[HN Gopher] Paint on Windows is getting layers and transparency ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Paint on Windows is getting layers and transparency support
        
       Author : michelangelo
       Score  : 192 points
       Date   : 2023-09-18 17:34 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blogs.windows.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blogs.windows.com)
        
       | enonimal wrote:
       | Gearing up to integrate image generation, I'd guess
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | codetrotter wrote:
         | Probably yes. The video in the article shows background removal
         | with a single click of the mouse after all - i.e subject
         | isolation using AI.
         | 
         | It would be a logical next step at some point to integrate AI
         | image generation as well, using OpenAI Dall-E.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | speedgoose wrote:
           | It's perhaps going to be the Bing version of OpenAI Dall-E,
           | which is some kind of version 2.5
        
       | issafram wrote:
       | Paint.net will still be the best free alternative to Photoshop
        
       | tombert wrote:
       | I always kind of felt that Microsoft should have made gradual
       | updates to Paint. I'm not saying that they should be itching to
       | take on Photoshop or anything, but I feel that between Windows 95
       | until Windows Vista, Paint was pretty much unchanged.
       | 
       | I think it would have been kind of cool if they kept a small team
       | dedicated to making Paint gradually better, getting it into
       | parity with something like Paint.NET or something like that.
        
         | toyg wrote:
         | On one hand, yes; but on the other: people underestimate the
         | value of consistency. Not changing is _a feature_ for so many
         | people who are already content with the existing program.
         | Change for change 's sake is not always good.
        
           | tombert wrote:
           | I'm not suggesting that they just add a million new features
           | every release, but I feel like adding transparent
           | backgrounds, even in 2002 or so, would not have interrupted
           | any existing workflows or anything.
           | 
           | I feel like there was a lot of low hanging fruit that they
           | could have added that left the interface largely untouched;
           | they could also have had a "basic" and "advanced" layout,
           | where the "basic" keeps things more or less how they were in
           | Windows 95, and advanced is for integrating new features.
        
       | nashashmi wrote:
       | Transparency has been the longest missing feature in mspaint.
       | Quite frustrating it took so long.
        
       | JoeAltmaier wrote:
       | Seems like a lot to add to such a simple program. I bet they
       | didn't do that.
       | 
       | Years ago I re-released an old and honored tool. A strange path.
       | 
       | It was the simple code editor used on an early office computer.
       | The programmers all used it daily.
       | 
       | First, the source was gone. The team that made it, the last
       | remaining member that remembered it, said "It was just a
       | checkpointed version of our general document editor. We've
       | continued development and have a hundred more features now."
       | 
       | Moving to the document editor wouldn't do. Can't have programmers
       | confused by formatting and mail-merge features on a C source
       | file.
       | 
       | So I took the current Document Designer source, ripped out
       | everything formatting-related, kept some useful multi-document
       | features. Added some special programmer-specific features (paste-
       | to-anchor point etc for fast prototyping). Got something not too
       | much larger than the old Editor, and much much smaller than the
       | latest document tool.
       | 
       | And...hardly anybody used it. Even a little change from ol
       | faithful was too much for most of the teams. No surprise; their
       | job was writing code, not relearning tools to write code.
       | 
       | Anyway I had my own personal useful tool after that. Even if I
       | was the only one that knew how to use it.
        
       | ilyt wrote:
       | Just preinstall Krita at that point...
        
       | cout wrote:
       | I wonder what file format they will use to save layers. Does the
       | PNG format support layers?
        
         | gigglesupstairs wrote:
         | PNG does support layers. Yes. I remember using it in Macromedia
         | Fireworks which had a native format PNG which functioned like
         | Photoshop's PSD and saved layers and its styles and stuff.
        
       | Explore3003 wrote:
       | JPEG XL support would be great!
        
       | k12sosse wrote:
       | You can tell windows 3.1 users by how they open this app - back
       | on 16-bit windows it was pbrush.exe - 32-bit it was renamed
       | mspaint.exe - but both launch it.
        
       | crawsome wrote:
       | Given the treatment they gave the photo viewer, asking people to
       | sign-up for a subscription-based video editor, I have low hopes
       | for these features to arrive without paying a hefty non-optional
       | cost.
        
