A little Wordpad mystery

Hi. :)

On my husband's new computer we just built, I've been making some small simple Wordpad files. (Just notes about things related to the build and what we've learned so far.) Sometimes when I've opened one of the files to add a bit more info to it and then I click 'save' (yes 'save', not 'save as'), the program wants to save it as a completely new Wordpad file (as if I had clicked 'save as' when I only actually clicked 'save'). I can't always get it to just save the changes I made to the original. I tried not using the 'save' option and just clicking the 'x' to close the file. It'll ask me if I want to save the changes and I say yes, then it tries again to save it as a new file on the drive instead of just updating the original with the new changes.

I tried right-clicking an open Wordpad file on the taskbar to see if it would show me a 'properties' or 'settings' option (in case there was something I should adjust), but there were no 'properties' or 'settings' showing in the right-click context menu. In trying to figure it out, I went looking for the app in Settings and discovered that it's not listed as being installed in the system. Neither under 'installed apps', nor under 'system components'. But all the files for it are there on the C drive (C: Program Files > Windows NT > Accessories), I have it pinned to the Start menu and I can easily open it to make as many new files as I want. It's working fine except for this little oddity.

I've never experienced Wordpad doing this before on any computer we ever had in the past. I tried searching about it on the website here and with Google, but I couldn't find anything similar discussed. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas on what might be causing it?

It's not a help but Wordpad is being/is discontinued.
I still have it but only by using a 'tweak' to get it back as a separate app. Write.exe [calls up wordpad.exe] has also been removed. Might need LibreOffice to open those files, it accommodates many formats.

Trying to learn said:

Any ideas on what might be causing it?

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Forgot to show how I did it. The 11 and 64 in the folder name indicates Windows 11 64-bit version, just for my reference.

Hi and thanks for your comments. I'm not sure why you talked about getting Wordpad, though? We already have it, as mentioned in the OP, and I am actively using it to make files. It's just that it's got this unusual behaviour that I described and also doesn't show under installed apps or system components even though it is on the system and being used. :)

I'm not sure why you talked about getting Wordpad

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Because it's going away if it hasn't already. I'm on the latest Version 24H2 Build 26100.3915. I don't remember the actual Build update when that happened. Should get a newer Build on Patch Tuesday in a few days. What is being talked about WordPad is getting it back since Microsoft won't do it. Might be aware that your Win11 may get the 24H2 Version Upgrade soon, have seen it mentioned it may be forced.

Trying to learn said:

Sometimes when I've opened one of the files to add a bit more info to it and then I click 'save' (yes 'save', not 'save as'), the program wants to save it as a completely new Wordpad file (as if I had clicked 'save as' when I only actually clicked 'save').

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This will happen in any program when you cannot make changes to the original. This could be because it's a read-only file, or that folder permission don't allow you to change it.

Trying to learn said:

Hi and thanks for your comments. I'm not sure why you talked about getting Wordpad, though? We already have it...

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Because both the computers in your 'My Computers' are still on 23H2, and the upgrade to 24H2 will remove Wordpad. While you still have it, copy the entire contents of the C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories folder to another folder, then name that 'Wordpad' so you'll still have it available.

@Berton , @Bree Yeah, I was seeing that news last month when I found the forum, and found Brink's tutorial about how to specify the target release version using the Group Policy Editor, so we could prevent 24H2 for a while. We're going to hold hubby's new PC on Windows 11 Pro 23h2 til EOL, so we've got a while yet before we'll have to deal with changing over. We've already got the Wordpad files saved from my old Win 8.1 to put on Win 11 whenever it might become necessary in future.

It's the 'bug' that we seem to have in Wordpad at present on hubby's new PC that I was hoping for tips on how to fix.

It wouldn't hurt a thing if following the post by @Bree to save the files as I did then run the wordpad.exe in that folder. It's not an installed program as such and could see if the same problem exists.

