Notepad was introduced in May 1983 as a companion to Microsoft's first mouse, which cost $195. Originally named Multi-Tool Notepad, it was derived from Multi-Tool Word by removing formatting features like bold, italics, and underlining. The program was designed to demonstrate the utility of the mouse peripheral to users.
For decades, Notepad functioned as a wrapper for the system's text input field, inheriting its limitations. In Windows 3.x and 95, this resulted in a 64 KB file size limit. Features like line numbering were only added in Windows 2000, while support for Linux and Mac line endings was implemented in 2018. The program also historically struggled with character encoding, leading to the famous 'Bush hid the facts' glitch in Windows XP.
The transition to the Microsoft Store in Windows 11 accelerated development. Recent updates introduced tabs, autosave, spellcheck, and AI-powered text rewriting. By mid-2025, Notepad gained support for Markdown formatting, including bold and italics—features that were stripped away during its creation 42 years prior. Simultaneously, Microsoft removed WordPad from Windows 11.
In February 2026, Microsoft patched CVE-2026-20841, a vulnerability with a severity score of 8.8 out of 10. The flaw allowed remote code execution via malicious links in .md files. While the modern version was affected, the legacy notepad.exe remained secure because it lacks the capability to process anything beyond plain text.