       | charles_f wrote:
       | At some level I feel like they should just drop paint and install
       | paint.net as a default.
       | 
       | But then, that would probably get paint.net on a downward spiral,
       | so maybe it's for the best?
        
         | haunter wrote:
         | Paint.NET was open source (MIT) until 2009, alas nothing
         | happened from the forks after they changed the license.
         | 
         | Code is still available, not sure worth building though in 2023
         | when there are other options
         | 
         | https://code.google.com/archive/p/openpdn/
         | 
         | https://github.com/rivy/OpenPDN/
        
           | sbjs wrote:
           | What's the best alternative?
        
             | haunter wrote:
             | The current Paint.NET is really good and obviously has much
             | more features compared to since the version from 2009. But
             | it's not FOSS which can be a deal breaker for some.
             | 
             | If FOSS then Pinta [0] is the best option imo. GIMP is not
             | bad either but feels very janky and all over the place
             | sometimes (lacking some elementary features while overblown
             | in other departments)
             | 
             | Krita [1] is the other one I'd recommend though it's a
             | digital painting app, not a image editing one. But you can
             | do edit images with it
             | 
             | 0, https://www.pinta-project.com/
             | 
             | 1, https://krita.org/en/
        
           | jmkni wrote:
           | I think Paint.net is largely worked on and maintained by one
           | guy, so I don't really blame him from wanting to make some
           | money out of his work tbh
           | 
           | It's a great tool.
        
             | charles_f wrote:
             | I mean, give him a million, get the product, rename it
             | paint, and suddenly paint on windows supports much more
             | than just layers and transparency.
        
       | ajdude wrote:
       | One of my favorite "MS Paint" clones is KolourPaint[1]. I've been
       | using it for over a decade (you have to search around to get it
       | on non-linux platforms but I presently have it on MacOS). One of
       | my favorite features is how it handles transparency, where it's
       | just treated like another "color".
       | 
       | If anyone is heavy into pixel art, you may also be interested in
       | Aseprite[2].
       | 
       | [1] http://www.kolourpaint.org/
       | 
       | [2] https://www.aseprite.org/
        
       | alexmolas wrote:
       | I didn't know Pain was still updated. I guess they are preparing
       | it to be another player in the generative AI race.
        
         | FirmwareBurner wrote:
         | _> I didn't know Pain was still updated_
         | 
         | Sadly pain is always up to date :(
        
         | distract8901 wrote:
         | They added Bing to goddamn Notepad
        
           | FirmwareBurner wrote:
           | Where? I don't see it and I'm up to date.
        
             | thefifthsetpin wrote:
             | Just hit F1.
        
               | FirmwareBurner wrote:
               | How is that "Bing in Notepad"?
        
             | soupfordummies wrote:
             | Yeah I really hope they're joking!
        
               | FirmwareBurner wrote:
               | I think he's just spreading FUD.
        
               | distract8901 wrote:
               | I don't think you understand what FUD means.
               | 
               | Hint: it does not mean "things I disagree with or don't
               | understand"
        
           | artursapek wrote:
           | lol
        
       | nullbyte wrote:
       | It brings me so much joy to know that Paint is still under active
       | development.
        
       | xp84 wrote:
       | Nice. Basically this gets it to parity with the feature-set I
       | _actually used_ in Photoshop when I pirated it as a teen. I
       | assume most people with straightforward needs who aren 't pirates
       | are going to be really happy to be able to just use this. Think
       | about people editing a meme graphic or "photoshopping" an extra
       | person into an image for non-serious purposes.
       | 
       | (Sidenote: Shoutout for Pixelmator Pro, the Mac app that
       | similarly has more than enough for me, and has allowed me to stop
       | needing Photoshop. I've never bought an Adobe product outside of
       | work, and now I don't use any either.)
        
         | gus_massa wrote:
         | I use Gimp most of the times. But when I have to edit a few
         | isolated pixels of a geometric black image over a plain white
         | background I prefer to use Paint. I can't find how to make Gimp
         | modify only one pixel without blurring all the neighbors.
        
           | tyingq wrote:
           | Paint.Net is a nice middle ground between the two.
        
