Microsoft Says Paint Isn’t Going Away But You Already Knew That

Yesterday, the Internet lost its mind after it was ‘uncovered’ that Microsoft would be removing Paint from the next update to Windows 10. Of course, for those who know the difference between the words deprecated and removed, you were already aware that Paint wasn’t going away or if you watched First Ring Daily yesterday, Paul and I both reiterated that Paint was not being removed too.

Microsoft, to clear up the confusion around the words ‘deprecated’ and ‘removed’, has officially said that Paint is not going away and in fact, will be arriving in the Windows Store in the near future.

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In a blog post that the company clearly states “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.”

There really isn’t much else to say other than one journalist misinterpreted a technical Microsoft document and then dozens of sites parroted the statement without actually doing their research. For now, know that Paint isn’t going away and the 32-year-old application is here to stay.

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Conversation 42 comments

  • Narg

    25 July, 2017 - 8:12 am

    <p>So, Microsoft is doing the right thing here after all? Moving bloat to the Store where the end-user can decide on it's installation or not. They should use this situation as a grand movement of more of the bloat to this model. Though, a quick and easy list for installation via a super simple introduction app (or just web link) in the Start menu would be a plus.</p>

    • warren

      25 July, 2017 - 10:13 am

      <blockquote><a href="#152452"><em>In reply to Narg:</em></a></blockquote><p>MSPaint is 7MB. Paint 3D is 12MB.</p><p>So sure, having both installed by default is a waste of space but overall the disk requirements for the built-in drawing program have doubled compared to a year ago.</p><p><br></p>

      • navarac

        25 July, 2017 - 10:35 am

        <blockquote><a href="#152477"><em>In reply to warren:</em></a></blockquote><p>Their footprint would have been problematic with my first 286 PC and a 40MB HDD!</p>

        • ErichK

          Premium Member
          26 July, 2017 - 11:30 am

          <blockquote><a href="#152491"><em>In reply to navarac:</em></a></blockquote><p>lol, yeah my first 8088 compatible had a 20 MB hard drive. I'll never forget the effort it took deciding what to keep on there and what not to keep.</p>

          • hrlngrv

            Premium Member
            27 July, 2017 - 1:49 pm

            <p><a href="#153579"><em>In reply to ErichK:</em></a></p><p>Ah, the good old days when we had to perform a physical format first, then fire up DEBUG to tweak a new disk's first sector to force it to use as small a cluster size as possible, then perform the logical format. When saving an expected 4KB/file added up to significant extra usable disk space.</p>

            • ErichK

              Premium Member
              27 July, 2017 - 4:38 pm

              <blockquote><a href="#154053"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>:)</p>

    • Ekim

      Premium Member
      25 July, 2017 - 2:07 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#152452"><em>In reply to Narg:</em></a></blockquote><p>I agree completely. I wish there was a complete listing from top to bottom I could look at of what's in Windows out of the box. About the only stock app I can think of that should always remain is notepad. Basic text editing is too essential to not have but the rest should be optional. </p>

      • hrlngrv

        Premium Member
        27 July, 2017 - 1:43 pm

        <p><a href="#152690"><em>In reply to Ekim:</em></a></p><p>Task Scheduler, Font Viewer and REGEDIT should be optional? IE and Edge both optional?</p>

        • Ekim

          Premium Member
          31 July, 2017 - 1:02 pm

          <blockquote><a href="#154052"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>The system applications are a different matter. Anything in the "control panel/management console" category needs to be there. Funny though I had forgotten about Font Viewer. I don't think I've worried about fonts since XP. Regarding a stock browser – yeah you're right. There needs to be one until you can get Chrome or Firefox from the store. Frankly I wish Edge was a store app and available on other platforms like many of the new apps are. I like Edge but until it is possible to use it on my other devices it is a non-starter for me.</p>

  • markbyrn

    Premium Member
    25 July, 2017 - 8:12 am

    <p>The journos will say MS changed their mind after all the rage they created.</p>

  • Rob_Wade

    25 July, 2017 - 8:46 am

    <p>The Microsoft needs to flipping use more accurate words to describe what they're doing. Deprecate has very specific meanings. They don't get to redefine it as "we're moving to the Store". I'm tired of the idiotic double-speak and vagueness of the entire Microsoft crew, especially that fool Satya Nadella. They are scared to death to actually speak plain and candid. Admit what the hell you're planning to DO, Microsoft. Take your lumps like adults and see if customers buy in to it and hang with you. It's really THAT SIMPLE.</p>

