Microsoft has been deprecating a bunch of Windows features one by one. Most of them are legacy features that have been around for a long time that the company still supports. For example, most recently, Microsoft killed Legacy DRM (Digital Rights Management) services on Windows Media Player, Silverlight, and more, on older Windows OS versions.
And we also know that the deprecation of the beloved Windows Control Panel is also probably coming some time sooner or later, but the company is still not ready to announce it yet.
In case you may not be familiar, the deprecation of a Windows feature does not imply that it is no longer available; instead it simply means that the feature is no longer being developed or being supported by the company.
One such major feature happens to be WordPad which was deprecated last year, and now Microsoft has announced that it is being completely removed on Windows 11 version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025. This was announced alongside 2024 feature update that also introduced a whole bunch of features. You can view the full list here.
There is no denying the WordPad has been a very popular text editor and word processor for Windows users and sadly, the free and useful feature has been wiped completely, which can be annoying for those who still use it but will no longer find it on their systems.
The company writes:
WordPad is removed from all editions of Windows starting in Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt.
Aside from WordPad, Microsoft has also removed AllJoyn, which too, was deprecated last year. The company explains:
Microsoft"s implementation of AllJoyn, which included the Windows.Devices.AllJoyn API namespace, a Win32 API, a management configuration service provider (CSP), and an Alljoyn Router Service is retired.
AllJoyn, sponsored by AllSeen Alliance, was an open source discovery and communication protocol for Internet of Things scenarios such as turning on/off lights or reading temperatures. AllSeen Alliance promoted the AllJoyn project from 2013 until 2016 when it merged with the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF), the sponsors of Iotivity.org, another protocol for Internet of Things scenarios.
You can find the list of features removed here on Microsoft"s official website.