MS Paint triumphs over shutdown threat, world rejoices

They tried to bring MS Paint down, but MS Paint would not be brought down! The world just loves its simple, convenient doodling program far too much.

MS Paint debuted in 1985 as a 1-bit, black and white doodling tool that couldn’t save in JPEG format but was nonetheless impressive in its simplicity and convenience. It gradually gained perks in bits, such as saving in different file formats, colors, and a few more tools. The latest update, Paint 3D, offered 3D imaging tools alongside its 2D editing capabilities, and that lead us all into a false sense of security that Paint was such a staple of everyone’s PCs that it would never, ever disappear. But we all had a bit of a jolt on Monday.

It appeared as though Paint was on the chopping block with other programs like Outlook Express in Microsoft’s Windows 10 Fall Creators update, as a program that was “not in active development and might be removed in future releases.” The internet mourned. Paint’s featureless beauty had made it a staple of all our desktops—a quick way to sketch something up to show someone else, an easy way to save desktop screenshots, or as a useful image editing tool for those of us (like myself) who have no idea how to use anything better.

But fear not, because after an outpouring of love and support from all corners of the internet, Microsoft showed up to soothe all of our fears in a blog post: Paint is not going away. Paint was never going away. It is being moved to the Windows Store, where it will be a free program for everyone who wants it. Paint 3D, meanwhile, will take its place on our desktops and will receive continuing updates over time.

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Hail to MS Paint! I am not super thrilled that I will have to remember to go to the Windows Store when I get a new computer and find the darn thing, but at least it’s free. I suppose I should go experiment with Paint 3D and bemoan how complicated it is in comparison, just because it added one or two more features. Hail the ability to only draw bad lines and shapes!