Microsoft makes Notepad available again in Microsoft Store

Microsoft has put Notepad back in its Microsoft Store after several months of absence, with no further information about the return of the basic word processing application. In December last year, Microsoft removed Notepad from its store.

Notepad is back in the Microsoft Store and features the new logo for the application. Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19541 is required to run the word processor. Microsoft made it available to test users in January. The release date is August 2019, which means there appear to be no new features compared to last year’s Store release of Notepad.

Last August, Microsoft announced that Notepad would be available in the Microsoft Store, with the advantage that updates to the program would no longer depend on Windows updates. However, in December last year, Microsoft pulled Notepad from its software store again, without giving a reason. Microsoft only reported that it had decided not to make the Store version available to customers.

Perhaps Notepad has now been made available through the store again due to the arrival of the Windows 10 May 2020 Update. Microsoft left Notepad undisturbed for years, but its last update, in 2018, included enhanced “search and replace” functionality, the option to quickly zoom in on text, and performance improvements when opening large files.