Trying to learn said:

It's the 'bug' that we seem to have in Wordpad at present on hubby's new PC that I was hoping for tips on how to fix.

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It's not a bug. It's because you're not allowed to modify the original file, for one reason or another, ntfs permissions or the file is marked as 'read only'.

Bree said:

This will happen in any program when you cannot make changes to the original. This could be because it's a read-only file, or that folder permission don't allow you to change it.

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Hmm... I just right-clicked to look at the properties of the last Wordpad file that had this 'buggy' behaviour today. It's not read-only and all the folder permissions are checked except for special permissions...

@Bree When you said Ntfs permissions, could you tell me what that is, how to check on that? I know about Ntfs being a type of formatting (vs Fat32, for example). But I haven't heard of 'Ntfs permissions' before...

Trying to learn said:

all the folder permissions are checked except for special permissions...

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Trying to learn said:

I know about Ntfs being a type of formatting (vs Fat32, for example). But I haven't heard of 'Ntfs permissions' before...

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NTFS is the format that Windows uses for your C: drive. One of the advantages of NTFS over Fat32 is that it allows files and folders to have user permissions set. Those ntfs permissions were what you were looking at when you checked the folder permissions.

please check in settings > apps > default apps
at the bottom of this page is 'choose defaults by file type'

open that and in the search bar put RTF
make sure it opens with Wordpad by default.

best of luck, Steve ..

@Bree Ohhhh, I see. thanks. :)

I'm quite puzzled by this. It's not a huge issue if I can't get it fixed. It just means I have to save the changes as if it's a completely new file, then delete the original afterward so that I don't have a bunch of mismatched duplicates in the folder. But it would be nice if there was a way to know what has caused the issue. If I remember right, I don't think Wordpad appeared in the installed apps. Not sure if it appeared in system components or not. I just remember clicking on start and putting 'wordpad' in the search field. Then it showed up and I clicked to open it and was able to pin it to the start menu. It still doesn't show under pinned apps or system components as of right now. But if I right-click the icon for it where it's pinned in the start menu, it gives an option to uninstall. Funny, eh? How can I uninstall something the system doesn't even show as installed?

@XxXxX Hi Steve. :) I did what you said and it's there like you said it should be. Also, in the list of default apps, it shows wordpad and when I click on it there, it shows that .docx, .odt, and .rft can be opened with it. Is it normal for an app to *not* show up under installed apps or system components, but show up under default apps?

Trying to learn said:

Is it normal for an app to *not* show up under installed apps or system components, but show up under default apps?

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These older programs that were included with Windows, as Wordpad was up to 23H2, are not counted as 'installed apps', they came with the system.

Anything can be added to default apps, even if it's not an installed app. You simply have to right-click, select 'Open with...> Choose another app', scroll down and click on 'Choose an app on your PC' then browse and find it. When you open the file with it, it gets added to default apps. I've added a number of portable apps (apps that do not need to be installed) that way, such as LibreOffice Portable.

@Bree that's interesting! I had seen a few members use that expression 'portable apps' in the last day or two, as I was looking at a few threads. I didn't know what that meant and it was on my list of things to look into. (I'm still finding it hard to get used to the term 'app', I'm that far behind on developments, lol. My brain just wants to call everything either a program or a utility/tool like we did 20+ years ago.)

I wonder if this Wordpad glitch could have somehow happened in connection with installing Win 11 Home (with an older ISO), upgrading to Win 11 Pro and setting the target release version to 23h2, then allowing the system to fully update itself...

Trying to learn said:

@XxXxX Hi Steve. :) I did what you said and it's there like you said it should be. Also, in the list of default apps, it shows wordpad and when I click on it there, it shows that .docx, .odt, and .rft can be opened with it. Is it normal for an app to *not* show up under installed apps or system components, but show up under default apps?

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it maybe in programs or software features.
control panel > program & features > turn Windows features on or off

i don't have Wordpad on my system i use word 2003. yes you read that right, word 2003.
best of luck, Steve ..