    • warren

      25 July, 2017 - 10:21 am

      <blockquote><a href="#152465"><em>In reply to Rob_Wade:</em></a></blockquote><p>First of all — switch to decaf. This is way too much anger over a trifle.</p><p>Second, the meaning of the word deprecation is stated right at the beginning of Microsoft's KB article: "The following features and functionalities in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update are either removed from the product in the current release (“Removed”) or are <strong>not in active development and might be removed in future&nbsp;releases</strong> (“Deprecated”)."</p><p>Saying that MS Paint is "not in active development" is merely stating something that's been obvious to most of us for a few years now.</p><p>Your complaints about "doublespeak" apply to some of MIcrosoft's communications, but not this one.</p>

    • SvenJ

      25 July, 2017 - 10:38 am

      <blockquote><a href="#152478"><em>In reply to lwetzel:</em></a> No that last line is not what they are doing. Unless of course the plan is to wrap it in Centennial and never touch it again. That would be consistent with MSs support of their store. They are providing guidance/example for developers all over. Just take what you have, wrap it, and be done with it. If in fact they plan to continue development, that is NOT deprecated. If you want an example of deprecation, look to Windows Media Center.</blockquote><p><br></p>

      • lvthunder

        Premium Member
        25 July, 2017 - 10:54 am

        <blockquote><a href="#152493"><em>In reply to SvenJ:</em></a></blockquote><p>No Media Center was removed from Windows with no Microsoft way of putting it back. Paint is just moving to the store. I highly doubt it ever gets an update.</p>

        • spacein_vader

          Premium Member
          25 July, 2017 - 12:52 pm

          <blockquote><em>Media centre was never removed from any version of Windows it shipped with. They just stopped putting it in new versions. </em></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote><a href="#152513"><em>In reply to lvthunder:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p>

    • navarac

      25 July, 2017 - 10:40 am

      <blockquote><a href="#152465"><em>In reply to Rob_Wade:</em></a></blockquote><p>Unfortunately, Microsoft isn't the only Company to employ dictionary trawlers to obfuscate* their announcements.</p><p><br></p><p>* Just in case, (<span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">make obscure, unclear, or unintelligible – confuse)</span></p>

      • pecosbob04

        25 July, 2017 - 3:42 pm

        <blockquote><em>But shouldn't one always strive to eschew obfuscation?</em></blockquote><blockquote><a href="#152495"><em>In reply to navarac:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p>

    • skane2600

      25 July, 2017 - 11:17 am

      <blockquote><a href="#152478"><em>In reply to lwetzel:</em></a></blockquote><p>Generally the term "depreciated" as it applies to software is a developer's term that refers to a function or capability within an API that is no longer recommended to be used and may be removed later. It's a term that doesn't really make sense in the context of a whole product. If MS is moving Paint to the Windows Store, the term is even less applicable.</p>

  • BrianEricFord

    25 July, 2017 - 9:25 am

    <p>Seems reasonable to assume the worst, given Movie Maker.</p>

  • Waethorn

    25 July, 2017 - 9:26 am

    <p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">There really isn’t much else to say other than one journalist misinterpreted a technical Microsoft document and then dozens of sites parroted the statement without actually doing their research."</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You mean like Ed Bott when he wrote the thing about Clover Trail support?</span></p>

    • Stooks

      25 July, 2017 - 10:04 am

      <blockquote><a href="#152470"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>"You mean like Ed Bott when he wrote the thing about Clover Trail support?"</p><p><br></p><p>I would say yes, another nothing burger story.</p>

    • Waethorn

      25 July, 2017 - 11:17 am

      <blockquote><a href="#152470"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>Obviously the downvotes didn't know that Intel never made Windows 10 drivers for Clover Trail, explicitly said they weren't supporting it, and are defending Microsoft's pushy Windows 10 install behaviour onto machines that should've never got it….</p><p><br></p><p>Stay classy.</p>

  • wbhite

    Premium Member
    25 July, 2017 - 9:37 am

    <p>I still never understood the outrage, even if they were going to remove it. For anyone who absolutely didn't want to lose it, just backup the executable and run it for as long as you want.</p>

    • navarac

      25 July, 2017 - 10:33 am

      <blockquote><a href="#152471"><em>In reply to wbhite:</em></a></blockquote><p>Did that straight after Paint3D was introduced. Simple!</p>

  • JimP

    25 July, 2017 - 11:24 am

    <p>I hope that's true. But that's what they said about Silverlight. </p>

  • skane2600

    25 July, 2017 - 11:35 am

    <p>The statement "it will just have a new home soon" sounds like a politician's backtrack after some controversial statement that got push-back. If that was the plan all along why not just say "We are removing Paint from Windows but it will be available from the Windows Store" in the first place? Perhaps the plan to put it in the store was something they decided yesterday.</p>

  • Shel Dyck

    25 July, 2017 - 12:19 pm

    <p>what does it matter if it didn't ship with paint. these things are easy to put back. my Win10 runs win7 games and desktop gadgets just fine thanks. with dosbox it runs wfw3.11 with win32s too. haven't lost a damn thing since '92.</p><p><br></p>

