the new update permanently removes them from your computer

This week finally saw one of the most anticipated launches in the personal computer sector, Windows 11 24H2; Also known as the Windows 11 2024 update, it brings many new features to its credit, in addition to numerous functions based on Artificial Intelligence.

However, with all these new things coming into the system, something had to come of it. Microsoft’s priorities are now different from those for the release of Windows 11; and the company is now fully focused on integrating Copilot into all parts of the operating system, and cannot waste time continuing to maintain lightly used programs.

Perhaps because of all this, Windows 11 24H2 is the system update that removes the most programs and items we’ve seen in a long time. As Microsoft itself revealed, more than 40 components have been removed from Windows 11; and this means that, when we install the update, they will no longer be present in the system and many will not even be able to be installed separately. For the average user, they are “gone” forever, although there are already some “tricks” to recover some of the affected applications.

To be fair, many of the removed components were already obsolete or had been replaced, either in Windows 11 or as a standalone app. For example, Internet Explorer was finally removed from Windows, which may pose a problem for many companies that still maintain web applications that only work in that browser; The solution is to use the Edge browser in its Internet Explorer mode to achieve similar functionality. And speaking of Edge, the original version of that program, which was based on Microsoft’s own code, has also been abandoned in favor of the current version, which is based on the same code used by Google Chrome.

These are understandable changes. The most difficult changes to understand are those that eliminate components that cannot be directly replaced; The most controversial example is WordPad, the word processor that was permanently removed from Windows 11. Originally, WordPad was widely used because it was able to open Microsoft Word .doc files, completely free and without the need to purchase an Office license.

Times have changed and Microsoft now prefers that we purchase a subscription to Microsoft 365, which includes Word and other office and productivity applications. For this reason, the company has decided to remove WordPad from Windows 11 installations and also does not allow its download from official media. As an alternative, the company recommends Microsoft Word if we are dealing with .doc files or Notepad for plain text .txt files.

The good news is that we can continue to use WordPad thanks to a “trick”, although we must do it before installing the Windows update. If we still have WordPad on the computer, we just have to a backup of the folder “C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories”; we can copy this folder anywhere (like our home folder) before installing the update; Once the update is complete, we can use the wordpad.exe executable without any problems.