Thankfully, you can still re-enable the old version of Notepad by opening the Settings App (press Windows+i) and navigating to Apps > Advanced App Settings > App Execution Aliases ...

Microsoft keeps improving and adding more features to the Windows 11 Notepad application, the latest being a built-in character counter.

Microsoft has added bold, italics, lists, hyperlinks, and even Markdown to the Windows Notepad app, making it look more and more like the now-defunct WordPad.

Life is short and since I use Notepad myriad times daily, I’ve surrendered almost 4 Earth Days to “Bill” double-clicking Notepad’s header bar to maximize each time I launch it. — William R.

Microsoft has added bold, italic, and Markdown support to Notepad for Windows 11, updating the famously simple text editor with formatting tools.

As part of its efforts to add AI everywhere, Microsoft is now bringing AI features to the popular Paint and Notepad apps on Windows 11.