Notepad update begins rolling out to Windows Insiders

[6Foot2]

Link: Notepad update begins rolling out to Windows Insiders | Windows Insider Blog

 

Quote

... Notepad (version 11.2510.6.0)

 

In this update, we are introducing two new features—expanded formatting support with tables and streaming results for AI text features.

 

Tables

 

We are expanding lightweight formatting in Notepad with support for tables! You can now easily insert tables in your document to help structure your notes. To get started, look for the new Table option in the formatting toolbar or by adding them using Markdown syntax directly. Once inserted, you can perform quick edits to add or remove rows and columns in the right-click context menu or from the Table menu in the toolbar.

 

Streaming Results for AI Text Features

 

We are also improving the experience for Write, Rewrite, and Summarize with streaming result responses. Results will start to appear quicker without the need to wait for the full response, providing a preview sooner that you can interact with...

 

This is a significant step away from the simple, plain-text editor that Notepad has been for decades.

The core appeal of the original Notepad is/was that it was fast-loading and formatting-free for viewing raw text, quickly editing configuration files, or simply jotting down thoughts without the distraction of layout tools.

For those who valued that simplicity, this feels less like an improvement and more like feature creep. There are numerous other applications already designed to handle rich text, tables, and AI-driven features. The unique utility of the simple, formatting-free text editor will be diluted by these changes.

[Mike_ITDept]

In my opinion, notepad should have had very little work done to it (maybe tabs only) and they should have expanded the range of capabilities of Wordpad which they instead retired. But realistically, this is Microsoft we are talking about and they don't often do things that make sense.

 

They do have a Notepad ADMX that can disable the AI features, but it cannot disable the spellcheck. This is a problem for us in an exam scenario..

 

I now need to block notepad, but noticed that they are updating it via the MS Store which means the directory must change, it's currently in:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_11.2508.38.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Notepad

 

Previously I would have used AppLocker to deny permission to the executable's path but I don't think that's going to work anymore. I suppose there will be another way to use AppLocker to do this but I'll need to investigate.

[mikes]

Yeah I used to use Notepad++ as a quick text editor, but I abandoned it eventually because it got too big and complex - it would take too long to load and would nag for updates,  so it was easier to just use Notepad itself.   Tabs and autosave are great but nothing else needed IMO. Why it needs AI features is beyond me ? isn't Word supposed to be the rich text editor?

[itskdog]

On 27/11/2025 at 09:51, Mike_ITDept said:

In my opinion, notepad should have had very little work done to it (maybe tabs only) and they should have expanded the range of capabilities of Wordpad which they instead retired. But realistically, this is Microsoft we are talking about and they don't often do things that make sense.

 

They do have a Notepad ADMX that can disable the AI features, but it cannot disable the spellcheck. This is a problem for us in an exam scenario..

 

I now need to block notepad, but noticed that they are updating it via the MS Store which means the directory must change, it's currently in:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_11.2508.38.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Notepad

 

Previously I would have used AppLocker to deny permission to the executable's path but I don't think that's going to work anymore. I suppose there will be another way to use AppLocker to do this but I'll need to investigate.

 

If you uninstall the Store version, it should fall back to the Windows 10 version, IIRC.

 

If you're running Windows 11 Education, the new policies in 25H2 will let you uninstall it (and other default apps) from Group Policy/Settings Catalog.