Microsoft is getting ready to kill off MS Paint

Posted on July 24, 2017

1 min read

Paint is the built-in image editor that’s been a part of windows for 32 years. Along with Solitaire and pinball, it’s been a stalwart part of the Windows experience. Its time is ending, unfortunately. As part of the next iteration of the Windows 10 creator’s update, Microsoft is finally halting development on Paint.

Paint has been added to the list of deprecated software in Windows 10.

“This list is intended to help customers consider these removals and deprecations for their own planning. The list is subject to change and may not include every deprecated feature or functionality,” Microsoft says.

Paint has been part of Windows since 1985, where it began life as a licenced version of ZSoft’s PC Paintbrush. Never the most capable of image editors, paint has been used primarily to add text to images, or for quick saving of screenshots. Some people, like Pat Hines, have elevated using Paint to an artform.

boston-based-artist-patrick-hines-has-created-some-amazing-images-using-ms-paint-this-photo-is-an-ode-to-a-scene-from-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hollows

heres-an-extremely-meta-painting-of-microsoft-founder-bill-gates-through-ms-paint-hines-said-he-uses-his-computer-mouse-for-every-single-painting-he-creates

heres-another-one-from-the-harry-potter-series-created-by-pat-hines-the-whole-image-was-created-in-ms-paint-other-than-the-print-on-the-gravestones-which-hines-used-photoshop-to-slant

hines-created-this-image-of-the-street-where-he-grew-up-using-ms-paint-the-intersection-and-manhole-covers-form-a-natural-baseball-diamond-he-wrote

hines-starts-out-by-laying-down-some-simple-shapes-in-ms-paint-and-then-colors-them-and-enlarges-the-image-for-a-higher-resolution-the-scene-below-is-based-on-peters-hill-in-boston

In the last update, Microsoft launched its replacement in Paint 3D, which includes both 2D and 3D image manipulation, though it’s finicky and less user-friendly. Paint itself won’t be going anywhere just yet though, so if you do use it for a bit of very, very light image manipulation, you’ll still be able to, – it’ll just no longer be in active development. If you’re looking for a decent replacement, Paint.Net is infinitely superior.

There are a few apps that are being actively removed in the impending “Fall” update though, including the likes of Outlook Express, the 3D Builder app and Reader.

Last Updated: July 24, 2017

6 Comments

For the Emperor!

July 24, 2017 at 16:10

“of” or “off”? I use MSPaint a lot – hopefully they replace it with something useful!

miaau

July 25, 2017 at 15:40

and snipping tool. That is awesome as well

kieker

July 24, 2017 at 16:44

obligatory: https://www.reddit.com/r/goodartvsmspaint/ 🙂

VampyreSquirrel

July 24, 2017 at 16:51

RIP Powershell 2.0 xD

Magoo

July 25, 2017 at 07:31

Pat Hines is a hero.

miaau

July 25, 2017 at 15:39

I still use paint. Nothing like taking a screenshot and drawing a few arrows or circles or whatever to highlight something.

My wife used to paint pretty impressive pictures using Paint as well, but I think now she would not notice.

I use paint as a business tool, it is small, quick to use, has the bare bones functionality needed for certain tasks, without clutter and complexity that requires a steep(er) learning curve.