From 1985 to 2017, Microsoft Paint has played a role in everyone’s life. Whether it be defeating boredom or doing the bare basics of graphic editing, most who have used a computer have also used MS Paint.Microsoft Paint was first featured in 1985 in the first edition of Microsoft Windows. Paint programs were popular at the time for being the first way of graphically manipulating or creating images with a mouse; MacPaint debuted along side the original 128k Macintosh a year earlier.
Throughout the years, MS Paint has been included in every version of Windows since then. From a Gateway 2000 machine running Windows 3.11 (where I first experienced the fun of MS Paint as a 4-year old) to the current Windows 10 running on a ThinkPad T420, the “tool” has been there.
Sadly, that is all about to change. Recently, Microsoft released a list of software packaged with Windows 10 that will be deprecated. Sadly, MS Paint was on that list.
While Paint 3D is the “official” replacement for MS Paint, the old interface of MS Paint will be missed. Despite being practically useless, it was a favorite of those wanting to find something fun to do – or potentially be less than productive at work.
EDIT: While Microsoft will be removing MS Paint from the standard installation of Windows, you will still be able to download the program from the Windows app store.