It was the modern replacement for Write when it was released with Windows 95. At the time, it was one of those basic utilities that a PC really needed to have if you wanted it to be useful out of the box.
But with Works being available to OEMs for $2, it eventually served little purpose to end users. And in modern times, anyone can use the online version of Word for free.
It also used to support the Word file format. But there were rendering inconsistencies, and support was eventually dropped entirely after security vulnerabilities surfaced.
Its source code was also released to developers as a real-world example of how to write an MFC application with OLE support. You can still download it from MSDN today. But MFC isn’t exactly a modern framework anymore.
In modern times, Notepad is actually being maintained and getting new features; whereas Wordpad is just another one of those unmaintained relics that serves little purpose anymore.
Anyone who is desperate to keep it can undoubtedly find a freeware replacement. Microsoft is never going to catch up and finish modernizing Windows if it has to keep all these legacy components around. Expect things like Windows Media Player to be next.
It was the modern replacement for Write when it was released with Windows 95. At the time, it was one of those basic utilities that a PC really needed to have if you wanted it to be useful out of the box.
But with Works being available to OEMs for $2, it eventually served little purpose to end users. And in modern times, anyone can use the online version of Word for free.
It also used to support the Word file format. But there were rendering inconsistencies, and support was eventually dropped entirely after security vulnerabilities surfaced.
Its source code was also released to developers as a real-world example of how to write an MFC application with OLE support. You can still download it from MSDN today. But MFC isn’t exactly a modern framework anymore.
In modern times, Notepad is actually being maintained and getting new features; whereas Wordpad is just another one of those unmaintained relics that serves little purpose anymore.
Anyone who is desperate to keep it can undoubtedly find a freeware replacement. Microsoft is never going to catch up and finish modernizing Windows if it has to keep all these legacy components around. Expect things like Windows Media Player to be next.