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Microsoft Confirms It's Not Killing Off Paint After Outpouring of Support (cnbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the just-kidding dept.

Microsoft said late Monday that it will not be killing off its Paint app in the next update of Windows 10. It will be made available via the Windows Store for free and will not be completely removed. CNBC reports: The U.S. technology company recently released a list which labeled Paint "deprecated," meaning it was considering removing the app when the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update gets released later this year. Fans on social media decried the potential death of Paint, which has been in existence for 32 years. But Microsoft released a blog post shortly after to clarify that Paint would not be completely removed, but instead made available via the Windows Store for free. "Today, we've seen an incredible outpouring of support and nostalgia around MS Paint. If there's anything we learned, it's that after 32 years, MS Paint has a lot of fans. It's been amazing to see so much love for our trusty old app," Megan Saunders, a general manager at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post on Monday. "Amidst today's commentary around MS Paint we wanted to take this opportunity to set the record straight, clear up some confusion and share some good news: MS Paint is here to stay, it will just have a new home soon, in the Windows Store where it will be available for free."

27 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Who isn't using paint.net? by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    On a netbook paint is a handy place to paste a screenshot but on a machine with any kind of capabilities it's kind of the most frustrating tool available.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Who isn't using paint.net? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      for those that aren't ofay with tools like paintshop or gimp paint is incredibly valuable for simple changes. I have Paintshop but their have been many times I have closed it in frustration and just opened the file in paint because the tiny change I needed to make was painfully obscured or overcomplicated in PS. sometimes a simple hammer is better than chest full of high tech gadgets.

    2. Re:Who isn't using paint.net? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      MS Paint has the advantage of opening insanely fast compared with more recent tools, thanks to it being programmed for computers of another era.

      If you just want a temporary place where to paste an image from clipboard, Paint is a much better target than Paint.net, whose startup time is slow as molasses.

    3. Re:Who isn't using paint.net? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Informative

      Paint.net strikes a happy medium there. It's pretty powerful yet easy to use if all you need is to change a couple of pixels. And you get much better support for various file formats. Though I agree it's silly for MS to remove such an incredible useful tool from Windows. Part of its advantage is that it's always there, doesn't have to be installed, so if someone asks how to do something with images, you can always explain how to do that with Paint.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    4. Re:Who isn't using paint.net? by xonen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The real point of paint is not 'painting', but a basic tool to do file conversions, save a screenshot or acquire an image from a scanner, and maybe some basic text annotations or other stuff.
      They (MS) underestimate it's usefulness. Moving it to the store is almost the same as abandoning.
      99% chance i couldn't care less, now or ever, but for people that work on varying locations or have to administer other people's computers, or (play) helpdesk etc, might be upset. And rightfully.
      It's about the same effect as removing notepad would be. Notepad is a horrible application that even in 2017 still cannot handle line breaks correctly, but it does have it's uses and is part of the standard windows toolkit.
      Last not least - not everyone is permanently connected to the internet. Imho, windows is throwing in it's own windows with moves like this, and narrowing instead of broadening it's user base.

      --
      A glitch a day keeps the bugs away.
    5. Re:Who isn't using paint.net? by Rockoon · · Score: 2

      It seems to me that the support cost of keeping paint mainlined cannot possibly be enough to justify losing the foot in the door that they have, as paint is a commonly used tool. My guess is quite large numbers of people use it for a wide assortment of simple activities. Cropping, rescaling, adding text, blurring sensitive info, and so on.

      In a very real way the paint program is dead as there are extremely few people actually using it to paint. But those other uses require a tool and I really dont understand why Microsoft would want to opt out of providing that tool. Seems like a no-brainer.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    6. Re:Who isn't using paint.net? by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Easy to use....not as easy as crusty old MS Paint. Even for more advanced stuff such as working with layers paint.net leaves a lot to be desired. The work can be done, but it is needlessly convoluted and complicated. I gave it a try and went back to the dino PSP6.

    7. Re:Who isn't using paint.net? by skids · · Score: 2

      But... unless we use paint, how are we supposed to turn screenshots into really poorly compressed BMPs and fill up our coworkers' exchange inbox quotas?

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    8. Re:Who isn't using paint.net? by Tuidjy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I love Paint.NET, but I do not have it installed at every computer at work. Paint is invaluable to me when I am asking someone at a remote Point of Sale to take a screenshot and e-mail it to me.

      Even our own warehouses have computers running WinXP. We send them replacements from corporate, but the manager takes the old PC, and sticks it on a rack near at the back of the warehouse... and claims that 'it saves the company thousands' when I ask for it back. It's a privately owned company, and I am not gong to bother the owner (who is the only one that can can overrule the warehouse managers) because of a box that my department will end up paying to e-waste. And yes, it will save the warehouse staff some time, and I or my people will end up supporting it.

      Some of the Mon&Pop stores who buy from us also end up talking to me for tech support that is only remotely connected to their using our catalogue or replenishment sites. And some of them are running 2000 and ME.

      So yes, I personally use the lightest of Paint, Paint.NET, or gimp that does what I need, but it is nice to know that all Windows boxes have Paint. And unfortunately, it being available for free on the Windows Store or wherever does little to help. If I have to make them download something, the battle may already be lost.