             | circuit10 wrote:
             | I like it but it's not available on Linux, so I use Pinta
             | which is a fork of an old version of Paint.NET from when it
             | was open source, it's not quite as good though
        
           | knome wrote:
           | Are you using the paintbrush tool instead of the pencil tool?
           | A pencil with the brush size turned down to one shouldn't
           | bother any of the other pixels.
        
           | forgotpwd16 wrote:
           | >can't find how to make Gimp modify only one pixel without
           | blurring all the neighbors
           | 
           | Use pencil tool set to size 1px. Pencil does no blurring;
           | paintbrush does.
        
           | bgarbiak wrote:
           | IIRC the pencil tool in Gimp draws hard-edged pixels without
           | any extra configuration.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | thot_experiment wrote:
       | and here I am, carting around my mspaint.exe from install to
       | install since windows2k or something, because I've got Krita for
       | when I want something to launch slowly and have a bunch of
       | features that aren't useful for drawing an arrow on a screenshot
       | 
       | (modern paint seems fine, and it does launch quickly, but the
       | vibes are off)
        
       | andrewstuart wrote:
       | Microsoft should just buy paint.net
        
         | pipeline_peak wrote:
         | Microsoft could whip up paint.net in 1 day.
         | 
         | There's a component in WPF called InkCanvas, it pretty much is
         | Paint.
        
           | andrewstuart wrote:
           | >> could whip up paint.net in 1 day.
           | 
           | You realise this is basically an HN meme?
        
             | pipeline_peak wrote:
             | > You realise this is basically an HN meme?
             | 
             | No, not really. It's a simple program and Microsoft would
             | literally just need to glue together their own existing
             | components.
             | 
             | I did it for a job interview project in 4 days using C# and
             | WPF. And I am by no means a talented developer.
             | 
             | I could see when people think creating something like Uber
             | in a day as an arrogant HN meme. But there's no moving
             | parts here.
        
       | owlstuffing wrote:
       | Microsoft should just replace Paint with Paint.NET. In my
       | experience, it is the best paint tool for Windows. Much more
       | intuitive UI than photoshop or gimp.
        
       | imiric wrote:
       | I find it surprising that MS hasn't acquired Paint.NET. It's a
       | stellar product, a decent free Photoshop alternative, and miles
       | ahead of whatever MS Paint ever was. It even has .NET in the
       | name, which probably confuses new users into thinking it is owned
       | by MS, so kind of surprised MS hasn't sued over that either.
       | 
       | That said, I'm grateful that Paint.NET has managed to remain
       | independent, as MS might've ruined it.
       | 
       | I do wonder who still uses MS Paint that would find these new
       | features compelling, and why MS keeps adding new features to it.
       | Surely they've done some research that shows people want this? Or
       | is it still developed to justify paying the team that maintains
       | it?
        
         | 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
         | I like MS paint because I know exactly what it is. Starts
         | instantly and can be used to quickly crop a photo or hastily
         | circle a call out. No UI redesigns to make a developer feel
         | useful.
         | 
         | If we were talking acquisitions, they should also buy up the
         | Notepad++ guy.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | itisit wrote:
         | > It even has .NET in the name, which probably confuses new
         | users into thinking it is owned by MS, so kind of surprised MS
         | hasn't sued over that either.
         | 
         | Not sure where the infringement would be. In any case,
         | Paint.NET won second place last year in the "Creativity -
         | Graphics and 3D" category of the Microsoft Store App Awards.
         | [0]
         | 
         | [0]
         | https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2022/05/27/announ...
        
       | smegsicle wrote:
       | uh oh mtpaint starting to feel real competition
        
       | michaelhoffman wrote:
       | I hope it keeps its blazing-fast startup. I regularly used Paint
       | instead of Photoshop on a system where I had both because Paint
       | starts instantly but Photoshop took a bit.
        
         | jjcm wrote:
         | I use photopea quite a bit for this reason. It's faster to open
         | this in a web browser than it is to boot photoshop. The 1/3rd
         | sidebar ad it loads is... a lot, but I'm amazed that I prefer
         | that to a 30s boot time.
        
         | harles wrote:
         | I was just reflecting on why I fire up Paint more often than
         | GIMP, and this is the reason. Especially when all I want to do
         | is paste an image, add a small annotation, and copy it back
         | out, there's no tool as fast.
        
