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Microsoft Paint To Be Killed Off After 32 Years (theguardian.com)
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.
I still use it in a professional setting!
YES, I AM DEAD SERIOUS.
They're trying to kill chart brut... and then all of us!
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
First Clippy, now MSPaint?
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.
They took aim but hit the wrong target. The program Microsoft needs to kill is Outlook. Thankfully it is not hard to convince people to switch to an open source alternative to paint.
On the flip side, the problems that come with Outlook will keep many an IT worker employed for the rest of their lives (presuming of course they can stand to fix them for that long).
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
What am I supposed to use for screenshots on base installs?
Not only is Paint.NET better than Microsoft Paint, I think it is better than the entry level paint alternatives on linux and MacOS.
Pls mod this up anyone.
I still use Paint because its the default edit option for images. To create a YouTube thumbnail, I take a screenshot from a video, right-click on the image, select edit, CTRL-A and CTRL-C in Paint. I open a template in Paint.NET, select the screenshot layer, and CTRL-V to paste screenshot. Technically, I could do all this in Paint.NET but I like having separate programs for different purposes.
...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.
I'm seeing quite a lot of comments complaining about MSPaint going away because it's still useful for them and others noting that other graphics programs are better than MSPaint. All these things are true but, it's not like Microsoft is leaving machines without a graphics editor at all. Paint 3D can do 2D graphics editing. I run an Insider build on one machine and tested it just to be certain before posting. Anything you could do in MSPaint, you can still do in Paint 3D and then some.
This is one of the dumbest ideas I've heard from MS in quite awhile. The backlash on this is gonna be loud. You'd think with all the evil metrics Win10 collects, they'd have some idea about how heavily used this tool is. If Paint3D is a feature-complete replacement, that's fine, but I have no indication that this is the case. And if "deprecated" is just a poorly worded category for "no longer in development" then MS needs to fix it's project categorization terms. If they stop developing it and merely provide it for the foreseeable future, that's perfectly reasonable. But not providing an image editing tool on a modern desktop OS is simply ridiculous. It's like not providing a plaintext editor. It's too useful to know that any install of desktop windows will have the tool, and too aggravating to even need to manually download and install the app on modern installs. Microsoft, if you want to keep your customer base at least mildly satisfied, you're stuck with this tool.
Next they can get rid of mail, photos, cortana, skype, the xbox crap, onedive, word, notepad, edge, windows app store, 3DBuilder, Appconnector, BingFinance, BingNews, 3dpaint, BingSports, BingWeather, Getstarted, MicrosoftOfficeHub, Solitaire, OneNote, Alarms, Calculator, Camera, Maps, Phone, Reader, SoundRecorder, ZuneMusic, ZuneVideo, windowscommunicationsapps, CloudExperienceHost, WindowsReadingList, Twitter, Flipboard, Shazam, Candy Crush, iHeart Radio, NAVER, tripadvisor, groovemusic, BioEnrollment, WindowsFeedback and ContactSupport from the default install!!
All of which are crap or a better open source alternative exists. Choosing windows to run programs shouldnt have to force you into all their bloatware and ads too.
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
Nah, you can only get Photoshop after pages of justification why FOSS isn't sufficient.
...Paint will draw the rest of the company with it
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
I can tell any Windows user "hold down the windows key and R at the same time, and when the Run dialog box opens up, type MSPAINT.EXE and hit enter" knowing that some version of a "paint" program will open up.
I also know that this program will be able to open JPEG and other common types of image files.
Please don't take that away.
ditto "notepad.exe" "cmd.exe" "calc.exe" etc.: They all are "run that program and it will do what you expect" idioms in the Windows world.
It was bad enough when they took away "sol.exe" a few years back. Don't repeat that mistake.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Nothing beats MS Paint for casual doodling.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
It was cute and there forever. Progress, I suppose.
Paint.NET is free and has a few useful tools rolled in - Its also a bit easier for low clue user to pickup than GIMP in my experiences.
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
They should be adding these features into the Snipping Tool. It shouldn't be a 2-step process to grab a screen image with the snipping tool, and then paint it into MS Paint to add an arrow or circle something. Snipping Tool only has free draw tools. How hard would it be to add the shapes template to snipping tool (or better yet, just add the screen shot capability to MSPaint and call it a day.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
GIMP just takes forever to load.
Today at work, I tested this claim by starting GIMP on two PCs, one with Xubuntu 16.04 and the other with Windows 10, neither with an SSD. From choosing the app from the start menu to GIMP's main window appearing took four seconds on each. I also tested it a few days ago on a compact laptop with an SSD and an Atom CPU, and it took five seconds. But I concede that these tests weren't fresh after a PC restart, and it didn't have to rescan fonts and plug-ins. Or are you often triggering something that requires rescanning fonts and plug-ins?
