- Some Windows 11 users got the impression that notepad now requires logging on your Microsoft account
- This is not true but the app just got a new AI feature that requires such a login
- There is still a good bit of anger over Microsoft that adds more and more options to notepad when designed to be a streamlined text.
Is the idea of Windows 11 users now having to log in to use the Notepad app a new scheme that is interconnected by Microsoft to annoy people? Fortunately, this is very not the case, although many people have jumped to this conclusion.
Log in with a Microsoft account for the Notepad?! 🙄 pic.twitter.com/vfzvm44ec0February 16, 2025
The view was erected by Bobpony, who (along with other citizens of X) pointed out that after the recent update to the Notepad app now they asked them to log into their Microsoft account.
This immediately attracted a significant amount of anger because the whole concept of notepad is that it is a super-stream-lined text veterinarian you can quickly shoot up and use. So not only is this a stumble block that runs against the basic design of notepad in that regard, but some people also have or do not want a Microsoft account either.
While this actually happens with some Windows 11 users, the reason for this is explained in the text accompanied the pop-up request for login request that says, “Log in with your Microsoft account to use rewrite and its features in the notepad.”
The Notepad update has brought the opportunity to use rewrite, which is a copilot feature that causes AI to redirect any selected text (an ability seen in testing with Windows 11 late last year).
As Toms Hardware noticed the above post on X points out, this dialogue prompt only appears to those who click on the Rewrite button in the Notepad.
If you see this dialog and do not want to log in as requested, you can simply close it. However, you cannot use the rewrite feature unless you log into your Microsoft account.
Analysis: Notepad is going in the wrong direction?
In many ways, this is a storm in a teacup scenario – but there is an underlying reason why people might easily get angry here. First, there has been a wider push for Cajole people to sign up for a Microsoft account, including a lot of ‘suggestions’ that infiltrates Windows 11 in different bites of the interface.
So everything like this will annoy some users, guaranteed, although Microsoft notes that a login is needed to use rewrite due to “AI security and security purposes” (regarding any requests you make).
Second, looking at this incident (or lack of an incident is a better way to describe it perhaps) from a wider perspective, it is another pushback against notepad that is increasing. As mentioned above, the whole idea of the Notepad is that it is a barbon and lightweight text site, and yet Microsoft has continued to add extra accessories since the launch of Windows 11.
It includes, like dark condition, multi-step undo and spell checking plus auto-correction, and now we have the said AI Reconciliation feature in the Notepad. And no, of course you don’t have to use any of these elements, but the concern is that they are still hanging around the background and possibly bloating notepad anymore, so it’s not as peppy and responsive as it once was. (Although Microsoft has at least recently fine -tuned the app to load a little faster).
Therefore, you can see that some of those who respond to the post on X are calling on anyone tired of this new path WordPad appears to be on to consider the Notepad ++ instead. In fact, I would also throw away the top recommendation from our list of the best text editors, namely sublime text.
