shots

[Mr. Analog]

Theoretically Paint 3D is a replacement, but practically its bloated and not as user friendly (modern design = bury everything in sub-menus)

The snipping tool also included in windows is kind of better for screen shots

I've heard that suggested, can you edit the image with annotations / basic shapes?

[Lazybones]

I've heard that suggested, can you edit the image with annotations / basic shapes?

Just free form pen, highlighter and erase tools.. it is very basic but it lets you quickly paste into other tools.

I can see why people like paint because it has text and shape tools but it isn't really that good at those tasks vs other free options.

[Lazybones]

Theoretically Paint 3D is a replacement, but practically its bloated and not as user friendly (modern design = bury everything in sub-menus)

Fired up Paint 3D looks like all the 2D functions are there, including starting by pasting the copy and past buffer.

It is less simple but it is fairly intuitive with some unique UI choices.

[Tom]

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/07/24/ms-paint-stay/#UjiMIX5XsboXWfUl.97

[Mr. Analog]

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/07/24/ms-paint-stay/#UjiMIX5XsboXWfUl.97

So the plan is rather insidious - if you want to use MS Paint you need to create an account with Microsoft and use their Store to download it - this now links your copy of Windows 10 to you and they can get to datamining. Clever.

Imagine if they did the same thing to Notepad

[Thorin]

Well, it also sounds like they hadn't really thought this through and then decided to just add it to the Store because of the unexpected backlash.

[Mr. Analog]

Well, it also sounds like they hadn't really thought this through and then decided to just add it to the Store because of the unexpected backlash.

I think this was really testing the waters to see how people would react. You watch other stuff like Windows Media Player will be next

[Darren Dirt]

I use MS Paint a lot for quickly editing screenshots / doodling. It can be a powerful tool if you learn it.

Says everybody everywhere this week!

Seriously, it was almost understandable when they dropped "Photo Editor" from the MS Office suite (and replaced it with something that was a glorified slideshow-creator, lacking most features) but at least that you can get to work kinda (on my Windows 8 laptop I did anyway, with the old Office 97 install "floppies" (!) ) but MSPAINT is like even simpler so you'd think it has been "Portable-ified" on the web all over the place by now, right?


Does microsoft really think all users of Windows just build spreadsheets and text-only Word documents or something?

I mean at the very least, for screenshots, WTF now? The "clipboard" tool or snip or w/e is not gonna... cut it.

I've substituted MS Paint with .NET Paint, which is free.  Quick launching and editing program.

What a ton of people will end up doing. But not by the suggestion of Microsoft, but rather by what those "in the know" suggest to them in YouTube comments or whatever... Unless GIMP or something is recommended. What is the best for "non-techies" who just want to crop out part of or add a red arrow to a screenshot? I'm asking on behalf of people in support roles everywhere. quick launch, small footprint, super-simple menu or action buttons obv.

[Darren Dirt]

Well, it also sounds like they hadn't really thought this through and then decided to just add it to the Store because of the unexpected backlash.

I think this was really testing the waters to see how people would react. You watch other stuff like Windows Media Player will be next

I @%&#ing HATE that attitude in IT (whether it is a vendor big or small, OR the local IT analysts) "let's remove this feature / application / useraccount AND SEE HOW LOUDLY PEOPLE COMPLAIN (then we'll know who uses it)" @%&# you, people who think this is a good practice!

[Darren Dirt]

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/07/24/ms-paint-stay/#UjiMIX5XsboXWfUl.97

So the plan is rather insidious - if you want to use MS Paint you need to create an account with Microsoft and use their Store to download it - this now links your copy of Windows 10 to you and they can get to datamining. Clever.

Imagine if they did the same thing to Notepad

Notepad already has a TON of still-simple alternatives that are quick-launch and portable-no-install so they would have no profit-based reason to do so. And lots of automation/scripts that at the very least launch Notepad with [filename.ext] would break, thus a far worse PR nightmare than "taking away a little-used outdated graphics program" they obviously thought this was gonna be.

So I decided to not be lazy did a quick search...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mspaint.exe+portable&ia=web


Pretty quickly found this:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Graphic-Editors/Paint-XP.shtml "Packed with the same useful tools and options this is the MS Paint application before Windows 7 introduced the ribbon to its interface"

or of course https://www.getpaint.net/download.html I guess -- but is that quick-launch and portable? (not that "Paint-XP" necessarily is, idk, I just found it)