Off-Store apps can be installed in Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, just not Windows 10 S. What problem did you run into when installing Paint.NET on Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro? Or does your PC run Windows 10 S? If so, which make and model so that others can follow the growth of Windows 10 S usage share?
GIMP has both the paintbrush tool, which antialiases strokes "with additional pixels on either side in a lighter colour", and the pencil tool, which "does operate on a pixel basis".
When forced to work on machines that have things locked down tight, downloading and installing a new tool is not always an option.
How are you "forced to work on machines" like that in the first place? Why can't you play the "can't do the job without appropriate tools" card to temporarily decline to work on them pending approval of use of, say, GIMP Portable?
When you or your manager applied to corporate IT to add GNU Image Manipulation Program to the "small handful of other critical software", what was the reason given for the denial?
I don't use these new fangled things like Microsoft Paint. Still happy with Deluxe Paint
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
And the justification will usually involve adjustment layers, a Photoshop feature where a filter is associated with a layer, automatically updating when the layers below it change. But because you usually don't need adjustment layers just to mark up screenshots, GNU Image Manipulation Program should be easier to approve.
Maybe now I won't have to deal with emails at work that have a huge screen print of text that would have been much more appropriate to copy/paste. This is especially bad with command line output. Users will send you a screenshot of the cmd.exe window rather than just copying/pasting the contents. This means I can't copy/paste the parts of the content for my own use, and instead have to type crap out myself, which will inevitably lead to typos and such.
This is an ex-parrot!
[A laundry list]
All of which are crap or a better open source alternative exists.
Among the applications you listed are music store, music streaming, music identification video store, and video streaming apps. What's the free replacement for each? What's the appropriate way to obtain an OAuth key pair for a free Twitter client when Twitter can and does revoke API keys that leak to the public? And what's the free replacement for Skype that can perform text, voice, and video chat with users on your existing Skype contact list or with Skype users who have invited you to text, voice, or video chat with them?
https://support.microsoft.com/...
From the official list;
"Syskey.exe
Removing this nonsecure security feature..."
Your sig here!
A computer locked down to run only applications approved by the corporate IT department will run Paint because it has been approved as part of the Windows operating system but refuse to run "your Hello World".
Get it here: https://www.getpaint.net/download.html
This means they want you to use some Cloud Paint trial as part of Office 365.
Seriously, the sheer lack of incremental development on Paint is a bit of a head scratcher. I suspect that the ignoring of Paint was the result of it being orphaned in the Microsoft-Adobe pact of the early 2000s that resembled the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement. MS killed their graphics products and Adobe killed Persuasion and their other office products.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
MS Paint ranks third on my list of "most frequently used MS tools", behind Visual Studio and Notepad. For many use cases, the simple spartan tools are the best tools.
Ah well, I'm sure there's a third-party equivalent somewhere.
If you do not have rights for software installs, you cannot use it. I know Paint is not that great, but it is on all Windows systems and its a easy to use tool for making screenshots of stuff
The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
I'm glad they never improved it. It was the perfect thing for doing single, simple tasks like cropping screenshots.
If they "improved" it, they would inevitably have made it worse at that sort of thing.
I tried to install Paint.NET a couple of years ago and it crashed the OS. Granted, maybe I was a rare case. And GIMP requires too many steps for simple stuff. Often I use MS-Paint for larger-scale rough drafting, and then GIMP to fine-tune it.
Many steps are just quicker in Paint: fewer menu layers and key/mouse-strokes. For one, GIMP's default settings are for larger images; thus if you work with a lot of low-res images, you have to keep re-adjusting GIMP's resolution settings. Maybe there's a way to fudge the defaults?
Table-ized A.I.
This will create support problems. For example, our intranet has MS-Paint instructions for cropping and resizing images for CMS's and Office documents. If Paint goes away, then users may have to install and figure out something else themselves. We are talking thousands of users at the org. Sure, we can rework our instructions and/or negotiate with the baselining crew, but it's more rework, retraining, and help-desk calls until things settle.
Why yank it? If ain't broke, don't fix it. Windows tools become de-facto infrastructure, for good or bad. If MS keeps jerking users around, they are more likely to switch to Google Docs or something else. Familiarity is MS's only real selling point. Nobody picks MS because they are "good", they pick it for staff familiarity and compatibility. If MS moves the cheese around, they ruin their advantage, shooting their own feet. They shouldn't get cocky and think they are good at new products & change.
Table-ized A.I.
Then apply for approval to attach said flash drive, and be proactive in notifying all managers involved that the work for which you are paid is pending said approval. When caught dicking around on your phone, point to the three or more tasks waiting on approval.
Some of us have Actual Work to do that doesn't involve tilting at IT windmills.
If your employer's IT department presents windmills, you are being paid to tilt at them. Then you can use your days off to polish your CV so you can find a job with a different employer whose IT department is less dysfunctional at approving widely used applications distributed as free software.
