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With the recent news of Microsoft canning MS Paint in the Autumn Creator's Update, will I have the option to keep Microsoft Paint? Is Microsoft Paint 3D also on the chopping block? Or will I be forced to have it removed from the system?

If it is being forcibly removed, is there any way to preserve Microsoft Paint or prevent the system from removing it come update time?

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  • See this article. MS Paint is not removed yet. It will be just deprecated or will be removed in future builds.
    – Biswapriyo
    Jul 24, 2017 at 19:56
  • @Biswa That's literally the first sentence of the question. I'm talking about methods I can use beforehand, if you read my question at all.
    – yuritsuki
    Jul 24, 2017 at 20:06
  • @cyberwebpoweruser Great News!!! Microsoft has listened to fans like you and me and they have announced to keep making MS Paint available one way or the other. I've updated my answer accordingly. Short answer: how to keep MS Paint? Install it from the app store when they remove it from windows.
    – LPChip
    Jul 25, 2017 at 10:15
  • What happen if copy mspaint.exe and mspaint.exe.mui from older versions of Windows 10?
    – Biswapriyo
    Jul 25, 2017 at 14:13

2 Answers 2

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Microsoft Paint will be deprecated and thus not yet removed. Microsoft mentioned that Paint 3D is the successor of Paint, and as such, Microsoft hopes that people switch to Paint 3D. For that reason, Paint 3D will not be removed anytime soon, and if it does, it is very likely that Microsoft will create a new tool to replace Paint 3D.

That said, at some point in the future, Microsoft will remove Paint. This will happen in one of the major updates which is basically an upgrade to a new operating system. As a result, there is no way to stop Paint from being kept on the system automatically. It is likely possible to copy the executable to a safe place in order to use it in the new location, but you may need other dll's too.

My advice would be to find a system where you don't use Paint on, for example the pc of a family member who doesn't use paint, or a virtual machine on your own computer. Update windows with the newest update that is said to remove paint, then see if you can copy files over to make it work again. Once succesfully done, you can upgrade your own install and repeat the process.

Alternatively, consider alternatives, such as paint.net

EDIT: Microsoft has announced to move Paint to the Windows Store. In this fashion, Microsoft wants to keep Microsoft Paint available to everyone even after they remove it from the build, to compensate users for removing a feature people are not comfortable with seeing to be removed.

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  • If I can leave a recommendation for paint.net - it's really so much better than native Paint that I wouldn't bother using normal Paint at all. It doesn't support transparency and is really feature poor in comparison to any other alternative. Paint.net's interface is pretty comparable to Paint's simplicity and still has great feature support. Jul 25, 2017 at 18:32
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As @biswa and the recent news said, MS Paint is not being forcibly removed in the update, but rather deprecated, meaning “not in active development and might be removed in future releases” 1. It will still be there after the Fall Creator's Update is released. It may be up for removal in future releases such as Redstone 4 in 2018.

Neither Microsoft Paint or Paint 3D will be removed.

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