Notepad is one of the apps that has been getting a lot of goodies lately, with Microsoft finally going all in for what is very much a mainstay program in its famous operating system.
The app that has been part of all versions of Windows got a long overdue facelift with Windows 11.
And while the refreshed program has already been made available for everyone, the software titan continues to improve and add new features to it.
As a matter of pure fact, those of you who are enrolled in the Windows Insider Program and running the latest preview build of the OS on your device can try out a new version of Notepad right now that is currently in testing.
Redmond detailed this, confirming that Notepad now has native ARM64 support, which basically means that the application should now feel faster and be more responsive when running on devices with these special processors.
Also added are updated accessibility capabilities, so the app now feels at home on most screen readers. Additional performance improvements, especially when scrolling very large files or replacing large amounts of text, are also available.
Two versions of the apps are now out in the wild, with version 11.2204 and version 11.2205 now under testing.
Microsoft has not provided an ETA for when these could land on production devices. However, since the release is not tied to a specific operating system version, the new version should go live right after testing is done.
A more pressing matter is that several bugs and performance issues still need to be sorted out.
Affected users are making noise in the Feedback Hub and letting Microsoft know that the previous Win32 version of Notepad was as light and breezy as they came, but this modern version is not. It feels sluggish during use; curiously, vertical scrolling also does not feel smooth.
Redmond has acknowledged these problems and confirmed that it will address them in future app updates.
