Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Paint To Be Killed Off After 32 Years (theguardian.com)

Posted by msmash on from the end-of-road dept.

Microsoft's next Windows 10 update, called the Fall 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. From a report: First released with the very first version of Windows 1.0 in 1985, Paint in its various guises would be one of the first graphics editors used by many and became a core part of Windows. Starting life as a 1-bit monochrome licensed version of ZSoft's PC Paintbrush, it wasn't until Windows 98 that Paint could save in JPEG. With the Windows 10 Creators Update, released in April, Microsoft introduced the new Paint 3D, which is installed alongside traditional Paint and features 3D image making tools as well as some basic 2D image editing. But it is not an update to original Paint and doesn't behave like it. Now Microsoft has announced that, alongside Outlook Express, Reader app and Reading list, Microsoft Paint has been signalled for death having been added to the "features that are removed or deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update" list.

9 of 388 comments (clear)

  1. NO! by Quakeulf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I still use it in a professional setting!

    YES, I AM DEAD SERIOUS.

    1. Re:NO! by therealspacebug · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I also use it in work like once a week or so.
      Mostly to add arrows, circles or underlineing stuff etc to screenshots when making dokumentation.

    2. Re:NO! by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't like the way you can "buy" a product, and then the manufacturer remotely disables some of the functionality you paid for.

      Not upgrading is not a viable option, because you need security patches.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:NO! by omnichad · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I still use it in a professional setting!

      Same here. It's the quickest way to paste a Printscreen and crop and save to a file. A bloated 3D tool is just a waste.

      Deleting mspaint.exe will not fix Windows bloat. This is just trying to force people to adopt a new tool that does things no one wants. All anyone is going to do is copy mspaint.exe somewhere else and keep using it.

  2. On MSPaint... by Baron_Yam · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's been too primitive to be very useful for much more than cropping screencaps for some time.

    If it doesn't also soften, scale (without artifact generation), remove noise, adjust contrast, saturation, tint, and brightness, handle at least text as a separate, editable layer, and do blending colour replacement along with handling transparency... meh. It's also handy if it can directly handle multi-frame GIFs and ICO files.

    Still, to this very day I use MSPaint for cropping screencaps because most of the workstations I end up on don't have any graphics software at all.

    1. Re:On MSPaint... by omnichad · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I have Photoshop. I still use MS Paint for screenshots. Low bloat and launches instantly.

  3. I wonder how much Adobe would pay... by dmgxmichael · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...to have a watered down version of Photoshop Elements included as a gateway to the more expensive Photoshop proper. Done correctly it would be a win for both companies and consumers.

  4. Can I copy the EXE file? by acoustix · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What does mspaint.exe need to run? Are there any DLL files needed? Can I just copy the EXE from my Windows 7 box to Win10?

    --
    "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    1. Re:Can I copy the EXE file? by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The app itself should work fine. However, there is a part of MSPaint that is long forgotten... it is an embeddable OLE object. If you want to use that bit, there are some registry entries you'd probably have to move over as well

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson