expected so much more from windows 11

When I upgraded my laptop, I thought it would be good to get one with the latest windows, but now I am starting to regret it.

So on W10, I edit Gcode files for my 3D printer in wordpad, save them, and load straight into my 3D printer.
In W11, as soon as I finish an edit and try to save, it changes the name of the file to a text file, and then the 3D printer does not recognise it.

In W10, I can set Gcode files to open in wordpad, but in W11, wordpad is not found when I use the 'Open With' option.
Even though I can find and open wordpad manually, the open with option cannot find the wordpad app.

I have located wordpad, and pinned it to start, but when I open start...it's not there.
So this 'advanced' W11 can't find its own wordpad app, even though I located it, and pinned it to start, and task bar, and created a shortcut to it on my desktop, still won't list in the start menu, or find it when I use the open with command, and saves Gcode in a format which I don't want.

If W11 is an improvement, perhaps an expert might help me restore my faith please.

WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt.

Click to expand...

Of course if you do not wish to use Microsoft's own subscription based office suite there are several open source alternatives ... two I can personally recommend are Open Office and Libreoffice

​

both of which cover the various components of Microsoft Office at zero cost to the user and are fully compliant with the needs of Windows 11

badgerdiddy said:

When I upgraded my laptop, I thought it would be good to get one with the latest windows, but now I am starting to regret it.

So on W10, I edit Gcode files for my 3D printer in wordpad, save them, and load straight into my 3D printer.
In W11, as soon as I finish an edit and try to save, it changes the name of the file to a text file, and then the 3D printer does not recognise it.

In W10, I can set Gcode files to open in wordpad, but in W11, wordpad is not found when I use the 'Open With' option.
Even though I can find and open wordpad manually, the open with option cannot find the wordpad app.

I have located wordpad, and pinned it to start, but when I open start...it's not there.
So this 'advanced' W11 can't find its own wordpad app, even though I located it, and pinned it to start, and task bar, and created a shortcut to it on my desktop, still won't list in the start menu, or find it when I use the open with command, and saves Gcode in a format which I don't want.

If W11 is an improvement, perhaps an expert might help me restore my faith please.

Click to expand...

Wordpad is a deprecated feature.

You don't necessarily have to use a full-blown word processor like Microsoft Word or Apache OpenOffice Writer or LibreOffice Writer if you don't want. For just RTF (Rich Text Format) you could always decide to rely only on Quill.

You might want to switch to Notepad++ (free). I use it to edit a variety of text files, that have varied extensions. If it's a text file, Notepad++ will let you edit it without messing with the extension.

badgerdiddy said:

... and saves Gcode in a format which I don't want.

Click to expand...

What file format do you desire?

So the wordpad issue is the reason you regret Windows 11? Fair enough.

1) when you edit the files in notepad, use the drop-down to select “all” And make sure the extension is correct before saving.

2) right-click > open with > browse to the wordpad exe and select it. Next time you right click, wordpad will be on the open with option list.

3) even after wordpad gets deprecated, you will be able to restore it manually so that you can continue using it… same as you can with the old sticky notes, msconfig, task manager, etc.

antspants said:

So the wordpad issue is the reason you regret Windows 11? Fair enough.

Click to expand...

There's probably more to it than that!
It's been discussed in countless threads: "Why can't I do this in Windows 11?", "How can I make Windows 11 like Windows 10?", "Windows has changed, embrace change!"

I've found, with Windows, and PC's in general, if you are accustomed to a certain familiarity or flow of productivity, and that comes to an abrupt halt, for one reason or another, it's annoying, if not disturbing.

In the land of Microsoft, it’s “Adapt or Perish” . Apple is becoming the same way too

dacrone said:

Adapt or Perish

Click to expand...

I always find a way!!!

badgerdiddy said:

When I upgraded my laptop, I thought it would be good to get one with the latest windows, but now I am starting to regret it.

So on W10, I edit Gcode files for my 3D printer in wordpad, save them, and load straight into my 3D printer.
In W11, as soon as I finish an edit and try to save, it changes the name of the file to a text file, and then the 3D printer does not recognise it.

In W10, I can set Gcode files to open in wordpad, but in W11, wordpad is not found when I use the 'Open With' option.
Even though I can find and open wordpad manually, the open with option cannot find the wordpad app.

I have located wordpad, and pinned it to start, but when I open start...it's not there.
So this 'advanced' W11 can't find its own wordpad app, even though I located it, and pinned it to start, and task bar, and created a shortcut to it on my desktop, still won't list in the start menu, or find it when I use the open with command, and saves Gcode in a format which I don't want.

If W11 is an improvement, perhaps an expert might help me restore my faith please.

Click to expand...

This may not change your opinion of Windows 11, but a free replacement for Wordpad is Jarte. I really liked Wordpad, but Jarte is a nice replacement. If interested, you can download it from the site listed below.

badgerdiddy said:

In W10, I can set Gcode files to open in wordpad, but in W11, wordpad is not found when I use the 'Open With' option.
Even though I can find and open wordpad manually, the open with option cannot find the wordpad app.

