What you need to know
- Windows Notepad now supports autocorrect and spellcheck.
- The features entered testing among Windows Insiders in March 2024 and have since started rolling out to general users.
- Notepad remains largely unchanged compared to earlier versions and has been around since 1983, but Microsoft has added some new features recently.
Notepad on Windows just received an update that adds a spellchecker and support for autocorrect. The update doesn’t quite bring the app into 2024, but it brings it closer to the current millennium. Notepad is around 41 years old, and it is largely the same as when it launched. Many would argue that’s a good thing, as Notepad “does what it says on the tin” and doesn’t try to be something else.
The new features work as you’d expect, with spellcheck showing a red line under and word that’s spelled incorrectly. Autocorrect will change a word automatically if it believes you’ve spelled something wrong or entered a typo. If you use Notepad for coding or entering text that includes text that would be at risk of being autocorrected, you should disable the feature. Notepad enabled spellcheck and autocorrect by default after a recent update, but you can disable them through the app’s settings.
Microsoft hasn’t released a formal announcement of the new features, but spell check and autocorrect were spotted by our colleagues at Tom’s Hardware. The update rolled out to my system and autocorrect and spell check were on by default.
Notepad has been around for over four decades, and it has survived this long without support for autocorrect or spellcheck. I’ve seen some complain about the app getting bloated, but both new features can be disabled. I doubt the features will slow down the app’s performance or clog the user interface.
Microsoft has been rather conservative with the development of Notepad over the years. It’s a plain text editor designed to be simple and straightforward. Notepad didn’t gain a character counter until last year. The app received several new features during the bump from Windows 10 to Windows 11, including text zooming, find and replace, and line numbers. The app also gained a tabbed interface in 2018. But generally speaking, Notepad delivers the same experience it’s promised for years.
Earlier this year, X (formerly Twitter) user PhantomOcean3 leaked information about spellcheck and autocorrect within Notepad. The same leaker also showed early signs of an AI-powered Cowriter feature within Notepad. That sounds like a more significant addition to the app than a spellchecker or autocorrect, though we’ll have to wait to see what Cowriter looks like to be sure.