      --
      No good deed goes unpunished...
    9. Re:Who isn't using paint.net? by omnichad · · Score: 2

      it being available for free on the Windows Store or wherever does little to help

      Same here. It's the second major troubleshooting tool to be removed from a default Windows install. Telnet.exe was extremely valuable in verifying accessible TCP/IP ports from a workstation. So easy you could talk almost anyone through typing the commands.

  2. They miss the point. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Availability isn't the concern. We want it ubiquitous. Meaning that if someone has windows you know they have paint.

    1. Re: They miss the point. by TuballoyThunder · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Agree. There many environments where one cannot install apps from the Windows Store even if it is free. I use Windows Paint quite regularly for work.

    2. Re:They miss the point. by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's one issue. The other is that the precedent for "Oh, it's available in the store now!" were the solitaire suite games, which were wholly rewritten and changed into adware/nagware shadows of their former selves.

      What's the betting that Paint is dead, and the Microsoft app called "Paint" in the store will also be a rewritten ad-infested "cloud-enabled" piece of crap?

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    3. Re:They miss the point. by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 2

      Exactly this.

      Microsoft has NEVER understood the user experience. i.e. It took the 15 years, 1980 until 1995, to offer support for "Long File Names."

      Microsoft, -1 Over-rated User Experience

  3. That's no app by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not an app, it's a program. Apps suck. MS-Paint lives forever.

    --
    If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    1. Re:That's no app by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      This. I refuse to call proper desktop applications/programs - even small ones - "apps". An app is what you get when you port a 1990's flash game to iOS and add microtransactions.

    2. Re:That's no app by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Even though app seems like it's short for application it is rather short for "Mobile Application".

      Bullshit. People have been shortening application to app for decades. NeXTSTEP, OPENSTEP, and Mac OS X all used .app as the file extension for applications, used NSApp as the global variable that holds a pointer to the current application object, and used App in their marketing terminology since the '80s. iOS apps were called apps because that's the same term that Apple has used on the desktop since it was a company called NeXT, trying to redefine the term to only mean mobile apps is nonsense.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    3. Re:That's no app by DickBreath · · Score: 2

      > apps are for fones.

      That's Foans. Like groans. Moans. Loans. Koans.

      Example in a sentence: You can barraw mah sail foan.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  4. They still don't get it by istartedi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People who prefer the Windows ecosystem that traces its roots to DOS don't want to interact with a "store" to get things done. Paint has been part of the default install longer than "app stores" have even been a thing. It's like vi on Linux.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:They still don't get it by Barny · · Score: 5, Insightful

      To use the Windows Store at all (even for free things), you need to log in with your Microsoft account. Once that is done, you have now matched your install of windows directly to YOU. Congrats, now you get ads and you get a screwed up log in system.

      Basically, they are fishing for ways to encourage people to sync up with their store for ads and more, paint is just the latest bait to do this.

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    2. Re:They still don't get it by iampiti · · Score: 2

      100% Agree. This is another of their tactics to get people used to the Windows Store. Didn't they do the same thing with Solitaire?
      They're hellbent on removing the classic programs from Windows. Soon only the touch-optimized versions will remain. It is as if they wanted to make Windows hip by presenting it as a touch-first OS. "Look, we're just like Android and iOS, please use Windows instead a tablet with them".
      I don't care if they add a touch optimized UI for Windows but please leave the mouse-optimized version (the OS itself, and the programs) alone.

    3. Re:They still don't get it by iampiti · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They want everyone to forget that there was a world where you didn't need a Microsoft login and an app store to do things on Windows.
      If you don't use those how are they going to gather data on you and earn money through their cut on the apps?.
      I don't like iPhones but I don't mind their existance. They only thing I hold against them is that made acceptable the walled garden model to the masses. Now Microsoft is trying the same thing with Windows. Disgusting.

    4. Re:They still don't get it by Subm · · Score: 4, Funny

      > It's like vi on Linux

      I also use vi for quick image editing on GNU/Linux.

  5. Paint today. QBasic tomorrow!!! by Salgak1 · · Score: 2

    Nostalgic me misses the old QBasic that came with DOS and early Win9x (I seem to recall that it went away after Win98). I taught my daughters their initial lessons in programming in QBasic. . .

  6. Great! by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

    Now, can we get the pinball game back also?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  7. Free. At what cost? by sonamchauhan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Free stuff is given at the pleasure of the giver.

    Microsoft wants to get you in the habit of asking. Online. Preferably logged in. Definitely viewing ads. Grateful for free stuff. Willing to spend a quid or two for new 'cutting edge' features. Looking around, considering 'buying' some more in its virtual mall.

    I've heard it said that 1.5 Billion people use Windows. Even if 0.1% of these spend 30 seconds per year downloading paint (versus using a copy on disk), that's 6 man years lost. Maybe someone would waste their 30 seconds. Maybe others would spend it on a medical problem and save lives.

    I don't get it - an OS is supposed to be at the beck and call of its owner. Microsoft should be making agents to obey our every intent. Even anticipate our needs and pre-empt the resources to fulfill them with no delay. This behavior forces me to conclude the OS is at Microsoft's beck and call now; that we're merely micro-serfs.

  8. Ouf by SCVonSteroids · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can finally rest easy. Yesterday was a very hard day for me. Was having a hard time letting it sink in.

    --
    I tend to rant.