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Microsoft is Updating Windows Notepad Application For the First Time in Years (theverge.com)
Microsoft is giving its Notepad app for Windows a surprising amount of new features. From a report: You'll soon be able to do wrap around find and replace alongside the ability to zoom into text by holding down the ctrl key and using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Microsoft is also adding in extended line ending support so that Unix/Linux line endings (LF) and Macintosh line endings (CR) are supported in Notepad. The status bar will now be enabled by default in Notepad, and it includes the ability to display line and column numbers when word-wrap is enabled.
Didn't I read about it last month? No maybe the month before
jumping from 1991 to 2002 in a single version update
Did this happen during the last administration? I don't think so. Now that the Notepad Tax has been reduced, this is exactly the sort of reinvestment we should expect.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Sounds like it will still be behind Notepad++ or even Textpad in functionality.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Does anyone at Microsoft understand that Macintosh line endings haven't been CR for over 15 years? Macintosh is now Unix. Has been since 2001. Please inform the Excel team too.
This is a boring sig
It's installed on every windows machine and always works and is very light. It's the one application that Microsoft really hasn't touched and guess what..it works the same as it always has.
Now they're touching it, it'll snowball and eventually be moved into an AppX application with a tiled interface with ribbons and Cortana build into it.
Dunno what took so long, but I love both this and the line number / character count with word wrap enabled.
Hopefully it will have AI and Blockchain features.
I care. Notepad is just so lightweight and instant that it's still my go-to for simple text files, scripts, etc. on Windows.
Another plus is that it's a lazy little slut so you can open up multiple copies of the same file as it's being written. It doesn't care about locks or anything. It'll just read what it can see and display it for you. This does have the drawback of potential confusion over which version is the latest one or which is the one that matches what's on disk. (The solution to that is to open it again in another window.)
How is this even a news on ./ front page?
A modern minimalistic graphical text editor should be able to:
Now what about this new Notepad?
...? I used the hell out of it.
As Windows matured, I moved further and further away from the OS, but DOS and PFE did some very neat shit for me back in the day.
Note: Although other good free editors probably exist now,
I've left this review here to possibly use as a comparison test,
or in case someone might still be interested in finding an editor
for older (Win9x?) 32-bit machines; probably with little memory.
Don't let the title fool you! This editor is not just for programmers.
It has all the standard functions that any good text editor should have and a whole lot more! This excellent program is free for any use!
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Is this where I point out that people have wanted Notepad to handle different line endings correctly for a long, long time?
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
I love notepad. Opens in an absolute flash, I can type something super quick, and save it for later. No stupid modules to load, never had an error or crash, it just does *exactly* what it's supposed to - it's a quick place to jot down a note. I love the program. I use it all the time.
It also can open binary files, and I have encountered cases where being able to edit a binary in a locked down environment was very useful (corrupted application had a specific log format, and if it wasn't perfectly intact, the program would just exit without any warnings.)
And after the trial period ends, you need a Notepad 365 subscription, for $2.95 per month, which includes a cloud drive with 640k of space.
Notepad is probably one of very few apps that is used constantly, in the manner you described. It's familiar, quick, convienent and in many cases totally sufficient for the things you use it for. This hasn't gone unnoticed by Microsoft.
All the telemetry collected by Windows is telling them there's an application that they haven't properly monetized. There are ads in Minesweeper and Solitaire, but Notepad is far more useful and you spend more time looking at it. And they know. The telemetry tells them what apps are running and for how long.
They are 'updating' the Notepad application to include hooks to their advertising framework. It's no use displaying ads in places people aren't looking, and you're looking at Notepad. And they know, and soon you'll be looking at advertisments, jammed into whatever "helpful" widget is added to "help" you. Because it looks like you need help, and you're going to get it, whether you like it or not.
^^^ This. My favorite locked-down machine trick is one where they "only" let you have admin access to Notepad, which is plenty of access once you open up Notepad's "file open" dialog and essentially get to have admin access to File Explorer.
Indeed! I once had some corrupt files that would hang Explorer when it tried to read their metadata... Notepad's file open dialog didn't have any trouble deleting them and that was that.
"All the telemetry collected by Windows is telling them there's an application that they haven't properly monetized"
Can you, or anyone for that matter, back up this declaration? People are constantly making statements such as this with absolutely no proof. Telemetry is not all bad. And MS has publicly stated that any telemetry data they may collect is anonymized and nobody has ever proved that statement false. I know accusations have replaced facts and reason in today's fractious and increasingly belligerent society but unlike the political and societal malcontents technology can be studied and pulled apart to either prove or disprove any accusation. Until people realize that opinions and unsubstantiated accusations are just speeding up the decline of western society we are well and truly fucked. People born today are facing a future where arguing over global warming, LGBT rights, illegal immigration, and government surveillance will seem silly.
If you drag a file to the toolbar (ribbon) in Wordpad, it will open instead of linking / embedding.
Telemetry is not all bad
Straw man. No-one claims it is 'all' bad. And if it were opt-in like so many 'would you like to send anonymised data so we can improve product X' then there would be no outcry. It's the fact that not only is it not opt-in, it's a constant effort to remain opt-out.
has publicly stated that any telemetry data they may collect is anonymized
Corporations make statements all the time. Some are even true when they make them. A change of 'direction' and whatever promise or guarantee that was made may change. Without notice. Given that Microsoft has a history of 'changing direction', dropping things they promised or doing things they said they wouldn't I have no idea why you'd even consider this statement with anything other than suspicion. But let's assume a neutral stance. Microsoft claims no foul. Where's the proof? Where's the independent audit? Where's the option to say 'no thanks?'.
The burden of proof is not on those saying that there is a risk of foul play or even just negligence. The burden is on those giving the guarantee that this data (of ours) is safe with them and will be used only for good.
either prove or disprove any accusation
No problem. I look forward to your proof that the collection of my data has no negative impact for me, now or in the future. That's the direction the burden points. It's not on me to prove foul play or negligence. In the absence of proof, I would like to choose not to trust my data to someone. Being unable to do that is a problem for some people, even if you have different priorities.
Until people realize that opinions and unsubstantiated accusations are just speeding up the decline of western society we are well and truly fucked
You are guilty of the very thing you are decrying. Clearly this isn't something that concerns you. Your inability to understand, on a nerd site no less, that this is of significant concern to a number of people is a symptom of the very fractiousness you accuse others of.
Please. Log. Eye.
Takes a while for all the telemetry info to go to MS campus.