Later this year, Microsoft will release the Fall Creators Update for Windows 10. The update will introduce a number of new features, including the Fluent Design System, Timeline, and a Cloud-Powered Clipboard. But it's also set to remove or deprecate a number of features and applications, one of which will surprise many of you.
As MSPoweruser reports, there are a few surprising and not so surprising removals. For example, Outlook Express is being removed, as is Reader app and Reading List (functionality is being integrated with Microsoft Edge). Screen saver support is also being removed from themes and will disappear from the Control Panel eventually. But the biggest surprise? Microsoft Paint, a.k.a. MS Paint, is being deprecated.
Deprecation means that development of the software is ending, which typically happens not long before an application reaches the end of its life. So with MS Paint deprecated, Microsoft will likely remove it completely from Windows 10 in the near future. The full list of which applications and features are being deprecated or removed from Windows 10 is available on the Microsoft support site.
There are a number of free and more feature-rich alternatives to MS Paint, but many users still rely on it, or turn to it when they need to quickly adjust or create an image on a Windows machine.
In the initial Creators Update released earlier this year, Microsoft launched Paint 3D, which adds 3D modeling and editing tools to the well-known program; PCMag called it a "radical rethink of the tried-and-true Paint app." We'll have to see if Paint 3D becomes the official replacement for MS Paint.
There's no specific launch date for when the Fall Creators Update beyond "Late 2017." So you still have a few months to complain to Microsoft about its decision to drop MS Paint. For anyone needing an alternative, I rely on the excellent and free Paint.net for all my image editing, but PCMag also has a roundup of the best image-editing software, too.