Microsoft Claims Reports of Paint's Death Greatly Exaggerated
When Microsoft last week posted an update of features that will be removed or deprecated with the release of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the flagship Paint image capture and illustration tool was among those on the list, which also included PowerShell 2.0 support, IIS 6 management tools, Outlook Express and the Reader app. Obituaries and tweets lamented the death of MS Paint, which was among the first free add-on tools offered in Windows.
Microsoft has deprecated Paint in favor of the new Paint 3D tool, which debuted in April with the Windows 10 Creators Update, and has taken its place on the Windows Start menu. While Paint 3D is now pinned to the Start menu, the original Paint is still included among the apps bundled with the OS. With the fall update, only Paint 3D is included.
Reports of Paint's demise went viral yesterday, apparently much to Microsoft's surprise. The company issued a brief statement stating that Paint isn't disappearing, reiterating that it'll remain available in the Windows Store as a free download.
"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," according to the statement by Megan Saunders, Microsoft's general manager for 3D for Everyone, Windows Experiences. "If there's anything we learned, it's that after 32 years, MS Paint has a lot of fans. It's been amazing to see so much love for our trusty old app."
Nevertheless, that doesn't mean Paint will remain in the Windows Store forever. Tools that Microsoft classifies as "deprecated" could be removed in future releases, according to the company.
Frankly, it's not that big a deal. Paint 3D, though it has a much different interface, has the same basic functionality Paint offers, while giving users more illustration and photo editing options, including the ability to render images in 3D.
In fact, when Microsoft first revealed and demonstrated Paint 3D back in October of last year at the announcement of the Windows 10 Creators Update and Surface Studio, the company said at the time that the new tool was a replacement for Paint due to its ability to create richer graphics and images (see Michael Desmond's assessment of Paint 3D and some of the other features in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Technical Preview).
By the time MS Paint finally does disappear from the Windows Store, in all likelihood few will notice or care other than those who are sentimental. And those traditionalists will likely once again mourn its final demise, though in reality MS Paint just has a new name and added features.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 07/25/2017 at 1:08 PM