Hammers for nails.
You are dealing with an IT department that requires excessive red tape to obtain a hammer.
paint.net
You didn't read their FAQ:
Q: Will Paint.NET ever replace Paint in Windows? :-)
A: No.
I shouldn't have to worry about these things if all I want to do is make a quick goofy little icon or whatever.
Does Paint even include an exporter for an icon file that includes multiple sizes?
But sometimes, part of the job includes knowing when to pick your battles.
True. I'm also aware that which battles to pick depends on how expendable the company considers you to be. This is probably why I haven't had quite as much problem getting GIMP approved as some other users are reporting, as I've worked at mostly small businesses.
This brings me to another point: Sometimes, picking your battles includes picking your employer. "I left when I realized the company made a habit of refusing to provide suitable tools to do my job on a reasonable time frame. Assigning projects that require image editing without allowing use of a basic image editor, even one distributed as free software, was the last straw."
After all, users can just download Visual Studio!
Nope. Paintbrush, which shipped with Windows up until 3.11 was a bundled version of ZSoft Paintbrush, with a few features removed and Microsoft branding on top. MS Paint, introduced with Windows 95 (I think, possibly NT 3.x?), was a complete rewrite as a win32 app. The author of TFA doesn't know what he's talking about - it most certainly hasn't been part of Windows since 1985.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
When I take screenshots I paste them into mspaint. It seems to be one of the few things that can accept images from the clipboard and save them as PNG.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
spin up a PA setup at home/Starbucks/whereever and have a decent set of backup tools without doing an actual install on your target system. (assumes that you can attach flash drives and run programs off same)
Not to say that paint wasn't useful at early beginnings, but we have so many alternatives that are better it's comic to see MS paint these days. We have many free open source options factly superior (and has been for years). Among these:
1. The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org),
2. Krita (https://krita.org)
3. Inkscape (http://inkscape.org)
4. Pinta (https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/ ) (new) There are others but these seem to have more traction. The Gimp is well know and I've used that the most for my graphic editing. Works well for me as does Inkscape. MS Paint was good for simple demonstrations in kiddie classes, but MS Paint, while it works, has been had no enhancements in forever. So..it's time. RIP MS Paint.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
One of my two favorite programs in Windows is set to go away.
The other one being CMD.exe.
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
So if I want to do something simple, like resize or crop, what am I supposed to do? Yeah, there are plenty of kitchen-sink tools that can do that too; but Paint comes up as soon as you click it. It's always there. It's become part of the expected function of the OS.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Yes, we can and lots of people have. What we can't duplicate is "This is installed on every Windows box I might run across".
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Most news organization mis-read the original announcement, Paint is not being removed from Windows 10, it is being "deprecated". That just means it is not going to receive updates. The last time it received an update was back in 2009 or 2011, I forget exactly. There is no impending doom.
Or even better, this program combines the area-capture capabilities of Snipping Tool with the simple editing capabilities of Paint in a single package.
It is already pretty useless and now they kill the most useful tool they have, I'm gone use another OS.......... oh, wait, I already do.
If the definition is that Microsoft replaced software with something functionally different that don't behave like the previous version, then.. . what is left? What has not at one time been"killed off" as the article says?
I concede that I have worked in small business rather than large.
(one of it's first releases). If not for Photoshop I'd of used it.
It was possible to save in a .jpg format, it tried to save as a .BMP but a bit of trickery I forget how now it was possible.
Guess its time to go wake up the GIMP then....
Sadly, a Libertarian cannot force his views on another, and freedom cannot spread as does the cancer known as religion.
I have an old scanner. My wife often has things to scan an email. That is what she has always used - She launches paint, and scans and saves.
Seems it's just being "re-homed" in the Windows Store, and will be available as a free download.
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/...
And for all those bemoaning it's loss when dealing with screenshots, Windows 10 has "Ink Workspace" that works well for screenshots. Just right click on the Taskbar and "enable Ink Workspace button".
I would like to point out in my defense, I am typing this on a laptop running Xubuntu ... I just teach people (as a volunteer) how to deal with Windows 10.
Don't blame me, it's usually 2 in the morning when I post
In large corporations the processes in place for approving new software are often hideously slow. No single project is big enough to be able to push through a request for change. There are nice parts about big companies. They fund r&d in ways small ones can't. Not as an investment as in days of yore, but for appearances' sake. If you get in one of those neighborhoods within the city that is a megacorp it is nice. Still can't get tools though.
refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
This is the same reason I have implemented fairly sophisticated algorithms in excel VBA. Can't waste the time getting a compiler or MATLAB approved for whatever IT fiefdom I am residing in that week and excel is almost everywhere.
refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
here
This is good application where I made many images using MSPaint