           | sebmaynard wrote:
           | Lightshot is a great app for exactly this. And lines, boxes
           | etc
        
             | Tempest1981 wrote:
             | Indeed. Also, I just read that mouse-wheel lets you adjust
             | the line/arrow size...
        
           | dingnuts wrote:
           | You can do all this in the snipping tool without opening a
           | separate app, which is in fact a little faster
        
             | cfiggers wrote:
             | Yes, except (unless I'm mistaken) the snipping tool can't
             | add text and it can't draw boxes, which are two of the core
             | use cases of screenshot annotation.
        
               | jve wrote:
               | https://getgreenshot.org/ Fast, doesn't crash, does what
               | you say and more.
        
               | IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
               | i use monosnap for this reason (free version)
               | 
               | The number of times it crashes vs snipping tool, its like
               | night and day.
               | 
               | yet i keep coming back for monosnap.... it made my
               | snippets look somewhat professional (gone handwritten
               | arrows lol)
        
           | badsectoracula wrote:
           | It is basically why i have KolourPaint installed on Linux and
           | ready on a launch button despite having a bunch of other 2D
           | image editing apps: it starts (almost[0]) instantly and is
           | perfectly fine for cropping images, adding annotations, etc
           | and then pasting it to imgur, discord, or whatever. The only
           | thing missing is having a tool to draw shapes like arrows
           | (not something the Win9x era MS Paint, which is what
           | KolourPaint replicates, had, but it would be a useful feature
           | IMO).
           | 
           | [0] it takes somewhere between half to a second, there is a
           | visible delay between double click and the window appearing
           | but i can live with that. I'm not using KDE as my DE, it is
           | possible it'd start instantly if i already had the KDE libs
           | in memory.
        
       | masfuerte wrote:
       | Read the headline and thought... they did this in Windows 2000.
       | But they are not talking about UpdateLayeredWindow.
        
       | hackermatic wrote:
       | Paint's journey has been so weird. It was going to be replaced by
       | Paint 3D, made an optional component, and now it's getting
       | updates I would have killed to have 20 years ago. But it's been
       | such a useful and enduring tool because of both its ubiquity and
       | its simplicity, so I hope the upcoming changes will be as
       | minimalist as those of the past.
        
         | 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
         | Considering how slow the new calculator app is, I am terrified
         | of Microsoft updating the classics. These things used to open
         | instantly and provide value. Now it is a visible pause and
         | gigantic white space heavy interfaces.
        
           | stainablesteel wrote:
           | my perspective: i left windows years ago and i never laugh at
           | any comedian as much as i laugh at people in windows update
           | threads
        
           | pjmlp wrote:
           | A side effect from app sandboxing, and modern Windows API
           | being all COM based.
        
           | blibble wrote:
           | they'll probably add ads and a subscription
           | 
           | like solitaire
        
             | Tempest1981 wrote:
             | Pay for extended precision, or an LCD font
        
           | FirmwareBurner wrote:
           | _> Considering how slow the new calculator app is_
           | 
           | What's bad about it? For me it always does the job whenever I
           | fire it up. Looks sleek, clean, scales nicely to whatever
           | size you make it, and isn't distracting.
        
             | sccxy wrote:
             | I also like new calculator app in windows.
             | 
             | TBH date calculator is my most used feature there.
             | 
             | But calculator app in macOS... Real horror.
             | 
             | Try to open units converter from top app menus.
        
             | hulitu wrote:
             | You worked all life as a cashier with a hand calculator 15
             | x 15 cm ( 5 x 5 in).
             | 
             | One day your boss comes: your calculator is obsolete, you
             | need to use the one on the wall with every number being 25
             | x 25 cm (10 x 10 in). Good luck
        
               | FirmwareBurner wrote:
               | Your PC keyboard didn't change though. The numbers and
               | arithmetic symbols are still in the same places they've
               | been for ~80 years.
               | 
               | Also, the new calculator kept the same standard layout as
               | before, it's not like they now shuffled the numbers and
               | buttons aground randomly to confuse you. If you're that
               | easily confused by a coat of paint, maybe you're in the
               | wrong job.
               | 
               | And yes, workers did have to switch calculators from time
               | to time. Source: my mom, an accountant.
               | 
               | I get it, "Microsoft bad, Windows bad", but your argument
               | is a very weak nothingburger.
        
