Microsoft Paint Receives a Reprieve and will Remain Available in the Windows Store

Less than 24 hours after the Internet went with off the rails with headlines about the impending deprecation of the popular image editing/creation software, Microsoft Paint has been given an unexpected reprieve and will no longer be removed from a future version of Windows.

At nearly midnight on the East coast of the United States, Microsoft's Megan Saunders who is the General Manager of the 3D for Everyone Initiative at Microsoft, penned a blog post that confirmed the beloved and ancient (it was released 31 years ago with Windows 1.0) piece of software will live on as a Windows Store app.

However, this new lease on life for Microsoft Paint does not mean the app is going to be updated or get new features because the company has already released its successor, Paint 3D, as part of the Windows 10 Creators Update back in April of this year. Just like I pointed out yesterday, Paint 3D is a more than capable replacement for Paint and can do all the things everyone likes to do in the image editing software. Of course, it also goes well beyond Paint's 2D only features and introduces 3D capabilities that Windows users can take advantage of in their graphics work.

Moving the software into the Windows Store as an app accomplishes the retention of Paint for the long term but still separates it from the operating system itself which was Microsoft's goal by marking it for removal in a later version of Windows via deprecation.

An interesting twist on moving Paint into the Windows Store is that Microsoft will likely use Project Centennial, aka the Desktop Bridge, to convert the app so it can be listed there. This is a process that Microsoft wants developers to use so their own software can be available through the Windows Store and therefore make those programs available to users of Windows 10 S and systems that are locked down to just using apps from the Store.

While the move to retain Microsoft Paint for sentimental reasons is going to be very popular in the eyes of enthusiastic Paint users everywhere, it is also a step that continues to encourage users to not move forward and start using more modern software. If that sounds familiar then you are correct because it is the same battle Microsoft is fighting to get users to migrate to Windows 10 from unsupported versions of the companies operating system like Windows XP and Vista. Even Windows 7 is very long in the tooth and can not support some of the new technologies that are available for security and functionality these days.

Yes, I know comparing a little graphics program to a full blown operating systems is an apples versus oranges scenario but it is also a common theme these days where users seem to want to remain on old unsupported software instead of upgrading to newer programs with improved capabilities.

The Internet will never cease to amaze me each and everyday so I guess the phrase of the day is Long Live Microsoft Paint!

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