How to restore the WordPad text editor in Windows 11

[harlan4096]

Microsoft released the 2024 feature update for Windows 11 last week. The new update is rolling out to eligible devices already. While it will take weeks or months before it is reaching all devices, it is only a matter of time before it lands on the majority of unmanaged devices.

The main changes of the update are more AI, Wi-Fi 7 support, Sudo for Windows and several other changes. Microsoft did remove features as well. The most visible one is probably the rich text editor WordPad.

WordPad could be used to open plain text files, rich text format documents (.rtf), Microsoft Word documents (.doc, .docx) as well as open formats (.odt, OOXML).

WordPad is gone

Only some users may notice that the classic WordPad text editor is no longer available. Attempts to launch the app via Start fail, because the app is no longer returned when you type its name. If you know its original location on the hard drive, which is "%ProgramFiles%\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe", you will notice that it is not there anymore.

The feature update removed three WordPad files actually from the Windows installation. This happens regardless of whether the system is updated from an earlier version or fresh installed.

The three files in question are:

• Wordpad.exe in C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories
  
• wordpadfilter.dll in C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories
  
• write.exe in C:\Windows
  

The WordPad directory has one or multiple subfolders next to the two listed files. These use language codes and include strings for different languages.

Microsoft's official stance is to use Notepad for plain text edits and Microsoft Word, a commercial software, for rich text documents. While you could install a third-party app, LibreOffice comes to mind, to load the supported document formats of WordPad, you may also restore WordPad on the device.

Note: WordPad is no longer developed. The app won't receive updates, including security updates anymore. It may stop working at one point because of that.

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