Microsoft Paint To Be Killed Off After 32 Years (theguardian.com) 388
Microsoft's next Windows 10 update, called the Fall Creators Update, will bring a variety of new features. But one long-standing stalwart of the Windows experience has been put on the chopping block: Microsoft Paint. From a report: First released with the very first version of Windows 1.0 in 1985, Paint in its various guises would be one of the first graphics editors used by many and became a core part of Windows. Starting life as a 1-bit monochrome licensed version of ZSoft's PC Paintbrush, it wasn't until Windows 98 that Paint could save in JPEG. With the Windows 10 Creators Update, released in April, Microsoft introduced the new Paint 3D, which is installed alongside traditional Paint and features 3D image making tools as well as some basic 2D image editing. But it is not an update to original Paint and doesn't behave like it. Now Microsoft has announced that, alongside Outlook Express, Reader app and Reading list, Microsoft Paint has been signalled for death having been added to the "features that are removed or deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update" list.
NO! (Score:5, Interesting)
YES, I AM DEAD SERIOUS.
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Mostly to add arrows, circles or underlineing stuff etc to screenshots when making dokumentation.
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Re:NO! (Score:5, Informative)
The OP says he uses it in a professional setting. Be prepared to acquire licenses or at least talk with your legal department.
Deluxe Paint (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:NO! (Score:5, Informative)
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I use and deeply love GIMP, but it is not an adequate replacement for MS Paint in a lot of use cases. Far too large and featureful when all you want to do is perform a single simple task.
Four seconds too long? (Score:3)
GIMP just takes forever to load.
Today at work, I tested this claim by starting GIMP on two PCs, one with Xubuntu 16.04 and the other with Windows 10, neither with an SSD. From choosing the app from the start menu to GIMP's main window appearing took four seconds on each. I also tested it a few days ago on a compact laptop with an SSD and an Atom CPU, and it took five seconds. But I concede that these tests weren't fresh after a PC restart, and it didn't have to rescan fonts and plug-ins. Or are you often triggering something that requires
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https://usercontent2.hubstatic... [hubstatic.com]
Off-Store apps work on Windows 10 Home/Pro (Score:2)
Off-Store apps can be installed in Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, just not Windows 10 S. What problem did you run into when installing Paint.NET on Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro? Or does your PC run Windows 10 S? If so, which make and model so that others can follow the growth of Windows 10 S usage share?
GIMP has AA paintbrush and non-AA pencil (Score:3)
GIMP has both the paintbrush tool, which antialiases strokes "with additional pixels on either side in a lighter colour", and the pencil tool, which "does operate on a pixel basis".
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Wow.
Microsoft Paint was basically a workalike copy of the MacPaint, which was one of the free tools supplied with the original Apple Macintosh. MacPaint was dropped ages ago, though (the last version was 1988!)-- it was groundbreaking for its time, but basically primitive by any modern standards.
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MacPaint was written for the Motorola 68000. MS Paint was written for x86. Sometimes you want a primitive tool. What do you use when you need a hammer?
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A rock.
Re:NO! (Score:5, Funny)
What do you use when you need a hammer?
Ideally, it would manage your nail collection - it would search all available work-spaces for nails or nail-like objects - even http://dragonball.wikia.com/wi... [wikia.com] - and it would organise your nails according to size, weight, color, composition, shape and which end was pointy and which end wasn't. It would keep track of your nail usage and offer you the nails you use most frequently, even going online to order new nails of that type (or more likely new nails of whatever type is preferred by the hammer's manufacturer), or it might refuse to operate at all unless you had the correct proprietary nails. It would also have social media integration so you could check out what kinds of nails your friends were using as well as be exposed to advertisements for different sorts of nails, screws, bolts, rivets, glue, welding rods and Namekians.
Oh, and it would also hammer nails, although that's kind of secondary at this point.
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What do you use when you need a hammer?
Ideally, it would manage your nail collection - it would search all available work-spaces for nails or nail-like objects - even http://dragonball.wikia.com/wi... [wikia.com] - and it would organise your nails according to size, weight, color, composition, shape and which end was pointy and which end wasn't. It would keep track of your nail usage and offer you the nails you use most frequently, even going online to order new nails of that type (or more likely new nails of whatever type is preferred by the hammer's manufacturer), or it might refuse to operate at all unless you had the correct proprietary nails. It would also have social media integration so you could check out what kinds of nails your friends were using as well as be exposed to advertisements for different sorts of nails, screws, bolts, rivets, glue, welding rods and Namekians.
