Summary
Notepad is a simple text editor that has been included with Windows from the very beginning, providing simple, hassle-free plain text editing to literally generations of computer users. It’s practically holy ground, but now it has an AI assistant. Here’s how to fix that.
If you’re running Windows 11, at some point in the past, your version ofNotepadwas transparently replaced with a shiny new version from theMicrosoft Store(the default app store available in Windows). When you run Notepad from the start menu or by running notepad.exe from the run dialog, this app store version is what is opened by default.
This version is the one that is being tainted with an AI assistant that can rewrite your text to make it shorter, longer, more formal, and most likely homogenized, and AI-like. As an extra kicker, it does this by sending the contents of your text file to Microsoft’s servers, and they might even startcharging you for it.
Thankfully, you can still re-enable the old version of Notepad by opening theSettings App(press Windows+i) and navigating to Apps > Advanced App Settings > App Execution Aliases and toggling off Notepad. Once you’ve done that, runningnotepad.exefrom the Run dialog (accessed by pressing Windows+R, or right-clicking on the Start button) will open notepad.exe in its former glory.
You can alsocreate a shortcutto it by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting New > Shortcut, and enteringnotepad.exeinto the location field.
If you want to take this opportunity to find a notepad replacement that has a few extra bells and whistles (while still being lightweight),Notepad++is an AI free plain text editor that has been a favorite with programmers for years, and retains that native “Windows” feel and responsiveness (probably because it’s not a bloatedElectron mess).
If you’re looking to edit rich text (with formatting, font sizes, and images) or do some desktop publishing, there areMicrosoft Word alternativesthat offer a bunch of sophisticated features.
