Microsoft has hammered home a final nail in the coffin of its Mixed Reality adventures with confirmation that Paint 3D is to be ditched once and for all in the not-too-distant-future.
The application was announced in 2016 as part of Microsoft's Creators Update and launched in 2017. The plan was that users would embrace the shiny new world of 3D and ditch the venerable Paint.
It didn't turn out that way. By 2021, Microsoft began quietly removing bits and pieces of its 3D vision from Windows 10, and Windows Mixed Reality is set to be removed from Windows 11 24H2.
Despite all the fanfare surrounding its launch, Paint 3D was swiftly relegated to the wasteland of the Microsoft Store, while its older sibling received more than a little gloss and the inevitable thwacking with the AI stick. The Image Creator preview is just a toy at the moment, but it is also a clear indicator of Microsoft's direction - a direction that does not include Paint 3D.
The same user who first uncovered Microsoft's AI intentions for Notepad, X user @PhantomOfEarth, posted a screenshot of a banner in Paint 3D indicating that the software was set to be pulled from the Microsoft store on November 4, 2024, and would stop receiving updates.
We blew the cobwebs off our copy of Paint 3D but did not see the banner. We have asked Microsoft for comment regarding the retirement and the company told us it would "circle back if [there's] anything to add."
It is quite the turnaround from Microsoft's dreams of replacing the venerable Paint, which appeared with the first version of Windows. With the debut of Paint 3D, Microsoft added the old warhorse to its list of deprecated features and planned to cast it off into the Microsoft Store. One change of heart later, Paint made a comeback and is installed as part of Windows 11, while Paint 3D is to be banished.
The end of Paint 3D is not surprising given Microsoft has already announced that Mixed Reality is not much longer for this world. It is, however, disappointing that Paint does not appear to be absorbing all the features of its once-successor, with an increasing dependence on a Microsoft account and AI image creation taking the place of a library of 3D shapes.
No flowers. ®
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