Microsoft Paint gets to live, saved by love of loyal users

It’s not yet the end! Microsoft has announced Paint will stay alive, after an outpouring of love across the internet managed to convince the company not to axe its 32-year-old program.

The tech giant had announced on Monday its age-old Paint feature would be either removed or no longer developed, triggering an outcry as loyal users grieved over the potential demise of their old companion, which has been part of the Windows operating system since its launch in 1985.

Microsoft Paint to be killed off after 32 years

Paint has been signalled for death having been added to the “features that are removed or deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update” list.

Persuaded by the love, Microsoft has now decided to save MS Paint by putting it on the Windows Store.

“Today, we’ve seen an incredible outpouring of support and nostalgia around MS Paint. If there’s anything we learned, it’s that after 32 years, MS Paint has a lot of fans. It’s been amazing to see so much love for our trusty old app,” Megan Saunders, Microsoft’s general manager of the ‘3D for Everyone’ initiative, wrote in a blog post.

“Amidst today’s commentary around MS Paint we wanted to take this opportunity to set the record straight, clear up some confusion and share some good news. Paint 3D – the new app for creativity, also available for free with the Windows 10 Creators Update, will continue to get new feature updates. In addition to the new 3D capabilities, many of the MS Paint features people know and love like photo editing, line and curve tools, and 2D creation are in Paint 3D,” she stated.

This basically means Paint will no longer be available by default on Windows and work and enterprise machines, but users will be able to download Microsoft Paint from the Windows Store for free.