- Microsoft removed the WordPad app starting with Windows 11 version 24H2.
- Users who have installed Windows 11 24H2 update can restore WordPad by simply downloading a package.
- Users found WordPad useful to quickly open DOCX and RTF files, especially when they didn't have Office installed.
After nearly 30 years, Microsoft has removed WordPad from the Windows platform. If you have installed the Windows 11 24H2 update, you will not find WordPad under the programs list. Many users found WordPad useful to quickly open Word (DOCX) files in case Office was not installed.
Also, WordPad supported formatting so many used it for opening RTF files as well. Thankfully, if you wish to bring back WordPad on Windows 11 24H2, there is a way to do that. Here is how the method works.
The folks at Windows Latest have uploaded the necessary packages from the 23H2 build to run WordPad. Go ahead and download the files from OneDrive.
- Once the download is completed, right-click and select “Extract all” to extract the ZIP file.
- Then, open the extracted folder and double-click on “wordpad.exe”.
- WordPad will open up instantly on your Windows 11 PC running 24H2.
- You can pin the WordPad app to your Taskbar for quick access.
If you are looking for a free WordPad alternative to open RTF files, you can check out LibreOffice (visit) or OpenOffice (Free).
So, this is how you can restore WordPad on your Windows 11 PC or laptop running the latest 24H2 update. Since Microsoft won’t be offering features or security updates to WordPad in the future, it’s better to move to a safer alternative.
If you’re facing any issues with using WordPad, let us know in the comments below and we will help you out.