Oh, and it would also hammer nails, although that's kind of secondary at this point.
Get that on kickstarter and I'll put in over 9,000.
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After the fifth or sixth update, it would suddenly stop using generic nails and would only use proprietary nails from the hammer's manufacturer.
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=What do you use when you need a hammer?
A large wrench, side-on, works pretty well.
Re:NO! (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't like the way you can "buy" a product, and then the manufacturer remotely disables some of the functionality you paid for.
Not upgrading is not a viable option, because you need security patches.
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You can "upgrade" to Enterprise and then you can get security updates for the 1607 LTSB until 2026. Those same security updates are likely compatible with home and pro, but you can't have them.
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Not upgrading is not a viable option, because you need security patches.
Not upgrading is not a viable option these days because windows won't let you.
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Welcome to the unstable and always-shifting world of WIndows 10, where you can't trust that anything in it will still be there or that the workflow you've developed will continue to be applicable when you show up at work the next day.
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Welcome to the unstable and always-shifting world of **Software As A Service** where you can't trust that anything in it will still be there or that the workflow you've developed will continue to be applicable when you show up at work the next day.
Kinda generalized that for you. It's a much bigger problem than Windows 10.
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I don't like the way you can "buy" a product, and then the manufacturer remotely disables some of the functionality you paid for.
Not upgrading is not a viable option, because you need security patches.
Then you don`t like Windows 10, Don`t buy it. I know I don`t buy things I don`t like.
Classic argument that works for basically anything else. They don't sell previous versions anymore and they are ever and ever harder to get hold of. So your choice is windows 10(shit), mac(expensive and shit) or linux(complete non start for anyone who doesn't know exactly what they're doing). If you want a new computer choose the one you hate the least.
Re:NO! (Score:5, Interesting)
I still use it in a professional setting!
Same here. It's the quickest way to paste a Printscreen and crop and save to a file. A bloated 3D tool is just a waste.
Deleting mspaint.exe will not fix Windows bloat. This is just trying to force people to adopt a new tool that does things no one wants. All anyone is going to do is copy mspaint.exe somewhere else and keep using it.
Re:NO! (Score:4)
I'm sure it'll be a souped up Wordpad-equivalent / Word lite with a ribbon. Plain text support will be there, but you'll have to dig for it and you can't set it as default.
Re:NO! (Score:5, Insightful)
Forced in what way? (Score:2)
When forced to work on machines that have things locked down tight, downloading and installing a new tool is not always an option.
How are you "forced to work on machines" like that in the first place? Why can't you play the "can't do the job without appropriate tools" card to temporarily decline to work on them pending approval of use of, say, GIMP Portable [portableapps.com]?
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Then the next step is to investigate why so many tasks are hitting the back burner. If you can show management that tool approval is the leading source of project delays, this might spur an effort to make approval of use of free software more Agile, seeing as Agile is the hot buzzword.
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Some of us have Actual Work to do that doesn't involve tilting at IT windmills.
Not arguing with IT about installing some random bit of software on the locked down images is a real plus. Especially when all you need it to crop a bitmapped picture and put a red border around it.
Horses for courses. Hammers for nails. Remember, when things look as bad as they possibly can, they usually get considerably worse (RAH).
Re:NO! (Score:4, Informative)
Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for PCs that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.
Why was GIMP rejected? (Score:2)
When you or your manager applied to corporate IT to add GNU Image Manipulation Program to the "small handful of other critical software", what was the reason given for the denial?
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You use it? So what. Microsoft quit caring much about user needs/preferences a decade ago.
I would guess that half the folks around here don't remember that Microsoft's huge success in the 1980s and 1990s was largely based on user friendliness -- inexpensive, non-copy protected, software that mostly sorta worked. Their strategy now is quite clear. Lock in as many users as possible. Minimize support and maintenance costs. And try to keep the franchise going for as many decades as possible while collecti
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I use the version from XP from here: http://www.mspaintxp.com/ [mspaintxp.com].
Re:NO! (Score:5, Insightful)
I have Photoshop, SAI, Clip Studio, Inkscape, Paint.NET installed but nothing beats win+r mspaint ctrl+p crop save
Of all the things that Windows 10 needs un-fucking they pick on one app that's been "good enough" for more than 20 years
Re:NO! (Score:4, Informative)
but nothing beats win+r mspaint ctrl+p crop save
winkey "sni" select area save. It's shorter and faster.
