Microsoft Paint Will Now Live on As a Free Download

Microsoft Paint Will Now Live on As a Free Download
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Following yesterday’s announcement that Microsoft will be killing off support for its legendary Paint application, which has been one of Window’s most beloved features since its inclusion in v1.0 back in 1985, one of the PC-giant’s representatives issued a statement that may or may not bode well with fans of the 32-year-old freelance drawing app. In response to what Microsoft calls the “tremendous outpouring of love” for Paint, which customers showered the internet with on Monday, the company on Tuesday published a blogpost to its official Windows blog indicating that “Paint is here to stay” — in a sense, at least.

“Today, we’ve seen an incredible outpouring of support and nostalgia around MS Paint. If there’s anything we learned, it’s that after 32 years, MS Paint has a lot of fans. It’s been amazing to see so much love for our trusty old app,” Microsoft’s general manager of its ‘3D for Everyone’ initiative, Megan Saunders, said while adding that “MS Paint is here to stay, it will just have a new home soon in the Windows Store, where it will be available for free.”

While it’s certainly welcomed news that Paint will live on as a free download from the Windows Store, it’s worth noting that in such form it won’t be quite the same moving forward. The key difference between merely sustaining the app as a download (as opposed to maintaining it as a core component of the Windows OS) is that the program will no longer be installed by default on future releases of Windows OS — meaning that it won’t be readily available to work or enterprise customers on their office PCs. And since it’s unlikely that system administrators of enterprise networks will allow their constituents to download apps from the Windows Store, those around the office are more than likely going to be out of luck — though PC users at home will still have access to Paint.

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