             | godd2 wrote:
             | > scales nicely to whatever size you make it
             | 
             | In Programmer mode if you type in a number larger than 32
             | bits and the window is scaled to its smallest size, the
             | lower row of binary is cut off a little bit.
        
               | FirmwareBurner wrote:
               | Horrible. Unusable.
        
             | gibolt wrote:
             | How many adults are being distracted by the Windows
             | calculator app?
        
               | FirmwareBurner wrote:
               | That's asking the right questions.
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | benbristow wrote:
           | Is it? Just opened it on Windows 10 and it opens instantly
           | and uses 23MB of RAM which is rather low for a modern
           | application. Calculator is also fully open source now.
           | 
           | https://github.com/microsoft/calculator
        
           | Piisamirotta wrote:
           | Ah. I really hate Windows calculator nowadays. When looking
           | for alternatives I found SpeedCrunch
           | (https://heldercorreia.bitbucket.io/speedcrunch/). So far I
           | have loved it, even did some regedit to open it from
           | keyboard's calculator button.
        
             | yndoendo wrote:
             | Qalculate is my go-to for cross platform calculator that is
             | useful and is not limited to the most basic +-*/
             | operations. https://qalculate.github.io/
        
           | naikrovek wrote:
           | the new calculator app is open source, you can see what's
           | making it so slow if you want, and contribute fixes if you
           | have the skills to do the fixing.
           | 
           | MIT license.
           | 
           | https://github.com/microsoft/calculator/
        
             | iggldiggl wrote:
             | Unfortunately some issues have been declared as "by
             | design". E.g. due to a rigid interpretation of some
             | accessibility guideline, the fact that clicking on the
             | history or trigonometry menus moves the input focus there,
             | so Numpad Enter suddenly starts re-opening that menu
             | instead of pressing '=' is apparently perfectly intended
             | and definitively not a bug.
        
             | tpush wrote:
             | Microsoft requires contributors to sign a CLA giving
             | Microsoft effective ownership over your contributions.
             | 
             | You should never be working for a for-profit organization
             | without compensation.
        
               | naikrovek wrote:
               | so fork it and work on it yourself.
               | 
               | do I have to tell everyone what the MIT license allows?
        
               | eddythompson80 wrote:
               | Not arguing for contributing to Microsoft's repos, but
               | most open source projects under most well respected
               | foundations do the same. There is a big argument for or
               | against CLAs but it's not like it's just them.
        
               | tpush wrote:
               | Yes, lots of organizations want free labor. That has no
               | bearing on whether its ethical.
               | 
               | There's a somewhat decent argument to be made for non-
               | profit organizations, but there's none for for-profit
               | orgs like Microsoft.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | naikrovek wrote:
               | successfully reach out to all contributors to the Linux
               | kernel and then tell me CLAs are bad for a corporation.
               | 
               | you open source people, man. you give all developers a
               | horrible reputation. put up or shut up, lol
        
               | saagarjha wrote:
               | I am being compensated by the things I use getting
               | better.
        
             | codetrotter wrote:
             | Why would anyone want to do free work for Microsoft?
        
               | pjmlp wrote:
               | They shouldn't, other than provides a good entry on the
               | CV, that is all.
        
               | dingnuts wrote:
               | This is the correct response. Telling community members
               | that they can fix bugs in libre, community-supported
               | software is one thing.
               | 
               | Telling /users/ who are NOT community members to make
               | changes to some corporation's application that happens to
               | have source available, in their free time, and then
               | donate that labor to some billion dollar corporation?
               | fuck THAT.
               | 
               | Fix it your own damn self, Microsoft. I have better shit
               | to do.
        