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What fraction of Windows PCs that you have encountered are locked down so tight that connecting a flash drive you carry with GIMP Portable [portableapps.com] on it doesn't work?
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I have worked for a few companies with whom attaching any unapproved flash drive was a firing offense.
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PrtScn/Alt+PrtScn -> Winkey+R -> mspaint/pbrush -> ctrl+v -> do your doodles -> ctrl+s.
Perhaps making it slightly less relevant, Windows 8+ allows saving screenshots directly to disk with WinKey+PrtScn
Also, for reference, Alt+PrtScn only captures the active window, which seems to not be widely known. It's very handy. I seem to remember it also wor
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I still use it in a professional setting! YES, I AM DEAD SERIOUS.
Don't worry, they'll probably sell it back to you for a 9.99pcm subscription.
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Exactly right now it is the only image editing app that will be available to quickly resize or adjust images. I often upload photos and then shrink them for better email as a lot of companies have size limits for attachments and sending 6 1280x1024 photos is a third the size of what my phone normally produces
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It's a conspiracy! (Score:2)
They're trying to kill chart brut [gawker.com]... and then all of us!
On MSPaint... (Score:4, Interesting)
It's been too primitive to be very useful for much more than cropping screencaps for some time.
If it doesn't also soften, scale (without artifact generation), remove noise, adjust contrast, saturation, tint, and brightness, handle at least text as a separate, editable layer, and do blending colour replacement along with handling transparency... meh. It's also handy if it can directly handle multi-frame GIFs and ICO files.
Still, to this very day I use MSPaint for cropping screencaps because most of the workstations I end up on don't have any graphics software at all.
Re:On MSPaint... (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed. Paint was never a GOOD program but it's what's installed by default and it works. I'm not going to install something like Greenshot on a server i'm working on but sometimes you need a no frills tool.
Re:On MSPaint... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have Photoshop. I still use MS Paint for screenshots. Low bloat and launches instantly.
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I have Photoshop. I still use MS Paint for screenshots. Low bloat and launches instantly.
Why? Windows comes with "Snipping Tool" specifically for this. Why use a full on MS Paint or Photoshop to do it?
Because 9 times out of 10, the next step would be to open up the screenshot in MS Paint or Photoshop to do the thing that you needed the screenshot for, adding arrows, putting in commentary, circling important features, etc.
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It's been too primitive to be very useful for much more than cropping screencaps for some time.
If it doesn't also soften, scale (without artifact generation), remove noise, adjust contrast, saturation, tint, and brightness, handle at least text as a separate, editable layer, and do blending colour replacement along with handling transparency... meh. It's also handy if it can directly handle multi-frame GIFs and ICO files.
Still, to this very day I use MSPaint for cropping screencaps because most of the workstations I end up on don't have any graphics software at all.
It's fine for pixel art... since pixel art doesn't require anything but magnification and a dropper tool.
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I'm old and tired of learning every new thing that comes along (though not so old I'm not learning everything that holds any real degree of interest to me).
I've heard there's a snipping tool in the MS Office suite now, but honestly I do it so rarely and it's so bloody easy to Alt-Print Scrn and just crop in MS Paint if required that I can't be bothered to worry about a newer method even if it is easier. And MS Paint (and Wordpad) are on pretty much every Windows machine.
Ready, Aim, Fire ... Miss (Score:2)
On the flip side, the problems that come with Outlook will keep many an IT worker employed for the rest of their lives (presuming of course they can stand to fix them for that long).
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Windows > Single-Window Mode
Turn it on and GIMP becomes far less of a Charlie Foxtrot. Otherwise, what are your other GIMP UI annoyances?
Uh... (Score:2)
Re:Uh... (Score:5, Informative)
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Recently discovered the snipping tool and love it. I used to use MS Paint for a lot of my application testing purposes and documenting bugs for developers to address. The snipping tool does 80% of that now. However there are still instances where I am forced to use MS paint, as the selection process of the snipping tool will close certain menus etc... which I am still able to capture using a print screen and MS paint. Hopefully the replacement isn't overly complicated, as all I really need it for is simple
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What am I supposed to use for screenshots on base installs?
Your phone, of course.
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GIMP government edition, same as everyone edition (Score:2)
And the justification will usually involve adjustment layers, a Photoshop feature where a filter is associated with a layer, automatically updating when the layers below it change. But because you usually don't need adjustment layers just to mark up screenshots, GNU Image Manipulation Program should be easier to approve.
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I can't afford a darkroom, you insensitive clod!
