Microsoft Paint Is Deprecated in Fall Creators Update | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft Paint Is Deprecated in Fall Creators Update

support.microsoft.com

45 pointssvieira59 comments

I don’t care about paint, I use paint.net anyway. But I’m disappointed with this:

> System Image Backup (SIB) Solution

> We recommend that users use full-disk backup solutions from other vendors.

> Deprecated

Sure, low-level system tools such as image backups are pain to support. But so far, Microsoft did better job than other vendors did.

It’s much easier to break Windows restoring from a third-party backup like Acronis. Microsoft appears to consistently do better with GPT layouts, UEFI system partitions, and other stuff used by modern Windows installations.

Also, Microsoft’s backup writes VHD images, and the built-in disk management tool can mount these images to access the data. With some setup, Windows can even boot directly from a VHD image, natively, i.e. without virtualization involved. Not the case with third party disk image formats.

No! Way back in the day when I did consumer tech support, I would occasionally get a call about Paint taking forever to open (this was on Win 3.1) After some troubleshooting, figured out that they had the canvas size set to some extremely large value, like 3000x3000 or something (that was large back then.)

Makes me sad; it's still the go-to tool to paste screenshots in, do cutting if need be and adding a small shape. The near-instant startup helps a lot.

They should add these in Snipping Tool

I use it exactly for this. Paste screenshot, crop as needed, and save out to PNG. It opens fast, unlike heavyweight image editors.

It's also fantastic for "annotating" images. MS Paint saves one from having to print an image out, scrawl unseemly things on it in crayon, and then scan it back in. If you're bad enough with the 1px pencil tool, that works just as well!

I use ShareX for those kind of functionality - it's free and opensource

You can do I think all of that with the built in Snipping Tool. Except you can crop while taking the screenshot, so you save a step.

Man, MS Paint is basically internet culture, it's a shame they're killing it.

The thing I love MS Paint for is this: https://infamoussyn.com/2013/03/19/gain-command-prompt-acces...

Such an insane vulnerability...

I don't think that's really a vulnerability. It's just a stupid fun way to write `cmd.exe`. You can open up Notepad and write a batch file there too.

If CMD access is disabled you still won't be able to launch no matter whether you try opening it with a batch file or from the start menu.

Except that this isn't a vulnerability! This is a just a way to write a batch file that runs cmd.exe.

This is ridiculous. I know people on OSX who miss Windows and regret the choice, solely because of MS Paint.

Let's petition they open source it. In the new Microsoft, this might actually stand a chance.

pixlr.com/editor

(I'm not affiliated in any way.)

"OSX paint"

Also there are free paints out there, so you actually have to ask Apple to include, not Microsoft to opensource

This is awful. I use Paint all the time. Anyone know of a comparable alternative? (I mean that starts up in a blink, that my grandma could use, and that can do more or less everything Paint can. Very much preferably not depending on frameworks like Java or .NET or Python, since none of those start in a blink, and they also often don't feel "native", if you know how to notice that kind of thing.)

Well, there is Paint .NET (https://www.getpaint.net/) and it looks native. Sadly, you don't want any framework. So I doubt you will find any alternative.

Not sure how much the new Paint 3D is actually replacing it.

The author of Paint.NET purposefully included ads on their website which looked like download buttons. That should tell one all they need to know about Paint.NET (and Windows freeware).

The website is trash but the program itself is great.

Install from chocolatey.org or ninite.com

It says something about the economics of freeware, but Paint.net is very good, an essential program for many people, and completely safe to install and run.

It also used to be free until the creator decided to make it proprietary. Some people just hate good things.

To be honest Paint.NET fails on all counts, many because of the .NET aspect:

- It starts up in what I'm eyeballing to be around 750ms on my computer, which is I guess common these days, but nothing like Paint (which looks practically instant to me). And on a machine with a hard disk (yes, these still exist, and I know people who have them and would need to use something like this on them) I'm projecting a much longer startup time, at least for a cold start.

- It doesn't quite look or feel native, but explaining this is like trying to explain the different between Arial and Verdana in a comment box. :-) You just have to be able to see it and notice the subtle UI transitions, and if you're the kind that doesn't notice, then more power to you... unfortunately some of us can't "un-see" these now. ;) I'd say the "look" part might be visible to you in the font smoothing in [1], which makes me want to poke my eyes out; the "feel" part I can't really show, but the buttons just don't animate the same. This is all because .NET just never looks or feels quite native. This becomes more of an issue when tools meant to deal with Win32 windows fail to work with "custom" windows, but I don't have an example off-hand.

- It's not something I'd say my grandma can use. There are 4 separate tool windows and 7 menus with a History panel and a "Hardness" control and such (never mind "resampling" and all that)... all of which is pretty confusing/foreign and quite a cognitive overload compared to Paint for someone who's used to that. So I'd have a much harder time guiding people through using Paint.NET than Paint.

