Windows 11 Notepad Gets Spellcheck Feature

[btarunr]

Everyone's favorite plaintext editor, the Windows Notepad, now has Spellcheck. The latest update to Notepad in Windows 11 adds spellchecks, along with spelling suggestions. The company had released Spellcheck and Autocorrect to Insiders in March 2024, and has now rolled the feature out to the regular userbase. The feature is enabled by default. The app now also has an autocorrect feature that, well, automatically corrects common typos the way a fully fledged word processor would. Both Spellcheck and Autocorrect are now enabled by default, and can be turned off in the gearwheel screen. Starting with Windows 11, Microsoft turned many of the popular Windows Accessories to UWP apps. These used to be Win32 apps in previous Windows versions. The company continuously updates these apps through the Windows Store platform, and we've noticed that Notepad got several new features it never had over the past three decades, including tabs, session restore, and now Spellcheck.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[GerKNG]

probably by uploading every document and everything you've ever written to their servers.

 

[ZoneDymo]

probably by uploading every document and everything you've ever written to their servers.

error: spellcheck is online only, pls check internet connection

 

[Easo]

probably by uploading every document and everything you've ever written to their servers.

This was funny only the first few times.

 

[AGlezB]

It certainly doesn't hurt but most users will never see a TXT file in their lives and the rest is probably using a more advanced editor like Notepad++.
I know there must be some purist somewhere who refuses to use anything other than Notepad but they're probably not using Win 11 anyways.
I'll throw this one the in the "nice to have but ultimately useless" bucket.

 

[GerKNG]

This was funny only the first few times.

how is that supposed to be funny?
they already begin to upload a lot of your personal files to their Servers without consent and opt out only.

Microsoft is pushing OneDrive backups and integration in new Windows 11 setup by default

Microsoft recently changed the Windows 11 installation process, turning on OneDrive data synchronization by default without providing users an opt-out dialog. The "feature" is enabled during the...

www.techspot.com

 

[Chaitanya]

how is that supposed to be funny?
they already begin to upload a lot of your personal files to their Servers without consent and opt out only.

Microsoft is pushing OneDrive backups and integration in new Windows 11 setup by default

Microsoft recently changed the Windows 11 installation process, turning on OneDrive data synchronization by default without providing users an opt-out dialog. The "feature" is enabled during the...

www.techspot.com

This nonsense of opt out needs to be culled by regulation along with stupidity of uploading everything to servers.

Edit: As wendel pointed out last week about Windows on Arm, MS has lost the way on how to make proper OS while they have been copying worst things of their competitors. It wont be long before MS becomes irrelevant.

 

[P4-630]

I have never used OneDrive, and never will, I seem to have uninstalled it after I installed windows, since it's not in "This PC".

 

[64K]

Killing WordPad and expanding features on Notepad. I never used WordPad very much anyway. I used MS Word a lot though and Notepad when making a quick list or notes that weren't important. On Notepad I'm not concerned about spelling errors so I would just turn that off. No use for OneDrive either so I turn that off (while MS is still considerate enough to allow me the choice too).

This nonsense of opt out needs to be culled by regulation along with stupidity of uploading everything to servers.

Edit: As wendel pointed out last week about Windows on Arm, MS has lost the way on how to make proper OS while they have been copying worst things of their competitors. It wont be long before MS becomes irrelevant.

I stay perpetually disgusted with MS for many things over the decades but I'm curious why you think MS could ever become irrelevant? They are so deeply ingrained in the business world that there is no rooting them out. It's been tried before in 1998 and failed and they didn't have the stranglehold that they have today.

 

[Wirko]

It certainly doesn't hurt but most users will never see a TXT file in their lives and the rest is probably using a more advanced editor like Notepad++.
I know there must be some purist somewhere who refuses to use anything other than Notepad but they're probably not using Win 11 anyways.
I'll throw this one the in the "nice to have but ultimately useless" bucket.

I use a programming editor, N++ and MS Word, and the simple Notepad still has its place - in my case, it's useful for keeping various short notes, ideas and lists, Post-it style.

Bbbut MS absolutely has to screw up one thing or another. If I click on the same .txt file several times (and that's nearly always by mistake), Notepad opens it in separate tabs and lets me edit each one independently, until I find out what mess I have made.
In contrast, Win 7 opens multiple windows, so the poor user's mistake is readily apparent.

