Microsoft is quietly integrating AI capabilities into the most fundamental Windows applications. Recently, Microsoft rolled out major updates to Notepad and Paint for users on the Canary and Dev channels. These updates not only enhance traditional features but also deeply integrate generative AI, giving these "veteran" applications a new wave of intelligent vitality for the Copilot+ PC era.
Notepad receives a productivity upgrade:
The new version significantly expands support for Markdown syntax, adding features such as strikethrough (~~strikethrough~~) and nested lists, meeting the lightweight writing needs of developers and content creators. More importantly, the AI text generation experience has been greatly improved—whether for writing assistance or summary generation, content now appears in a "streaming" fashion, one character at a time, with significantly faster response times that reduce waiting, making the creative process more smooth and natural. The new welcome screen at startup clearly highlights these new features, lowering the learning curve for users.
Paint transforms into an AI creative tool:
The newly introduced "AI Coloring Book" feature is the biggest highlight. Users simply need to enter a text prompt (such as "a cat wearing a straw hat on a beach"), and Paint can generate a line drawing page ready for coloring. This feature is especially well-suited for Copilot+ PCs with NPU acceleration, providing a local, low-latency AI drawing experience. Additionally, the new fill tolerance slider allows users to precisely control the range of the paint bucket tool, improving the accuracy of digital painting.
It is worth noting that all AI features require a Microsoft account to be enabled, used both for identity verification and to provide an interface for future personalized model fine-tuning.
Although this update focuses on two basic applications, it sends a strong signal: Microsoft is gradually embedding AI capabilities into every layer of the operating system. When even Notepad can intelligently generate summaries and Paint can create images based on a single sentence, AI is no longer a high-tech concept, but rather an invisible assistant integrated into daily digital life. As the Copilot+ ecosystem continues to expand, the "basic application matrix" of Windows may become the broadest touchpoint of Microsoft's AI strategy.
