Even Microsoft Notepad Is Getting AI Text Editing Now

Microsoft is introducing a feature to Notepad called Rewrite that will let you use AI to "rephrase sentences, adjust tone, and modify the length of your content." The Verge reports: If you're a Windows Insider with early access to the feature, you can try it by highlighting the text you want to adjust in Notepad, right-clicking it, and choosing Rewrite. Notepad will then display a dialogue box where you can decide how they want to change their text -- for example, if it needs to be longer or shorter. Rewrite will then offer three rewritten versions that you can replace your work with.

It's worth noting that you'll have to sign in to your Microsoft account to use Rewrite, as it's "powered by a cloud-based service that requires authentication and authorization." Microsoft is launching this feature in preview on Windows 11 in the US, France, UK, Canada, Italy, and Germany. In July, Microsoft rolled out spellcheck and autocorrect for Notepad.

Nope to Microsoft Accounts

[n0w0rries]

Still not interested in using a Microsoft account on my computer.

Re:

[Tony Isaac]

There is one real, concrete benefit.

If you use only local accounts, and I have physical access to your computer, I can log in with administrator permissions in about 3 minutes. https://www.howtogeek.com/962/... [howtogeek.com] I can then reset your password and log in to *your* account and impersonate you.

If you use a Microsoft account, this attack is effectively thwarted, because you can't reset someone's Microsoft account without a texted confirmation code or authenticator app.

Re:

[systemd-anonymousd]

FDE

Return Wordpad without AI

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

That's all I need for 99% of my writing,

Notepad was fine as it was

[Spitemaster]

Literally the first thing I did when setting up Windows 11 was delete the new notepad and install an older version. There is no reason whatsoever that notepad should do more than text editing - that was what Wordpad was for, so bring it back if you (Microsoft) want something with more features.

Re:

[ncc74656]

I didn't even have to do that much. Adapted from https://www.winhelponline.com/... [winhelponline.com]:

1. Go to Settings -> Apps -> Advanced app settings -> App execution aliases
2. Scroll down to the Notepad entry and switch it off.
3. Press Win-R, type in "notepad," and hit Enter to verify that the OG Notepad is back.

Re:

[avandesande]

I use it to clean text so I don't have format pasting, which is super annoying.

They

[markdavis]

>"Notepad will then display a dialogue box where you can decide how they want to change their text"

Perhaps the sentence, above, should have been run through this AI grammar-checking thing. "You" and "they"/"their" don't match.

Why can't anyone write in 2024?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems we reached the end of 2024 and everyone forgot that they could come up with a series of words without help. Do you all have such a low opinion of your own skills that you'd rather trust software that is designed to fabricate words?

Saw someone just today on LinkedIn complaining that they paid a pro to write their resume, "one of the best in the business", and was not getting responses. Someone finally got back to the guy to tell him his resume is crap. This person is applying for Management positions,

Who uses Notepad?

[rossdee]

There are a googol of other free text editors out there, who is going to bother with MS Notepad

I mostly use EditPad lite , but I do have a few others installed (Notepad++ , RJ Texted , the one that was EditBone )

I only ever registered on shareware text editor, and that was umpty years ago (UEdit on the Amiga)

What do you use?

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Nano & gedit.

Re:

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

$ echo 'string' > file

Re:

[packrat0x]

Joe's Own Editor [sourceforge.io]

When every problem is a nail

[boxless]

So many of the products I use are now offering ways to re-write your prose. Do we really need all this revising for such minutiae? Do people write things in Notepad that need this help? Another tool I use daily, Confluence, the wiki authoring tool, is offering to rewrite my pages. But my wiki pages (and I expect Iâ(TM)m not alone) are filled with tables and various fragments, like bulleted lists. Rarely is there a paragraph of straight prose. And yet, because of the bubble, these AI tools are fro

No.

[haxor.dk]

Do not want.

Hi there!

[VeryFluffyBunny]

It looks like you're copy & pasting text into a text editor to remove all the junk formatting that MS Word adds. Would you like me to add some useless & annoying junk to your text while you're at it? Yes/Yes (Please upgrade your subscription to select "No")

MS don't seem to know how people use computers.

[Major_Disorder]

A text editor is supposed to be simple.
No formatting.
No spell check.
No bloody AI crap.

I can't wait for this stupid "AI" bubble to burst.

Notepad isn't used for typing prose

[Tony Isaac]

It's used to edit config files or other technical tasks. Nobody uses it to write...paragraphs. That's the domain of Word, or Google Doics, or email software.

I'm not sure this will get a lot of use. But then, maybe there are a few people out there who do use it for...writing.

Re: Notepad isn't used for typing prose

[Provocateur]

Hey if that Soderbergh fella was able to create an entire film using an iPhone, who knows what that other genius can come up with using the new Notepad Reloaded

Re:

[Tony Isaac]

Yeah no doubt. But the thing is, people who want to write prose, don't even know that Notepad exists.

How many write prose in notepad?

[Somervillain]

What a horrible idea? When I was on Windows, notepad was for scripting (and honestly, I just used better editors), not writing anything where I cared about the tone of my sentences. If you're writing content, don't most use Word, WordPad, or Google Docs? I can't imagine this being a good idea or a beloved feature.

Re:

[dbialac]

Well now it can send your configuration files to get processed by its AI engine. Now going forward, you wouldn't want anything bad to that data now, would you? Would you? Guess you'll have to pay up.

Clippy making its comeback soon?

[thesjaakspoiler]

All supercharged with AI and other hype thingies.

By when will the AI rewrite become obligatory?

[ffkom]

Given Microsoft's recent development, we can only be a few years away from the point in time by which Microsoft will reserve the right to have AI rewrite _every_ text you write using their operating system. Cannot have you write offensive or Microsoft-bashing stuff!