More Basic Windows Applications To Get An Update In Windows 7

The first news are beginning to pour in after the distribution of Windows 7 M3 to a select group of close partners and hardware manufacturers. One exciting bit of information is regarding the basic Windows applications that ship with every version of Windows. News broke out earlier with the release of Windows 7 M1 that the Windows Calculator would get an overhaul. The new Windows 7 Milestone 3 release saw upgrades to two long time Windows applications: Microsoft Paint and Wordpad.

The UX Evangelist posted information about the updates and a screenshot of the MS Paint version that was delivered with Windows 7 M3:

MS Paint: In terms of functionality, imagine a software somewhere between the currently-existing MS Paint and the wonderful Paint.NET freeware application. Make everything accessible through a ribbon bar (tabs ‘n all) ala Office 2007 and voila. Even remoted in, the performance was quite nice. All of you users who love MS Paint but still need a second photo editing application just to do that one thing or two that Paint won’t do (like working with transluscent/transparent .png files)will be delighted to know that you may very well no longer need said second application. Bear in mind that this is MS Paint as it currently exists in a milestone 3 build OS not scheduled to be completed until mid to late 2009, so a lot could still change between now and then. Long story short, regardless of what changes, rest assured that MS Paint is going to be the cat’s pajamas!

WordPad: Basically, imagine Microsoft taking Office 2007 Word, slimming it down, tweaking the ribbon bar UI a bit, and calling it WordPad. While not as functional as Office 2007 Word (hence, the “slimming it down” mention), this version of WordPad is coming along nicely. It’s much easier to perform tasks such as adding a picture, editing text (I know this seems like a very generic mention, but trust me when I say that everything you do to edit text is made much more accessible thanks to the ribbon bar), and even cooking up your own drawings right there in a document. Office 2007 document converter no longer needed to view .docx files? Perhaps. =) Just wait until you get your hands on this build. Many of you will have a field day.

It has been long overdue that these applications would be updated. Especially MS Paint needed that update.

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