 

[Frick]

It certainly doesn't hurt but most users will never see a TXT file in their lives and the rest is probably using a more advanced editor like Notepad++.
I know there must be some purist somewhere who refuses to use anything other than Notepad but they're probably not using Win 11 anyways.
I'll throw this one the in the "nice to have but ultimately useless" bucket.

You can pry notepad.exe from my cold, dead hands, and I'm writing this on a Win11 laptop. notepad++ and its ilk is nothing alike, they are much to complicated from what I want: Absolutely no tabs, as few settings as possible, just a simple text editor and nothing else. I did mess around with Notepad++ and some other things (Context became my favourite), but when I realized the first thing I did when I installed them was to make as close to notepad as I could I realized I don't need those tools. The only improvements I want for notepad are the following: 1) Display file path in the header. 2) Better support for large files.

I write most of my stuff in notepad, because it's so fast, and most importantly when you copy and paste it into say a wordpress blog it retains format. Try doing that with something made in Word. Sure for proper editing and stuff use something else, but for pure writing nothing beats notepad to me. I start it with ctrl-alt-a, so if I need to write something quickly I just press those buttons and start to type.

I stay perpetually disgusted with MS for many things over the decades but I'm curious why you think MS could ever become irrelevant? They are so deeply ingrained in the business world that there is no rooting them out. It's been tried before in 1998 and failed and they didn't have the stranglehold that they have today.

People have been saying this since the 90's.

I use a programming editor, N++ and MS Word, and the simple Notepad still has its place - in my case, it's useful for keeping various short notes, ideas and lists, Post-it style.

Bbbut MS absolutely has to screw up one thing or another. If I click on the same .txt file several times (and that's nearly always by mistake), Notepad opens it in separate tabs and lets me edit each one independently, until I find out what mess I have made.
In contrast, Win 7 opens multiple windows, so the poor user's mistake is readily apparent.

You can disable tabs. I genuniely don't understand why people like tabs outside browsers.

 

[kondamin]

That's missing the entire point of notepad
it's to edit files without touching anything but what you changed.

if it adds line breaks and autocorrects code the entire program becomes useless

 

[AGlezB]

You can pry notepad.exe from my cold, dead hands, and I'm writing this on a Win11 laptop.

I knew it! They exist!

Joke aside, that makes you the exception to the rule and you're not alone, but if we count Notepad users as a percentage of the total Windows userbase and plot it in a pie chart you'd be a single line and the percentage would round to 0% up to 4 or 5 decimals.

 

[Frick]

That's missing the entire point of notepad
it's to edit files without touching anything but what you changed.

if it adds line breaks and autocorrects code the entire program becomes useless

I use it exclusively for writing so theoretically I could like spell check but I hate it.

 

[Wirko]

MS has lost the way on how to make proper OS while they have been copying worst things of their competitors.

That would be a comforting explanation but I'm afraid they have a plan.

 

[Splinterdog]

I can't remember how to stop Notepad opening all my txt files in tabs when I open it

 

[windwhirl]

I can't remember how to stop Notepad opening all my txt files in tabs when I open it

Cog in the upper right corner.

 

[Easo]

how is that supposed to be funny?
they already begin to upload a lot of your personal files to their Servers without consent and opt out only.

Microsoft is pushing OneDrive backups and integration in new Windows 11 setup by default

Microsoft recently changed the Windows 11 installation process, turning on OneDrive data synchronization by default without providing users an opt-out dialog. The "feature" is enabled during the...

www.techspot.com

I am talking about the tall claims that MS gets all your dataz, which are often said as joke - a very worn out one at this point. Also Onedrive and Notepad does two very different things by default, former one is literally supposed to upload stuff.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Here's a good a place as any to rant about MS's inconsistency on implementing spell check. In every app except one, you have to right click on the word to get suggestions. Then use New Outlook, and your left click on the word to get suggestions. It may sound like a small deal, but it's maddening to have one app do the opposite of the rest, especially when it happens to be one I use a lot at work. For some reason, MS can't follow their own app design rules, and it just shows a lack of departmental cooperation and communication.

