• By late 2021, Notepad's major updates were rare for a long time. A gentle redesign and new settings were rated as a major update. Since then, new updates have become more common and are weighted towards generative AI.
• In November 2024, Microsoft began testing an update allowing users to rewrite or summarize text in Notepad using generative AI. Today's preview update takes it further by enabling writing AI-generated text with basic instructions (called Write to differentiate from Rewrite).
• Both Rewrite and Write require users to be signed into a Microsoft Account as they use monthly AI credits. Without a paid Microsoft 365 subscription, users get 15 credits per month; with Personal and Family subscriptions, they get 60 credits.
• Microsoft notes that all AI features in Notepad can be disabled in the app's settings and won't be available with a local account.
• Microsoft is also releasing preview updates for Paint and Snipping Tool. Paint's features are mostly AI-related, like a sticker generator and an AI-powered smart select tool. A new "welcome experience" screen shows the new features added in the last couple of years.
• Snipping Tool gets a color picker to show color values in a screenshot and a "perfect screenshot" option to automatically crop app windows or elements without manual editing. This feature uses local processing and requires a Copilot+ PC, meaning it doesn't use AI credits but only works on new PCs with specific Qualcomm Snapdragon, Intel Core Ultra, or AMD Ryzen AI processors.
• These updates are rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev channels, which get new features faster but are less stable. Not all features will make it to the general public, but those that do should be released in the next few weeks or months.