Microsoft Paint looks like it’s finally leaving Windows 10 for a new home

Microsoft Paint, one of the default Windows 10 apps, has finally appeared in the Microsoft Store – at least according to a new report – in what’s seemingly the fruition of a move that was promised many years ago.

We can’t see the Paint app in the Microsoft Store yet, and indeed Aggiornamenti Lumia, the Italian tech site which spotted it, says that you can’t actually download the application via the store yet either.

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Nevertheless, it’s reportedly there, complete with a fancy new icon (which has been previously leaked), and the claim is that the app should be fully available soon. Microsoft will apparently make an announcement when delivering a fresh preview build of Windows 10 in the near future (as was the case with Notepad recently, too).

Providing Paint via the Microsoft Store is advantageous in terms of making upgrades regularly available (as opposed to them being delivered with Windows 10 feature upgrades), and it means the app won’t be in the operating system by default.

The saga of Paint has been a considerable one, with Microsoft promising that the app would move to its Windows 10 store way back in 2017, when the software giant said: “In the future, we will offer MS Paint in the Windows Store [now the Microsoft Store] for free.”

The future is now, it would seem, assuming that this report is on the money of course, and Microsoft does indeed go ahead with the purported plan and announces it to testers soon.

Paint it back

Previous to 2017, it was thought that Microsoft would remove the Paint app entirely from Windows 10. However, the company changed its mind – and announced the move to the Microsoft Store – following something of an outcry from those who still used it. Then, in 2019, we had heard that Paint would remain in Windows 10 ‘for now’, hinting that the transition to the Microsoft Store might still be in the cards.

Paint is not just an object of nostalgia for long-time Windows users, but also a solid option for a lightweight app that can be very swiftly fired up for quick jobs – a role that Paint 3D, which was supposed to replace Paint, didn’t live up to.

Paint 3D, of course, has fallen out of favor, and soon won’t be included as a default Windows 10 app – but rather as an optional Microsoft Store download for those who want it. In other words, both Paint and Paint 3D won’t be included with Windows 10 as core apps, but will be available via the store for those who want one or the other.

Those who want neither can just forget about the whole thing and not have any additional bloat under Windows 10…

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Via Thurrott.com

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