You’ll soon be able to hide the news feed in the widgets panel, too.

Notepad on Windows 11 is finally getting a character count::Microsoft is finally adding a character count to Notepad on Windows 11. It’s in testing alongside the ability to hide the news feed in the widgets panel.

  • joeyv120@ttrpg.networkEnglish
    534·
    11 months ago

    You lost me with all the ads baked into the OS. You’re not gonna win me back with… checks notes Notepad.

  • Kogasa@programming.devEnglish
    242·
    11 months ago

    Notepad.exe is like the one thing I can always count on to open and edit text and save and that’s it. Looking forward to it crashing, hanging, and generally sucking.

    • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nzEnglish
      115·
      11 months ago

      It has already become bloated, I wouldn’t be surprised if crashes and hangs come next.

      Old Notepad vs New:

      • RAM usage: Doubled (1.6 MB -> 3.4 MB)
      • Disk usage: 10x increase (356 KB -> 3 MB)
      • Number of files: 27x increase (1 file -> 27 files)
      • Franklin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        71·
        11 months ago

        I use notepad almost daily and I haven’t noticed any crashing or slow downs. Not all increases in size are bloated I find many of the features they added to be extremely useful and 3MB is hardly consequential

  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    217·
    11 months ago

    I mean it’s a good change, but it doesn’t exactly overcome all the bloat, spying, MS messing with your settings, inconsistencies, dark patterns, and ads in Windows.

    E: presumably the downvoters love ads and data harvesting? You do you lol

  • frezik@midwest.socialEnglish
    141·
    11 months ago

    I wish Notepad would stay the most basic of editors. I mean, it did need a search/replace feature that worked like any other Windows app. Handling Unix line endings is a relief for everyone even if you don’t use Windows at all. Once it got tabs and saved sessions, it was starting to resemble a real text editor, and it’s just not necessary.

    Let it be incredibly basic.

  • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.worldEnglish
    144·
    11 months ago

    Microsoft is so incredibly desperate to stop people from installing Linux that they’ll do everything other than making a good operating system or anything else that matters

    • stockRot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      11 months ago

      No, they’re really not. When was the last time you looked up the stats for household OSs being used?

        • emptiestplace@lemmy.mlEnglish
          31·
          11 months ago

          You might want to consider improving your understanding of this a little bit before dropping it in the chat.

          • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            11 months ago

            The argument is basically that Windows is the most popular operating system so it should be the best or be good quality and ignores the fact that Microsoft shoves Windows down peoples throats. They have no incentive to make Windows better because OEMs will ship it anyway (ex: Vista and Windows 8).

            • emptiestplace@lemmy.mlEnglish
              31·
              11 months ago

              First commenter: Microsoft is worried about the threat Linux poses to Windows.

              Second commenter: No they aren’t, look at usage stats.

              You: Guys, I’ll have you know that a lot of people liking something doesn’t necessarily mean it is better.

                • emptiestplace@lemmy.mlEnglish
                  2·
                  11 months ago

                  Again, nobody can force you to stay on topic, but responses comprised of random, tangentially related shit will never be particularly compelling.

    • SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      11 months ago

      I doubt Microsoft even thinks about Linux as a competitor in the consumer space. People on Lemmy are seriously delusional about how many people use or even know about Linux.

  • Aux@lemmy.worldEnglish
    111·
    11 months ago

    Disgusting! I want my original Notepad with 65535 ASCII only character limit back!

    • Josh@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      14·
      11 months ago

      I know a few people who use it to covert selections to plain text or keep a quick note. Notepad++ is more akin to an IDE if anything.

      • OutlierBlue@lemmy.caEnglish
        22·
        11 months ago

        Ctrl + Shift + V will paste a selection in plain text.

        Also I keep quick notes in Notepad++ because it’s just as easy to open and it has persistent windows in case something happens.

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          11 months ago

          Ctrl + Shift + V will paste a selection in plain text.

          *Sometimes

          Because MS in their infinite Wisdom only baked that functionality into some of their apps, and even in some apps where that functionality exists, sometimes it’s a different keybind.

  • 7u5k3n@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    11 months ago

    It also has tabs and maintains all text entered with out saving it. Meaning they e copied notepad++

    I have to use windows for work and I noticed this the other day.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    6·
    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Microsoft has been gradually improving its built-in Notepad app on Windows 11 in recent years, and now, it’s finally getting a character count.

    This is the latest addition in a line of changes to Notepad this year, with the app recently getting a new autosave option that lets you close it without seeing the pop-up save prompt every time.

    Microsoft has also added tabs to Notepad, a dark mode, and even a virtual fidget spinner.

    Alongside the Notepad changes in this latest Windows 11 test build, the widgets section of the OS is also getting some improvements.

    I’m personally glad you’ll be able to hide this because it’s typically full of low-quality news articles and junk that I don’t want to see inside a built-in feature in Windows.

    As always, these features are being tested, and it’s possible Microsoft might make some changes here and there, but I’d expect to see these changes appear for all Windows 11 users in early 2024.

    The original article contains 270 words, the summary contains 162 words. Saved 40%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!