 

[Mysteoa]

Here's a good a place as any to rant about MS's inconsistency on implementing spell check. In every app except one, you have to right click on the word to get suggestions. Then use New Outlook, and your left click on the word to get suggestions. It may sound like a small deal, but it's maddening to have one app do the opposite of the rest, especially when it happens to be one I use a lot at work. For some reason, MS can't follow their own app design rules, and it just shows a lack of departmental cooperation and communication.

I have to deal with that at work. Have you written the whole word wrongly and tried to select it with double click to rewrite it? You can't, it will open the spell check menu and forcing you to select something, and not letting you type.

 

[Chaitanya]

I stay perpetually disgusted with MS for many things over the decades but I'm curious why you think MS could ever become irrelevant? They are so deeply ingrained in the business world that there is no rooting them out. It's been tried before in 1998 and failed and they didn't have the stranglehold that they have today.

How long are enterprizes going to continue tolerating the nonsense MS has been pulling, File explorer on Win11 is absolute garbage and if MS has screwed with the core function of file browsing in OS then what competence do they have they will improve things in future.

That would be a comforting explanation but I'm afraid they have a plan.

Their plan seems to be going down the same rabit hole of screwing over its usersbase with more ever connected shit.

 

[64K]

How long are enterprizes going to continue tolerating the nonsense MS has been pulling, File explorer on Win11 is absolute garbage and if MS has screwed with the core function of file browsing in OS then what competence do they have they will improve things in future.

You're preaching to the choir here. I agree 100% that MS is a huge problem but it's an unsolvable problem on the business side. Before retiring from a company of around 5,000 employees most of which used Windows and MS Office I had an opportunity to speak with a couple of people in the IT department about the nonstop calls they were getting with questions about Windows 10 after the beginning of the transition from Win 7. it was done incrementally but still it was a massive pain for the IT dept. I can't even imagine the hell they would have gone through trying to transition to Linux which most don't know anything about. For small companies without an IT or tech knowledgeable employee it would be a nightmare. Billions and billions of lost productivity hours worldwide. That is why MS simply doesn't give much of a damn about it's customers. Where can they go if they get fed up enough?

 

[Jism]

Businesses, people, goverments etc need to consider, that linux is a "perfect" and even free alternative, more important: open source. You actually get to see what's done under the hood if your skilled enough and you can be assured that a product like linux does not have build in telemetry.

This all leads to one thing: the feeding of a larger LMM / AI / Database with at least a billion of users, which is the wet dream of every company like Google, Meta, Apple and such. Microsoft is up front with these practices and you can turn that to a halt by simply taking a few days of time in order to (properly) learn linux.

And the best of all yet is that, you can emulate windows applications on Linux using Whine, if there's no substitute or you really need that one tool.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

You're preaching to the choir here. I agree 100% that MS is a huge problem but it's an unsolvable problem on the business side. Before retiring from a company of around 5,000 employees most of which used Windows and MS Office I had an opportunity to speak with a couple of people in the IT department about the nonstop calls they were getting with questions about Windows 10 after the beginning of the transition from Win 7. it was done incrementally but still it was a massive pain for the IT dept. I can't even imagine the hell they would have gone through trying to transition to Linux which most don't know anything about. For small companies without an IT or tech knowledgeable employee it would be a nightmare. Billions and billions of lost productivity hours worldwide. That is why MS simply doesn't give much of a damn about it's customers. Where can they go if they get fed up enough?

I've heard of employers kicking around BYOD for PCs as well. It would eliminate some of the support issues, but would no doubt cause many others. Still, MS has been pushing all their apps to HTML, where you can use most of them in a browser somewhat successfully, provided you have basic needs in things like Excel. In theory, if they pull it off, all you'd need is a Chromium-based browser on your platform of choice, and then the employee can use whatever they are most comfortable with. There's also the idea of just buying virtual/hosted Windows. I really think MS hopes to diminish the dependence on Windows, because at this point, it doesn't make them as much money unless they can upsell you on services like MS365, OneDrive, Gamepass, and I'm sure AI subscription stuff is coming soon. Windows has just become a vehicle for MS's real revenue stream, which is a far cry from the Windows that brought MS to dominance.

 

[Caring1]

Lol, if words are spelt correctly in English, this will probably tell you it's wrong as it will be based on the mutilated English used by Americans.