               | naikrovek wrote:
               | open source software should not be contributed to? I can
               | not understand open source people, man.
               | 
               | it only counts if it has "libre" in the name? MIT-
               | licensed isn't good enough? WTF
        
               | dagaci wrote:
               | Because it makes the things they use better mostly, they
               | are => https://github.com/microsoft/calculator/graphs/con
               | tributors
        
             | rappatic wrote:
             | This isn't justification for an app being bad. A company
             | shouldn't release a broken and slow app on an OS I _pay
             | for_ and you can 't make it seem like that's okay simply
             | because Microsoft took ten minutes to put the code on
             | Github. At that rate, why put effort into improving apps at
             | all if users will do free work for you?
        
               | naikrovek wrote:
               | so make it less bad, or stop complaining.
               | 
               | if you're complaining without a plan of action to address
               | the complaint, you are speaking for attention alone.
               | 
               | fork it and fix it, then use that version. open your fork
               | so you can help others.
               | 
               | you other commenters can continue to complain and whine
               | endlessly or you can put your money where your mouth is
               | and actually do something.
               | 
               | what's it gonna be?
        
           | dmitrygr wrote:
           | > Considering how slow the new calculator app is
           | 
           | Am I really the only person who has a copy of "calc.exe" from
           | win 2000 that replaces c:\windows\calc.exe immediately after
           | any windows [re]install?
        
           | MenhirMike wrote:
           | The fact that the calculator has a $#!"@ hamburger menu to
           | switch between Programmer and "can do floating point numbers"
           | mode is one of those asinine UX decisions that makes me fear
           | any app update - "Oh hey, they're adding a neat feature,
           | let's see how they mess up UX on it" is my default reaction
           | nowadays.
           | 
           | And yes, Notepad and Calculator take much longer to start now
           | than they ever did - not sure if it's SmartScreen, a Store
           | Update check, or if SEND_DIAGNOSTICS is enabled on production
           | builds, but I bet it's some Program Manager making some
           | idiotic decision because some useless KPI requires it.
        
             | 3seashells wrote:
             | Calculator is slow calculator now, for calculated promotion
             | points.
        
             | bee_rider wrote:
             | Wait, what is the difference between "programmer mode" and
             | "can do floating point numbers" mode? The former implies
             | the latter, right?
        
               | godd2 wrote:
               | You cannot enter fractional values in programmer mode.
               | 
               | This is reasonable, but what is incredibly annoying is
               | that when you type in a number while in Programmer mode,
               | if you then change to Scientific mode, it blows away the
               | number you typed in.
        
               | MenhirMike wrote:
               | Programmer mode is useful if you need to convert
               | Decimal/Hex/Binary, but if you try to enter e.g, 17.95 as
               | a decimal number, you can't. (In fact, it'll display 17
               | NAND 95 - so the dot seems to be a shortcut for a bitwise
               | operation) - it's Integers Only.
               | 
               | (I guess one could argue that programmer mode should
               | include IEEE-754 floats, but I'm fine with that mode
               | being limited to integers, it's plenty useful already.
               | But it does require switching to another mode if you need
               | a calculator to calculate floating point numbers)
        
             | grishka wrote:
             | > a $#!"@ hamburger menu
             | 
             | Touchscreen-first design does this to apps -\\_(tsu)_/-
        
               | MenhirMike wrote:
               | There would be plenty of space for humongous buttons to
               | touch and only use the hamburger when the app is really
               | small. But yeah, it's not touchscreen, it's that everyone
               | designs exclusively for 6" screens these days, which also
               | explains why 60% of modern apps is just useless
               | whitespace :/
        
               | grishka wrote:
               | > everyone designs exclusively for 6" screens these days
               | 
               | Technically incorrect, I don't ;)
        
             | bluSCALE4 wrote:
             | After I found out that in GTA5, bad code loading a large
             | JSON file made boot time jump from 2m to 6m, up to 15m. The
             | JSON file was for in-game purchases, aka useless.
        
               | zerocrates wrote:
               | Though I believe that was a delay specifically for GTA
               | Online only, and those purchases are absolutely the key
               | and only point of the online mode for Rockstar.
               | 
               | Of course that doesn't mean it should have been loading
               | so inefficiently regardless.
        
               | frenchy wrote:
               | The next verison of GTA should be a game where you get a
               | gig with a corporation called Rockstar, and all your jobs
               | are focused around making them money.
        