    • skane2600

      25 July, 2017 - 12:44 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#152581"><em>In reply to ShelDyck:</em></a></blockquote><p>it depends on the program. If you copy mspaint.exe to a new folder, it won't run from there. Perhaps if you save it to another location before the update and then move it back to its original location afterward, it might work. Maybe there are register tweaks necessary. In any case, it's not something average users will know how to do.</p>

      • hrlngrv

        Premium Member
        25 July, 2017 - 2:34 pm

        <p><a href="#152622"><em>In reply to skane2600:</em></a></p><p>FWLIW, the XP version of Paint runs just fine wherever it's located. Plus the EXE and CHM files together take up less than 400KB disk storage compared to Windows 10's EXE alone taking up about 6.8MB. Damn, the ribbon UI adds to file size!</p><p>Curmudgeon warning: RAM and disk storage have increased 10,000-fold since the mid 1980s, but software functionality has, at most, increased 200-fold or so.</p>

        • skane2600

          25 July, 2017 - 6:01 pm

          <blockquote><a href="#152701"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>Well, if you have XP it's a non-issue anyway. The number of people who run both XP and W10 is very small, I would bet. I wouldn't want to download a copy trusting that it's clean.</p><p><br></p><p>Increasing software functionality is probably about an order of magnitude or so more difficult to do than increasing storage capacity so it sounds about right. Most of the latter's gains come from refinements in manufacturing rather than new ideas. </p>

  • rameshthanikodi

    25 July, 2017 - 12:20 pm

    <p>Well technically Paint is dead, depreciated is dead. Software these days moves faster than ever, any app, even if functional, if it isn't supported anymore, it is widely considered to be dead.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      25 July, 2017 - 12:49 pm

      <p><a href="#152582"><em>In reply to FalseAgent:</em></a></p><p>Usage doesn't count? And if no new development is the indicator of life, Notepad must also be dead, no?</p>

    • Minok

      25 July, 2017 - 2:41 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#152582"><em>In reply to FalseAgent:</em></a></blockquote><p>So thats the same mistaken understanding the 'journalist/bloggers' did. Depricated does not mean dead, it means set to be phased out at some future point. Its moving from (over time) being "bundled and preinstalled in Windows" to being a "free item to install on demand from the Windows Store". It not being a "everyone is forced to have it" application is considered dead to you, well, that cannot be fixed. </p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    25 July, 2017 - 12:45 pm

    <p>Is MSFT going to move WordPad to the store? Get rid of the WRITE.EXE instances which launch WordPad? How about</p><ul><li>Steps Recorder</li><li>Snipping Tool</li><li>XPS Viewer (or make Edge an XPS viewer)</li><li>Math Input Panel (one of the poorest applets ever added to Windows)</li><li>exotica like EUCDEDIT.EXE</li></ul><p><br></p><p>?</p><p>I'd be willing to give up all the above bundled in exchange for something useful from the Get Help app when there's no internet connection, maybe just basic networking troubleshooting instructions. After all, Windows 8.x's Get Help app provided some help with no internet connection.</p>

  • Win74ever

    25 July, 2017 - 1:25 pm

    <p>Wise move. With the Classic Paint in the Store they might get some people to actually open and use the Store.</p>

  • Minok

    25 July, 2017 - 2:39 pm

    <p>Well if there is one constant in todays (2017) world it is that 'journalist' don't command the english language very well, jump to conclusions, and then re-report other reports rather than stoping for a second to do a small amount of critical thinking.</p><p>The world can continue to be run by paint and notepad.</p>

  • gumbyjunior1

    26 July, 2017 - 10:42 am

    <p>Yep, sad to see other "Tech journalists" being lazy and pulling a CNN.</p><p><br></p><p>This is a good move for the Microsoft Paint application.</p><p><br></p><p>A very good move indeed – for Microsoft can work on adding addtional features over time and give it a chance to rival other applications like GIMP and Photoshop.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • ErichK

    Premium Member
    26 July, 2017 - 11:37 am

    <p>Speaking of space and how much software uses it, sometimes I really wonder why an operating system has to take up 10+ GB nowadays anyway. I mean, strip it down, you've got the kernel, drivers, a UI, and some utilities. I just right-clicked on my Windows folder and looked at Properties, and it says there are 90,000+ files in 22,000+ folders??</p><p><br></p><p>Kind of mind-boggling when you think about it.</p>

  • Kurt Koch

    28 July, 2017 - 3:36 pm

    <p>MS could achieve two goals by removing Paint and putting it on the Store: 1) Clear out legacy code not used by everyone that just consumes space and creates complexity. 2) Drive traffic to the Store, boost awareness and give the ecosystem a boost.</p><p><br></p><p>There are probably several other good candidates for the Store as well.</p>

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