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In 3.5 years, Notepad.exe has gone from “barely maintained” to “it writes for you” (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [M, B] to c/arstechnica_index@rss.ponder.cat
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By late 2021, major updates for Windows' built-in Notepad text editor had been so rare for so long that a gentle redesign and a handful of new settings were rated as a major update. New updates have become much more common since then, but like the rest of Windows, recent additions have been overwhelmingly weighted in the direction of generative AI.

In November, Microsoft began testing an update that allowed users to rewrite or summarize text in Notepad using generative AI. Another preview update today takes it one step further, allowing you to write AI-generated text from scratch with basic instructions (the feature is called Write, to differentiate it from the earlier Rewrite).

Like Rewrite and Summarize, Write requires users to be signed into a Microsoft Account, because using it requires you to use your monthly allotment of Microsoft's AI credits. Per this support page, users without a paid Microsoft 365 subscription get 15 credits per month. Subscribers with Personal and Family subscriptions get 60 credits per month instead.

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In 3.5 years, Notepad.exe has gone from “barely maintained” to “it writes for you” (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@beehaw.org
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I first ran into the Copilot integration in Notepad a couple of days ago and immediately turned it right the fuck off.

In November, Microsoft began testing an update that allowed users to rewrite or summarize text in Notepad using generative AI. Another preview update today takes it one step further, allowing you to write AI-generated text from scratch with basic instructions (the feature is called Write, to differentiate it from the earlier Rewrite).

Like Rewrite and Summarize, Write requires users to be signed into a Microsoft Account, because using it requires you to use your monthly allotment of Microsoft's AI credits. Per this support page, users without a paid Microsoft 365 subscription get 15 credits per month. Subscribers with Personal and Family subscriptions get 60 credits per month instead.

Microsoft notes that all AI features in Notepad can be disabled in the app's settings, and obviously, they won't be available if you use a local account instead of a Microsoft Account.

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In 3.5 years, Notepad.exe has gone from “barely maintained” to “it writes for you” | AI features in Windows are gradually becoming more widespread and inescapable. (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmit.online
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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/technology by /u/chrisdh79 on 2025-05-23 11:05:53+00:00.