Microsoft tested an updated Notepad app with integrated spellchecking back in March. Now this enhanced version of its Notepad plain text editor has qu

After 41 years Microsoft quietly adds spellchecking and autocorrect to Windows Notepad

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2024-07-08 06:30:06

Microsoft tested an updated Notepad app with integrated spellchecking back in March. Now this enhanced version of its Notepad plain text editor has quietly rolled out to mainstream Windows 11 users.

Windows Notepad first appeared back in 1983 and seemed like an app frozen in time for many years, with barely any discernable differences across generations of the OS, but we have seen some sizable advances made in recent times.

Probably some of the biggest changes to Notepad in years have been delivered under the auspices of Windows 10 and 11. Windows 10 delivered a handful of long-needed updates to the humble Notepad plain text editor app in July 2018. After several years of neglect, Notepad received wrap-around find/replace, text zooming, and line numbers with word-wrap enabled (plus some performance boost with large files).

Windows 11 launched in late 2021, and it also brought some noticeable Notepad enhancements. Among the best new features were probably the dark mode compliance, auto-save / session restore, and a useful new tabbed interface for handling multiple files. Now we have an integrated spellchecker, it feels like the ambassador is really spoiling us.