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I have Windows.
Paint.NET is better anyway (Score:2)
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Not only is Paint.NET better than Microsoft Paint, I think it is better than the entry level paint alternatives on linux and MacOS.
macOS doesn't even come with a built-in Paint alternative. Paint.NET is better in that it can do more, but it takes longer to load than Paint (which is more or less instant) and sometimes provides too much functionality when all you're trying to do is, for example, crop an image--Paint makes that very simple.
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macOS doesn't even come with a built-in Paint alternative.
Most people seem to use Paint to crop and annotate screenshots.
On the Mac you can use Preview to do that.
Is this a joke? (Score:2)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I wonder how much Adobe would pay... (Score:5, Interesting)
...to have a watered down version of Photoshop Elements included as a gateway to the more expensive Photoshop proper. Done correctly it would be a win for both companies and consumers.
Watch this get retracted (Score:2)
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You'd think with all the evil metrics Win10 collects, they'd have some idea about how heavily used this tool is.
Paint 3D is a "modern" app. That means they can collect more evil metrics more easily. The only thing they care about is that it's not packaged as an .exe
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You'd think with all the evil metrics Win10 collects, they'd have some idea about how heavily used this tool is. If Paint3D is a feature-complete replacement, that's fine, but I have no indication that this is the case.
What gave you the idea that it was not a feature-complete replacement?
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Good! (Score:3, Insightful)
Next they can get rid of mail, photos, cortana, skype, the xbox crap, onedive, word, notepad, edge, windows app store, 3DBuilder, Appconnector, BingFinance, BingNews, 3dpaint, BingSports, BingWeather, Getstarted, MicrosoftOfficeHub, Solitaire, OneNote, Alarms, Calculator, Camera, Maps, Phone, Reader, SoundRecorder, ZuneMusic, ZuneVideo, windowscommunicationsapps, CloudExperienceHost, WindowsReadingList, Twitter, Flipboard, Shazam, Candy Crush, iHeart Radio, NAVER, tripadvisor, groovemusic, BioEnrollment, WindowsFeedback and ContactSupport from the default install!!
All of which are crap or a better open source alternative exists. Choosing windows to run programs shouldnt have to force you into all their bloatware and ads too.
What are the free replacements? (Score:2)
[A laundry list]
All of which are crap or a better open source alternative exists.
Among the applications you listed are music store, music streaming, music identification video store, and video streaming apps. What's the free replacement for each? What's the appropriate way to obtain an OAuth key pair for a free Twitter client when Twitter can and does revoke API keys that leak to the public [nelhage.com]? And what's the free replacement for Skype that can perform text, voice, and video chat with users on your existing Skype contact list or with Skype users who have invited you to text, voice, or vide
Can I copy the EXE file? (Score:4, Interesting)
What does mspaint.exe need to run? Are there any DLL files needed? Can I just copy the EXE from my Windows 7 box to Win10?
Re:Can I copy the EXE file? (Score:5, Interesting)
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That works for the Windows 7 card games. It might continue to work. Or Windows will just pop up a "the version of this file is not compatible with the version of windows you're running" error like they've done for some programs in the past.
With a bit of luck (Score:2)
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Some one should fill you in on just how coloured your views are.
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Some one should fill you in on just how coloured your views are.
Maybe because I had to use Paint .
I like MS Paint. (Score:2)
Nothing beats MS Paint for casual doodling.
Free - Paint.net (Score:3)
Thank God (Score:2)
And nothing of value was lost (Score:3)
Seriously, the sheer lack of incremental development on Paint is a bit of a head scratcher. I suspect that the ignoring of Paint was the result of it being orphaned in the Microsoft-Adobe pact of the early 2000s that resembled the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement. MS killed their graphics products and Adobe killed Persuasion and their other office products.
This is sad news (Score:3)
MS Paint ranks third on my list of "most frequently used MS tools", behind Visual Studio and Notepad. For many use cases, the simple spartan tools are the best tools.
Ah well, I'm sure there's a third-party equivalent somewhere.
Re:Nooooooooo (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, Clippy is dead? Why didn't Clippy warn m... oh wait.
Re:Nooooooooo (Score:5, Funny)
Clippy is still there. He had a sex change and prefers to be called Cortana now
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The ONLY reason to use MS Paint is because it loads instantly. Paint 3D does not even handle that much.
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A computer locked down to run only applications approved by the corporate IT department will run Paint because it has been approved as part of the Windows operating system but refuse to run "your Hello World".