{"slug": "windows-notepad", "name": "Windows Notepad", "category": "editors", "category_name": "Editors and IDEs", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 14, "warners": 7, "score": -1.909, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2025-12-11", "latest": "2026-10-24", "why": "Notepad is the best version so far, I use it as a todo list", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 7}, "spark": [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Notepad is the best version so far, I use it as a todo list", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Notepad", "Windows Notepad"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 791478544, "item_id": 49467409, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467409", "by": "SilasX", "date": "2026-08-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Notepad addresses a specific use case (dumb text editor).", "excerpt": "No, I used it by the standard meaning. The fact that you prefer doesn't make it not a breaking change, or a good idea in general. Notepad addresses a specific use case (dumb text editor). If you have a different use case, there are other applications that handle it.", "context": "", "use_case": "simple text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID"}, {"id": 751703440, "item_id": 46981465, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46981465", "by": "jiggawatts", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Its job is to be robust, simple, and always available.", "excerpt": "For Linux folks: Notepad is the Windows equivalent of a console editor such as Pico or Vi. Its job is to be robust, simple, and always available. It's supposed to show you the symbols in markdown, not render them. It is useful for opening potentially dangerous content in a 100% safe way, because \"txt\" should always be safe to inspect! It is regularly used to open gigabyte-sized log files and the like, which it has to", "context": "", "use_case": "opening text and large log files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability"}, {"id": 745108673, "item_id": 46569292, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46569292", "by": "CrzyLngPwd", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Notepad is the best version so far, I use it as a todo list", "excerpt": "I don't see the same things as the commenters or the article. I love Windows 11, and have zero complaints. Win+R is instant. Notepad is the best version so far, I use it as a todo list and it saves and loads in the same place on my third screen every reboot - fantastic. I have no use for the AI being shoehorned into everything, but I use it every day via chatgpt in the browser, and genie and cp in vsc.", "context": "", "use_case": "todo list", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11"}, {"id": 739794080, "item_id": 46237130, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46237130", "by": "throwaway613745", "date": "2025-12-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Been using this for years and it's pretty much all I ever needed.", "excerpt": "With notepad.exe: At the first line of the a .txt file put .LOG This will then put a timestamp at the end of the file every time you open it. Also, if you press the F5 key it inserts a timestamp. Been using this for years and it's pretty much all I ever needed.", "context": "", "use_case": "timestamped text log", "switched_from": "", "story": "My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 793628656, "item_id": 49601791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49601791", "by": "accrual", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It's slow, too. On corporate hardware it can take several seconds for the \"new\" Notepad to open", "excerpt": "It's slow, too. On corporate hardware it can take several seconds for the \"new\" Notepad to open and actually start rendering keypresses. Instead I use Notepad2 and Notepad++ which are instant on the same hardware, like Notepad used to be.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bing Wallpaper showing Ad for Harry Potter and Fantastic beasts box set"}, {"id": 790846816, "item_id": 49427926, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49427926", "by": "jamesfinlayson", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Notepad was always a place to paste formatted junk to get the plaintext - I don't need anything persisted.", "excerpt": "Yeah I switched to Windows 11 recently and was a little annoyed by that - Notepad was always a place to paste formatted junk to get the plaintext - I don't need anything persisted.", "context": "recently switched to Windows 11", "use_case": "pasting plaintext", "switched_from": "", "story": "MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID"}, {"id": 756011536, "item_id": 47250721, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47250721", "by": "kshri24", "date": "2026-03-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They ruined a perfectly good editor: Notepad with AI slop.", "excerpt": "> I\u2019m starting to think that\u2019s going to be personality and feel and polish, but turned up a notch. That\u2019s what I used to do when I started writing apps, but in some ways I have really toned it down in favor of OS alignment. That's all that is really required. I mean look at the Microslop fiasco. They ruined a perfectly good editor: Notepad with AI slop. But this is not reflecting in their sales. They still are showin", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Greg Knauss Is Losing Himself"}, {"id": 754475152, "item_id": 47154697, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47154697", "by": "7bit", "date": "2026-02-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Notepad is supposed to be dumb, not Microsoft!", "excerpt": "Can Microsoft please stop? If I need Copilot and Markdown Support I use VS Code or any other software that supports it. I recently used Windows Sandbox and was surprised that it does not have notepad. And why? Because it's a Store App now and that's unsupported inside the Windows Sandbox. Notepad is supposed to be dumb, not Microsoft!