The removal of WordPad from Windows has been, for many users, one of the big mistakes that Microsoft has made in recent years. In any case, there is no need to throw in the towel. Even if the program has disappeared, there are several ways you can recover it. And we are talking about WordPad itself, not any other alternative.
That WordPad was going to take the ax and disappear was something we knew for a year. We already talked about it at the time and commented that it was unfair, since it is a tool that there are still users who use. It is true that Notepad has improved and now it seems that WordPad is not so necessary, but even with Office involved, it still has a point. Now we explain what you have to do to recover it.
Following the trail to WordPad
The first thing we are going to tell you is that, although Windows 11 24H2 has removed the program, the curious thing is that its folder is still on the computer. We will find it on the computer, but if we enter it, we will discover that the WordPad executable has disappeared. So, no, the program is not there. If it had just been hidden, recovery would be really easy. However, this trace left by the software becomes the best way to see that we can recover it.
And, to achieve this, we have to go to a computer that has not yet been updated to the 24H2 version. Once we have borrowed someone’s laptop, we go to the Windows Explorer bar and put the following: C:Program FilesWindows NTAccessories. This will cause you to find three results: WordpadFilter.dll, wordpad.exe and a folder that will correspond to your language and which may possibly be es-ES.
All of these files are what we are going to need, so you will have to copy them to an external memory drive because you will have to take them to your computer. When you have everything on the USB memory, you connect it to your computer and copy everything to your hard drive. The truth is that the folder in which you put the files does not matter, but the most tidy thing is that you make a folder with the name WordPad or something similar. That way you will avoid problems and end up getting involved. The next step will be to right-click on the WordPad executable and select “Show more options”. Next, you will need to choose “Send to” and create a Desktop Shortcut. Select that shortcut and, in File Explorer, enter the following path: C:Program FilesDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgram Files. Now, paste the shortcut inside that folder.
You’ll be almost finished, but there’s still something to do. Enter the Start menu and click on All applications. Scroll down until you find WordPad. At this point, what you need to do is pin WordPad to the taskbar or Start menu. It is possible that in the past you did not have it pinned and that you used search to open it, but the reality is that, with this little trick, there is no other way to open the program. So anchor where you prefer. And then go to Settings, access the Apps menu and then default Apps. From the list that will appear, you will have to choose WordPad. Next, tell the system that you want to use this program to open documents of certain extensions that interest you.
Is it advisable to recover it or will I have problems?
You shouldn’t! As you may have seen, you are not doing anything strange. All the files you will have used are within Microsoft’s own operating system. The only thing you will have done is recover some of the elements that Microsoft has decided to delete in the latest Windows 11 update.
And in the future? You have to know, however, that WordPad’s days as an active program are over. This means that there will be no more updates and that no problems will be solved, new features will be added and, in general, there will be no changes of any kind. The way the software has taken its last breath of life is how it has remained even with this trick. Therefore, don’t expect it to improve, and if a problem occurs, there will be no solution unless someone improvises it for the benefit of the community. In any case, it is positive to know that we can recover WordPad and not have to start remembering the times when we used it with nostalgia.