[1] http://imgur.com/hIIHq2x

Paint.NET actually starts up instantly these days on a half-way modern computer. If you turn off the "Automatically check for updates when paint.net starts" option at least.

Also .NET is "native" on Windows.

Ah, but all software must download the internets when starting up, it's 2017!

Thanks, but see my reply to a sibling comment -- Paint.NET falls a bit short on all counts actually.

Paint is not being removed, they are just stopping development. You can still use it.

Oh, I didn't realize that! Thanks for the clarification!

Pinta is a great & simple open-source Paint-replacement: https://pinta-project.com

I think it is more interesting that Windows 10 still includes code for Outlook Express.

It looks like it will be replaced by Paint 3D? Newer, more powerful Paint! Sounds like a good thing to me.

Paint 2017 Community Edition

Paint 3D is a waste compared to Paint.

A more capable replacement in the store for free would make up for this. I usually install gimp, but rarely use it for more than quick crops and some brightness adjustments. So, lighter than gimp, more capable than paint...

Paint.net or IrfanView come to mind

There probably is a replacement in the store already, but being frank, I hate all store apps. The only store app I use is the calculator, because I'm forced to (the classic calculator was removed), and I hate that it takes a few seconds to start up. We're going backwards.

I never use the calculator except on a brand new installation where I have to compute sector offsets or something.

Use the PowerToy calculator from Windows XP. You can either run it in compatibility mode or patch it so that it doesn't check the Windows version (exercise left for the reader).

Alternatively, use a third-party program like SpeedCrunch.

I tend to use Google to calculate, if posed correctly it will even infer formulas and give you the result. But when I needed math done for me I was also waist deep in Excel all day long and could figure anything I needed.

Usually I use Paint.NET for quick edits and Microsoft Snip[1] (not Snipping Tool) for screenshots.

[1] https://mix.office.com/snip

From the comments I get the feeling that paint is going away. But they are not removing it as far as I can tell, it is just not under active development.

Has it actually been under active development previously? It looks and feels mostly the same as the win 3.1 one (except maybe putting the actions in a ribbon UI)

A very rare case (especially for Microsoft) of the "If it ain't broke" rule.

For cropping, conversion, quick fixes and basic annotation there's the insanely versatile XnView. I am on Linux, and XnViewMP is the only non-OS code I run - for the sheer convenience of it.

There are any number of lightweight bitmap-editors available on the Windows platform. A thing like PhotoScape will sceenshoot, edit, crop, and whatever, all in one easy bundle.

My professor is going to be pissed that his main tool for drawing scientific figures will be gone.

yep, people have created amazing works of art in paint too. Simply because it was all that was available to them. One of my favorites is this illustrated comic novel:

https://qz.com/983188/this-stunning-graphic-novel-was-entire...

Also ... They remove `syskey.exe`... What will all those Windows Support scammers use in the future to lock machines when their "customers" don't cooperate?

If you don't know what this is about, just put syskey in your youtube search ;)

An OS should be a blank system for running applications. Less bloat is always better, and if anyone wants to paint there is no shortage of art applications to install and use at your leisure.

Pinta is a great open-source Paint-replacement: https://pinta-project.com

Sad.

Just last week me and my girlfriend were blown away when we used paint on a surface with pen and pressure control.

But how will I edit screenshots?

If you just need to crop the image or something basic like that, the built-in "Photos" app might work.

http://getgreenshot.org/

Greenshot is a light-weight screenshot software tool for Windows with the following key features:

* Quickly create screenshots of a selected region, window or fullscreen; you can even capture complete (scrolling) web pages from Internet Explorer.

* Easily annotate, highlight or obfuscate parts of the screenshot.

* Export the screenshot in various ways: save to file, send to printer, copy to clipboard, attach to e-mail, send Office programs or upload to photo sites like Flickr or Picasa, and others.

...and a lot more options simplyfying creation of and work with screenshots every day.

Using Snipping Tool helps me a lot. Plus, it requires less steps to produce a simple screenshot; select area and you're good to go.

I agree but it's not so good if you want to add anything to the screenshot afterwards in terms of annotations, outlines, or whatever. I'll often snip with Snipping tool and then paste into Paint for "post-processing".

ShareX! https://getsharex.com/ (Uses greenshot for editing)

Why is people so upset by this? Paint3D is still there and works great.

But they should open source it.

while you could install Paint.net or another alternative, IT departments block Windows Store from their machines meaning having something built in really did make a difference.

You also get old grouches like me that refuse to touch Win Store, we don't want to get our hands dirty.

How does this benefit the average (or newbie or advanced) user?

Too bad Magnifier wasn't on that list.

End of an era.

p.s. Paint.net is now part of the Windows Store

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