The Revamped New Notepad Rolls Out to Windows 11 Beta Channel

The classic notepad finally gets a complete renovation

Notepad is arguably one of the most iconic pieces of software that comes with Windows, and as a grandfather dating back to 1983, it hasn't seen a substantial update in decades. Now, Notepad is finally being updated with the Windows 11 iteration. In October of last year, it was revealed that Microsoft was developing a redesigned, revamped Notepad for Windows 11.

A month ago, Microsoft made public the arrival of the new Notepad, but at the time it was only being tested in the Insider channel for Windows 11 insiders. Now, the new Notepad is being pushed out in the Beta channel!

Since Notepad has been redesigned, there are many anticipated changes, such as the rounded corner elements that everyone has already experienced in Windows 11. In addition, the new Notepad also adds a Mica material theme. Microsoft says that Notepad is important to many of users' daily workflows, so they have modernized it to make it feel fresh but familiar.

A new dark mode has been added to the new version of Notepad, which can be selected automatically based on the system theme currently in use or adjusted manually from the application's settings.

In terms of features, Windows 11's new Notepad has improved find and replace functionality in order to increase productivity, while other features have changed very little.

Known issues of new Notepad

Windows 11 Notepad has not changed since Microsoft first unveiled it on December 7, so this push of the new Notepad Beta will have some known issues, as follows.

1. The use of keyboard access keys is affected when switching between input languages.

2. Keyboard access keys are also affected when using Japanese input method.

3. In some cases, when holding Shift and clicking to select text or scrolling text, an unexpected situation will occur.

In addition, Microsoft said that it is optimizing the performance of Notepad, especially when opening particularly large files. If you encounter any problems, you can share suggestions in the Feedback Center.