             | MarkSweep wrote:
             | The really damning UI feature of calculator, at least
             | during the beginning of Windows 10, was the splash screen
             | (aka loading screen). I understand that's a standard
             | feature of UWP apps, but the fact it was on screen long
             | enough to be noticed was unacceptable.
        
             | conductr wrote:
             | > "Oh hey, they're adding a neat feature, let's see how
             | they mess up UX on it"
             | 
             | It still feels like they just break UX to support touch
             | devices better than older UI would. I might just be showing
             | my age, or out of touch, or perhaps because I only use
             | Windows for work but I have no intention of ever using
             | touch on a device running Windows. My laptop screen support
             | touch and I turn it off as it's and unexpected behavior to
             | me (if I touch my screen I'm probably just pointing at
             | something/showing to another person).
        
           | RajT88 wrote:
           | Windows 11 snipping tool is unnecessarily clunky and garbage
           | as well.
           | 
           | What I do on any Win11 machine is keep an archived copy of
           | Windows 10's System32 folder, and pin the old copies of apps
           | to my start menu.
           | 
           | ...From my cold dead hands!
        
             | gibolt wrote:
             | Yeah, Mac solved this so elegantly.
             | 
             | Windows really needs a simple default hotkey to do a
             | partial screen capture quickly, and save it to a reasonable
             | directory.
        
               | hulitu wrote:
               | Printscreen to capture the whole screen. Alt +
               | Printscreen to capture the current active window.
        
               | fortran77 wrote:
               | Have you ever used Windows?
        
               | adrenvi wrote:
               | Win + Shift + S allows you to select a rectangular region
               | and copy the image data to clipboard.
        
               | secondcoming wrote:
               | Yes. This changed my life. I use it every day.
        
               | zadjii wrote:
               | I mean, win+shift+s (the default snipping tool hotkey) to
               | grab a snip is pretty elegant IMO. Copies it straight to
               | the clipboard, or lets you save (& edit) it from the
               | notification. Probably one of my most used shortcuts.
        
               | koolant wrote:
               | Win + Shift + S has been there for ages now.
        
           | rkagerer wrote:
           | When I installed Windows 7, I copied the old mspaint
           | executable over and kept using it, as I hate the stupid
           | Office-style ribbon they implemented in the new one
           | (excessive waste of screen real estate, takes more clicks,
           | and the items collapse to uselessness when the window gets
           | too small).
        
           | ToDougie wrote:
           | I'm blown away at how slow the calculator is. Used to be that
           | every time I went to open the calculator app from Run, it
           | would freeze my whole system. I have 64G of RAM and a $500
           | (at the time) Ryzen chip. I had to perform some arcane
           | troubleshooting steps to fix it.
        
           | gspencley wrote:
           | But how are you supposed to sync your calculations to One
           | Drive and Teams if it's just a simple, non-network-enabled
           | calculator program?
        
             | k12sosse wrote:
             | Use PowerShell in Azure as your calculator - duh! ;-)
             | 
             | shell.azure.com
        
             | 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
             | I am now incapable of identifying satire.
        
         | benbristow wrote:
         | For as basic a program it is, it's rather useful.
         | 
         | My work only currently only give machines with 16GB RAM which
         | gets eaten up by Edge/Teams/Outlook, security applications
         | incl. Defender and then any dev tools on top of that. Trying to
         | campaign for 32GB machines but bureaucracy takes its time in
         | the public sector. The IT team have also just removed Paint 3D
         | for some reason via InTune.
         | 
         | Just opened Paint right now on my Windows 10 desktop and it's
         | using 13MB of RAM for a blank canvas.
         | 
         | For pasting a screenshot and putting some rectangles/arrows on
         | it, it works a charm.
         | 
         | Something to be said about Paint!
        
           | vel0city wrote:
           | Why do you even bother pasting screenshots? Snipping tool can
           | save it without even needing to paste it anywhere.
           | Win+Shift+s
        
             | fyloraspit wrote:
             | Sometimes you want mouse or dynamic menu in frame for
             | highlighting. Most likely reason for print screen + paint
             | IMO.
        
         | grishka wrote:
         | If you want the old simple Paint, you could just copy
         | mspaint.exe from an older version of Windows. Same for things
         | like calculator and notepad and games.
        
       | jrflowers wrote:
       | Take that, Adobe
        
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