The Windows 10 (opens in new tab) Notepad text editor will soon notify its users if they’re running an outdated version of the program.
The notification comes in form of a yellow bar at the very top of the screen, similar to what Windows already does with its Office (opens in new tab) suite (Outlook, Word, or Excel, for example) when a license has expired.
The bar comes with a “Launch” button which will, most likely, help users upgrade to the latest version easier.
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These changes are in line with what Microsoft has been doing with Notepad for quite some time now, and that is - moving it from being updated with Windows (opens in new tab) itself, to an inbox app, meaning it will be updateable via the Microsoft Store. This is something Microsoft has been debating internally for at least two years now.
Before that, Microsoft added new features to Notepad, such as wrap-around find and replace and UTF-8 support.
Updates through the Store
At the moment, Notepad can be found in the Microsoft Store, for users running Windows 10 Insider preview builds in the 'Dev' channel, Bleeping Computer confirmed. The publication believes that by developing Notepad outside the standard Windows 10 code base, it could deliver updates and new features faster.
It also seems that many users have never seen, or will ever see, this notification. That’s due to the fact that for most - once ran, the program will shut down the old version, and re-start with the new one, almost instantly. Any content that was in the old version would also be restored.
The notification, Bleeping Computer believes, was designed for users who are likely to open multiple Notepad windows and keep them open for days, or weeks.
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Via: Bleeping Computer (opens in new tab)