Click to expand...

If I understand correctly, Gcode files are just text files. Wordpad is primarily intended to create formatted documents in RTF format. Although it can be used for text files, why not just use a text editor, such as Notepad? Just be sure to click the gear icon (upper right corner) in Notepad and change it's default start option to "Open a new window".

Of course, a third-party text editor is a good choice too, as already suggested. I like Notepad 3.

Edwin said:

There's probably more to it than that!
It's been discussed in countless threads: "Why can't I do this in Windows 11?", "How can I make Windows 11 like Windows 10?", "Windows has changed, embrace change!"

I've found, with Windows, and PC's in general, if you are accustomed to a certain familiarity or flow of productivity, and that comes to an abrupt halt, for one reason or another, it's annoying, if not disturbing.

Click to expand...

Frankly, Windows 11 is no more functional for me than 7. We are more or less forced to upgrade because new hardware is not 7-compliant. After three subsequent generations of mobo's and cpu's, I don't think Windows is operating any faster either. Along with that, we have to fight for privacy while being blackmailed into giving it up to gain a modicum of security. Aside from touch, I can't think of any truly compelling new feature that has appeared in the subsequent versions.

dacrone said:

In the land of Microsoft, it’s “Adapt or Perish” . Apple is becoming the same way too

Click to expand...

Rent-seeking behavior.

/rant

badgerdiddy said:

When I upgraded my laptop, I thought it would be good to get one with the latest windows, but now I am starting to regret it.

So on W10, I edit Gcode files for my 3D printer in wordpad, save them, and load straight into my 3D printer.
In W11, as soon as I finish an edit and try to save, it changes the name of the file to a text file, and then the 3D printer does not recognise it.

In W10, I can set Gcode files to open in wordpad, but in W11, wordpad is not found when I use the 'Open With' option.
Even though I can find and open wordpad manually, the open with option cannot find the wordpad app.

I have located wordpad, and pinned it to start, but when I open start...it's not there.
So this 'advanced' W11 can't find its own wordpad app, even though I located it, and pinned it to start, and task bar, and created a shortcut to it on my desktop, still won't list in the start menu, or find it when I use the open with command, and saves Gcode in a format which I don't want.

If W11 is an improvement, perhaps an expert might help me restore my faith please.

Click to expand...

I edit my gcode files with Notepad++ and have no problems with it. Using Wordpad can corrupt the files with the rich text formatting if you are not careful. Why not use a professional tool like Notepad++ to do the job it was meant to do? It's meant for coding and supports so many code formats without issue, it's simply a no-brainer as far as I am concerned.

I honestly don't understand how people get into this mindset that Windows is to blame when they are either not using the proper tools for the job, or not using them properly. Yes, Windows 11 does a few things differently, and some features have been deprecated, but it's light years ahead of Windows 7, as far as I am concerned, and a significant improvement over Windows 10. I use both 10 and 11 and I find 11 far more stable than my Win 10 installations.

I'll be honest, there are a few things that I don't like about 11. Chief among them the requirement to ditch perfectly good hardware in order to install and run it. There are other things that I don't like too, but that is beyond the scope of this thread. Fact is, I have always found something to complain about in every Windows release, but things change, and if you don't accept change, you get left behind. Besides, complaining to MS gets you nowhere, just like complaining to the government. But that is the price of progress. When Win 12 comes out, there are going to be people complaining about that too.

Face it. Win 11 is the defacto currently supported version of Windows (yes, I know, 10 is currently supported too, but that support ends next year). Like it or not, that's what we get unless you want to go to an OS that is cooked up in someone's mother's basement, like Linux. Yes, I use Linux too for work and I find it to be the most kludgy, poorly supported, nearly incomprehensible OS out there if you aren't using a GUI. Others will of course disagree, but I do bare metal programming on Linux and I am sick and tired of poorly planned updates breaking all my code, and drivers that are impossible to find. Not to mention trying to locate libraries that are poorly maintained and even more poorly vetted prior to release. Just today I spent four+ hours trying to debug an SSH connection problem all because of a Linux update that I did this morning. Sorry, but I will take Windows any day of the week for stability and reliability.

It's actually a relief to fire up my Windows install and do paperwork. If I don't screw with it, it just works. That's the most important thing for me.

Of course, your mileage may vary. Relax. My rant is over.

To be totally honest, I am not overly concerned with the way an OS works, OK it has to do what I need it to do, and as long as this is doable it's doing it's job. It's job is to get me working in my applications, these are judged with a practical eye can they do what I need them to do, will my word processor produce the documents I need, Will my graphics application process and produce good usable output

all the OS has to do is allow me access to productive applications and maybe handle the file management or perform other housekeeping tasks

In a ten hour working day I do not expect to spend more than a few minutes in the OS

Windows is still capable of miracles! Where there's a will, there's a way!