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["text editing", "simple text editing", "drafting emails", "pasting plaintext", "reading/editing markdown files", "opening text and large log files"], "compared": [{"slug": "notepad2", "name": "Notepad2", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "notepadplusplus", "name": "Notepad++", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "gmail", "name": "Gmail", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "visual-studio-code", "name": "Visual Studio Code", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47154399", "title": "Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46971516", "title": "Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49421158", "title": "MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50223647", "title": "Why is AI generated language so hard to understand?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49599719", "title": "Bing Wallpaper showing Ad for Harry Potter and Fantastic beasts box set", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47209122", "title": "Greg Knauss Is Losing Himself", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-02": {"warn": 3, "recommend": 1, "neutral": 2}, "2026-03": {"warn": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"warn": 1}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803592497, "item_id": 50224531, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50224531", "by": "Taek", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I now write emails in notepad", "excerpt": "[For example, gmail suggests] \"Google shipped their\" -> \"Google shipped its\" (I use 'their' to make it clear I'm talking about the people who build features at Google, and not merely about a faceless corporation) \"feature or whatever\" -> \"feature\" ('or whatever' is chosen to tell everyone that I'm not actually sure what the name of the feature is, and I can't really be bothered to figure it out) \"gmail\" -> \"Gmail\" (m", "context": "", "use_case": "drafting emails", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "Why is AI generated language so hard to understand?"}, {"id": 793628656, "item_id": 49601791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49601791", "by": "accrual", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It's slow, too. On corporate hardware it can take several seconds for the \"new\" Notepad to open", "excerpt": "It's slow, too. On corporate hardware it can take several seconds for the \"new\" Notepad to open and actually start rendering keypresses. Instead I use Notepad2 and Notepad++ which are instant on the same hardware, like Notepad used to be.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bing Wallpaper showing Ad for Harry Potter and Fantastic beasts box set"}, {"id": 791478544, "item_id": 49467409, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467409", "by": "SilasX", "date": "2026-08-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Notepad addresses a specific use case (dumb text editor).", "excerpt": "No, I used it by the standard meaning. The fact that you prefer doesn't make it not a breaking change, or a good idea in general. Notepad addresses a specific use case (dumb text editor). If you have a different use case, there are other applications that handle it.", "context": "", "use_case": "simple text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID"}, {"id": 790846816, "item_id": 49427926, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49427926", "by": "jamesfinlayson", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Notepad was always a place to paste formatted junk to get the plaintext - I don't need anything persisted.", "excerpt": "Yeah I switched to Windows 11 recently and was a little annoyed by that - Notepad was always a place to paste formatted junk to get the plaintext - I don't need anything persisted.", "context": "recently switched to Windows 11", "use_case": "pasting plaintext", "switched_from": "", "story": "MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID"}, {"id": 756011536, "item_id": 47250721, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47250721", "by": "kshri24", "date": "2026-03-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They ruined a perfectly good editor: Notepad with AI slop.", "excerpt": "> I\u2019m starting to think that\u2019s going to be personality and feel and polish, but turned up a notch. That\u2019s what I used to do when I started writing apps, but in some ways I have really toned it down in favor of OS alignment. That's all that is really required. I mean look at the Microslop fiasco. They ruined a perfectly good editor: Notepad with AI slop. But this is not reflecting in their sales. They still are showin", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Greg Knauss Is Losing Himself"}, {"id": 754606704, "item_id": 47162919, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47162919", "by": "thekevan", "date": "2026-02-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Notepad is turning into the text app I desperately want, except for the association with Copilot.", "excerpt": "Notepad is turning into the text app I desperately want, except for the association with Copilot. And then with new changes, it had the recent security vulnerabilities issues. The only thing it doesn't have that I want is a sidebar that shows folders or