By Oluwademilade Afolabi
Publication Date: 2026-05-10 14:31:00
I use Windows Notepad the way most people do: paste something in, strip out weird formatting, glance at a config file, and close it. That’s the deal. It’s not glamorous, but for years it’s been sufficient. Then Microsoft apparently decided sufficient wasn’t ambitious enough.
Since 2023, Notepad has picked up tabs, session restore, spell check, and Markdown support. By early 2026, Microsoft had layered in AI features like Write, Rewrite, and Summarize, plus streaming responses that start generating text before the full result is finished. To be fair, some of it is useful, especially if you know how to supercharge Windows 11’s Notepad with Copilot to quickly decode an error log. Some of it also sits behind Microsoft 365 or Copilot Pro subscriptions. But taken together, it creates a faint but persistent feeling that Notepad is drifting away from what made me like it in the first place.
If you’ve felt the same way, I have something for you. It’s called Notepads, it’s sitting…