This year, Microsoft's Notepad received several big updates that were long overdue according to our technological generation. Dave Grochocki, Principal Group Product Manager, used Windows Inbox Apps to introduce the latest improvements.
The notepad version 11.2504.46.0 was released on 22 May 2025. In this version, Dave Grochocki introduced the generative AI ability to write new content in Notepad. This new feature helps users to draft a text based on the provided prompt quickly. The update makes writing easier by providing beginnings and even builds upon the existing content with the help of AI. According to one's preference, they can disable the AI features in the app settings as well.
To utilise the AI feature, one must position the cursor at the desired location for adding text or select the content in the Notepad that will serve as a reference. Then, either right-click and select 'Write' or use the Ctrl+Q shortcut. Enter the desired instructions in the dialogue box and click send. The AI output will be directly visible on the notepad canvas. One can either choose to keep the text to add it to the document or discard it if not up to the preference of the user. They can continuously refine the output by adding follow-up prompts to enhance it further. Its AI feature can do syntax-aware completions for popular programming languages such as Python, HTML, and JavaScript.
Notably, the Microsoft Notepad experience had remained unchanged for years. However, with the increasing integration of AI into daily life, this modification seemed essential to keep pace with the evolving technologies in which AI has become a fundamental component. This update is available for Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Enterprise, and Copilot Pro subscribers.
Within a week, Microsoft released the next updated version of Notepad, namely version 11.2504.52.0, on 30th May. With this update, users can do lightweight formatting in Notepad, providing flexibility in structuring the content across files. The update supports Markdown style input, benefiting users who prefer working directly with the lightweight markup language. It was the most awaited update of Notepad. It allows users to choose styles such as bold and italic. There is also an option to add lists and headings. It even allows you to change the size of the content.
All the changes can be made through the new formatting toolbar. If at any point one would like to return to plain text, they can clear all the edits from the formatting toolbar or the edit menu. Just like the AI disable feature, users can also completely disable support for formatting through app settings. Users can switch between formatted Markdown and Markdown syntax views in the view menu or by selecting the toggle button in the status bar at the bottom of the window. This update is currently available only to the Canary and Dev Channels on Windows 11. The Canary and Dev channels are part of the Windows Insider programme. These channels let users try out new features and experiences before they are made available to everyone. The Dev channel is considered more stable in terms of useful updates, while Canary is for more rapid updates, often daily, but less stable than Dev.
Apart from these major revamps done by Microsoft, this year it also included the dark mode adaptation of Notepad as well as provided various themes to it, making it less straining for the users' eyes. Notepad supports colour coding, even in dark mode, for programming languages. It came up with the contrast settings to enhance the readability. Notepad's search and replace function has extended its support to regular expressions (RegEx), enabling advanced pattern matching and editing.
Notepad data can now be automatically backed up on OneDrive, allowing seamless access on multiple Windows PCs, tablets, and smartphones. These updates also ensured the enhanced improvement of Notepad, as it reduced lagging over prolonged use. Its starting time is reduced by 30%, as well as the memory usage. It thus provides smoother scrolling with text files of more than 100 MB.
Notepad was released in 1983 as a simple, lightweight text editor for Windows. It supported normal text files (.txt), configuration files (.ini), batch files, and log files with basic editing tools such as cut, copy, paste, and search. The new 2025 upgrades have added long-awaited and critical capabilities to Notepad. The cherry on top is that, despite these significant improvements, it has maintained its simplicity without compromising performance.