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What Happened to WordPad?

Windows 11 version 24H2 shipped without an app that had been in every version of Windows since 3.1. Here is what Microsoft actually said, and what to use in its place.

This page is not affiliated with Microsoft or WordPad. It explains a change Microsoft made to its own product, for anyone who opened Windows 11 looking for an app that used to be there.

The timeline, plainly

Microsoft added WordPad to its official deprecated-features list on 1 September 2023, the same list that tracks features still present but on their way out, with no removal date attached yet. In March 2024, Microsoft confirmed the specific target: Windows 11 version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025 would ship without it. Both did, later that year. Anyone who updated to 24H2 lost the Start menu entry the day the update installed, generally without any prompt explaining why. The notice itself is public, on Microsoft Learn.

Why it went, as far as Microsoft explained

The deprecation notice did not give a detailed reason, which is typical of these notices. The more useful context is what WordPad actually was: a rich text editor sitting between Notepad, which handles plain text with no formatting, and Word, which handles everything WordPad did and considerably more. WordPad had gone years without a real feature update, and Microsoft's own guidance for anyone who needed rich text pointed to Word for full editing or Notepad for plain text, treating WordPad's job as already covered by the two tools either side of it.

What still opens the files WordPad used to

WordPad's native format was .rtf, Rich Text Format, and it could also open and save .docx and read plain .txt. None of those formats were retired along with the app. Microsoft Word opens all three. So does LibreOffice Writer, free and installable on Windows, Mac and Linux. Google Docs imports .rtf and .docx directly from Google Drive. None of them require reinstalling anything WordPad-specific, because the files were never tied to WordPad itself, only to whichever app happened to be registered to open them by default.

The case where none of those are convenient

Word and LibreOffice both assume you can install something, which is exactly the situation a locked-down work laptop, a shared library computer or a machine you do not administer rules out. That is the gap a browser-based editor fills: no install, no admin rights needed, and the file itself, not a proprietary Microsoft account or app, stays the thing that matters. The WordPad replacement on this site opens and saves .rtf and .docx directly in a browser tab, with the formatting WordPad actually had: bold, italic, underline, fonts, colour, alignment and lists, and nothing uploaded to a server in the process.

What actually changed for a typical user

If your files are mostly plain notes, nothing changed: Notepad is still there, and the browser notepad on this site covers the same job with autosave built in. If you specifically relied on WordPad for a document with bold text, a bullet list or a saved .rtf file, the change is real but narrow: the icon is gone, the file format is not, and the fastest way back to editing those files without installing anything is a browser tool built to read exactly that format.

Try it: WordPad Replacement

Frequently Asked Questions

Is WordPad gone from every copy of Windows 11?
It is gone from any installation that has updated to Windows 11 version 24H2 or later, and from Windows Server 2025. Machines still running an earlier Windows 11 build, or Windows 10, keep it until they update, since Microsoft removed it from the operating system image going forward rather than deleting it from machines that already had it installed at the time.
Can I still install WordPad manually?
Not through an official Microsoft channel. It was never sold or distributed as a separate download, only shipped inside Windows itself, so there is no installer to reach for the way there is for other discontinued Microsoft tools.
Why did Microsoft remove it instead of just leaving it alone?
Microsoft's own deprecation notice, published in 2023, gave no specific reason beyond that the app was deprecated and would be removed in a future release. WordPad had not received a meaningful feature update in years, and Word and Notepad already cover the two ends of what it did: real formatting and quick plain text.
Does removing WordPad affect .rtf and .docx files I already have?
No. The files themselves are unchanged and open fine in Word, LibreOffice, Google Docs, or a browser-based editor built to read them. Only the specific application that used to be pinned to the Start menu is gone.