files like so many text editors already do. I never use Notepad anymore. I have been using Pulsar, which is okay, but not exactly what I want. I want a text editor th", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown"}, {"id": 754519153, "item_id": 47157447, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47157447", "by": "andsoitis", "date": "2026-02-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use notepad to read/edit the .MD files, so this will make my life a little easier.", "excerpt": "When I do agentic development with Claude Code, I use notepad to read/edit the .MD files, so this will make my life a little easier.", "context": "", "use_case": "reading/editing markdown files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown"}, {"id": 754475152, "item_id": 47154697, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47154697", "by": "7bit", "date": "2026-02-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Notepad is supposed to be dumb, not Microsoft!", "excerpt": "Can Microsoft please stop? If I need Copilot and Markdown Support I use VS Code or any other software that supports it. I recently used Windows Sandbox and was surprised that it does not have notepad. And why? Because it's a Store App now and that's unsupported inside the Windows Sandbox. Notepad is supposed to be dumb, not Microsoft!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown"}, {"id": 751703440, "item_id": 46981465, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46981465", "by": "jiggawatts", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Its job is to be robust, simple, and always available.", "excerpt": "For Linux folks: Notepad is the Windows equivalent of a console editor such as Pico or Vi. Its job is to be robust, simple, and always available. It's supposed to show you the symbols in markdown, not render them. It is useful for opening potentially dangerous content in a 100% safe way, because \"txt\" should always be safe to inspect! It is regularly used to open gigabyte-sized log files and the like, which it has to", "context": "", "use_case": "opening text and large log files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability"}, {"id": 751578208, "item_id": 46973638, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46973638", "by": "jmyeet", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The constant desire for feature bloat inevitably introduces potential vulnerabilities.", "excerpt": "I found a simpler explanation for what's going on [1]. To summarize, malicious Markdown files with custom schemes in URLs can trick users into executing arbitrary code. I honestly didn't know this was a \"feature\" of Notepad. I guess that's my real problem here. The constant desire for feature bloat inevitably introduces potential vulnerabilities. In no world did I expect Notepad to have the ability under any circumst", "context": "", "use_case": "text editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability"}, {"id": 751560928, "item_id": 46972558, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46972558", "by": "kuboble", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "After they added copilot I finally gave up and uninstalled it", "excerpt": "I used notepad as my default, simple text editor for ages. After they added copilot I finally gave up and uninstalled it and switched to a one of the minimalistic clones of the good old notepad.exe", "context": "", "use_case": "simple text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability"}, {"id": 748497104, "item_id": 46781069, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46781069", "by": "embedding-shape", "date": "2026-01-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it has a very obvious bug", "excerpt": "I just had to boot Windows yesterday for some quick work (adding Windows support to my browser I've built from scratch) and since I barely have any tools on the Windows installation, I used notepad.exe to edit stuff. And of course, it has a very obvious bug, any file shows \"$filname.$ext.txt\" in the title bar, regardless if it's a .txt or not. So opening config.toml shows as config.toml.txt. Seemingly Microsoft got r", "context": "builds a browser from scratch", "use_case": "editing files on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 January Update Breaks Notepad"}, {"id": 745108673, "item_id": 46569292, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46569292", "by": "CrzyLngPwd", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Notepad is the best version so far, I use it as a todo list", "excerpt": "I don't see the same things as the commenters or the article. I love Windows 11, and have zero complaints. Win+R is instant. Notepad is the best version so far, I use it as a todo list and it saves and loads in the same place on my third screen every reboot - fantastic. I have no use for the AI being shoehorned into everything, but I use it every day via chatgpt in the browser, and genie and cp in vsc.", "context": "", "use_case": "todo list", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11"}, {"id": 739794080, "item_id": 46237130, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46237130", "by": "throwaway613745", "date": "2025-12-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Been using this for years and it's pretty much all I ever needed.", "excerpt": "With notepad.exe: At the first line of the a .txt file put .LOG This will then put a timestamp at the end of the file every time you open it. Also, if you press the F5 key it inserts a timestamp. Been using this for years and it's pretty much all I ever needed.", "context": "", "use_case": "timestamped text log", "switched_from": "", "story": "My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)"}]}