Jonmichael Moy: Microsoft Paint hasn’t been canned – will remain a default Windows 10 app

Wednesday 24 April 2019

Microsoft Paint hasn’t been canned – will remain a default Windows 10 app

Fans of Microsoft’s age-old Paint application can breathe easy, because it has been confirmed that the program will remain included as part of the default raft of apps in Windows 10 – at least for the time being.

This is according to Brandon LeBlanc, senior program manager in the Windows Insider team, who shared the news in a tweet.

The ‘1903’ referred to simply means the next major update for Windows 10 – the May 2019 Update – so Paint will remain a part of the operating system with that upgrade, and presumably for some time into the future (whatever ‘for now’ means).

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Change of heart

This was kind of expected, since just a couple of months back (in February 2019), one observant Windows 10 tester noticed that the warning that Paint would “soon be replaced with Paint 3D” disappeared from the preview versions of the operating system. That quickly prompted speculation that Microsoft had changed its mind, which has proved to be the case.

Previous to that, Microsoft had listed Paint as a deprecated app, and the idea was to drop it from the line-up of Windows 10 default apps, encouraging users to adopt Paint 3D instead (but still offering the original Paint as a download from the Microsoft Store).

Those who appreciate the streamlined and straightforward nature of Paint – which has been present in Windows since 1985 – will doubtless be pleased to see official confirmation that it’s still incorporated by default in Windows 10, at least in the immediate future.

The old app doesn’t have the bells and whistles of Paint 3D, of course, but for some, those trimmings just get in the way, and the more lightweight Paint app can be fired up to perform simple jobs in a quicker fashion.