Microsoft will keep MS Paint as app

REDMOND, Wash. — An outcry from longtime aspiring digital artists convinced Microsoft to change plans to discontinue its MS Paint program. Instead, the company said an app version would be available in the Windows store.

“MS Paint is not going away,” Calli Rose, a Microsoft spokesman, said in an email. “In addition to the new 3D capabilities, many of the MS Paint features people know and love like photo editing and 2D creation are in Paint 3D — the new app for creativity, available for free with the Windows 10 Creators Update. In the future, we will offer MS Paint in the Windows Store also for free and continue to provide new updates and experiences to Paint 3D so people have the best creative tools all in one place.”

The reversal came after word spread Monday that Microsoft planned to push Paint out of its software picture, putting it on a list of “deprecated” features that would be included in the company’s Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, set to be released this fall. The categorization meant that Paint would be available as part of the software package come autumn, but that it would not longer be subject to active development and could go away.

Microsoft later published a blog post saying the outcry of fan support led the company to change its mind on Paint.

Paint was included on the company’s original Windows 1.0 program back in 1985.