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Microsoft continues to move Notepad away from its text-editing roots with planned support for images. Although not officially announced, an image icon has appeared on the Notepad toolbar for Windows Insiders. It doesn't do anything yet, but sources tell Windows Latest that it's coming and is part of the recent Markdown language support.
Since removing WordPad in the Windows 11 24H2 update, Microsoft has been adding new features to Notepad instead. You can now bold and italicize text, as well as add headings, inline links, tables, and bulleted and numbered lists. Images are up next!
The image icon is already in the latest Insider builds; it's reportedly being tested on internal branches within Microsoft. In key tests, Microsoft sources claim it doesn't affect performance, retaining Notepad's snappy feel, even with these more advanced features.
WordPad always supported images alongside other Markdown features. I'm not certain image support in Notepad will go down well, though. Historically, most people I know, myself included, used Notepad to strip formatting from text. You paste it in and copy it out, knowing that since Notepad didn't support anything fancy, nothing fancy would come out. No fonts, no links, no formatting. But as Notepad grows more complex and sophisticated, that may no longer be the case.
Fortunately, anyone who doesn't want image support or anything else in Notepad can customize it through its Settings menu. Select the cog-icon in the top-right of a Notepad window to turn off Formatting, Spell Check, Autocorrect, Copilot integration, and decide what happens on startup. Want to begin with a fresh notepad every time and not have your previous sessions saved? You can toggle that too. Notepad may be getting fancier, but it doesn't have to if you don't want to. You just need to customize it how you like.