Solved How can I move a W7 version of Paint to a Win-11 laptop?

T38 · Aug 25, 2025

I'm old (over 50) and once I'm comfortable with, say, Paint, the W11 version (24H2) forces me to spend a rubbish-ton of precious time learning how to use the "new, improved!!!" version. I'd love to move my W7 version to the new laptop (which has worked on earlier versions of Windows) but it no longer works. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Kees · Aug 25, 2025

You don't need to move it from Win7 to Win11. All you have to do is install the Classic Paint from/via this link:

Get Old Classic Paint for Windows 11 (Windows 10 app version)

You can now download the Windows 10 version of the classic Paint app for Windows 11. It is built with genuine files from Build 14393, and integrates into

winaero.com

BTW: Many of the members here are old, possibly older than you. I am over 70!
I have that Classic Paint on my system as well (beside a real photo editing app, with which I am very familiar).

Edit: just tested if the file to download and install from this site (where the upper site does link to) is the same as on my installation disk.
Used that just a few days ago to install Classic Paint onto a newly installed Windows 11 Home 24H2 system.
It indeed is exactly the same one, same SHA-256.

Edit 2: If you want to get rid of the Context Menu "New" item "New BMP file", you will have to uninstall the Windows 11 built in Paint App. You can do that in the Start Menu (right mouse click).

rk911 · Aug 25, 2025

Kees said:
BTW: Many of the members here are old, possibly older than you. I am over 70!
I have that Classic Paint on my system as well (beside a real photo editing app, with which I am very familiar).

Care to share which photo editing app you're using? My current app is anything but UF.

Hazel123 · Aug 25, 2025

Kees said:
You don't need to move it from Win7 to Win11. All you have to do is install the Classic Paint from/via this link:

Get Old Classic Paint for Windows 11 (Windows 10 app version)

You can now download the Windows 10 version of the classic Paint app for Windows 11. It is built with genuine files from Build 14393, and integrates into

winaero.com

BTW: Many of the members here are old, possibly older than you. I am over 70!
I have that Classic Paint on my system as well (beside a real photo editing app, with which I am very familiar).

Edit: just tested if the file to download and install from this site (where the upper site does link to) is the same as on my installation disk.
Used that just a few days ago to install Classic Paint onto a newly installed Windows 11 Home 24H2 system.
It indeed is exactly the same one, same SHA-256.

Edit 2: If you want to get rid of the Context Menu "New" item "New BMP file", you will have to uninstall the Windows 11 built in Paint App. You can do that in the Start Menu (right mouse click).

Very helpful thanks - I might download it too! So when you download it, what happens to the installed version on Windows 11? Does it replace it or do you just end up with two versions?

T38 · Aug 25, 2025

Thanks to Kees for the suggestion, which worked like a charm! Fast and easy.

T38 · Aug 25, 2025

Now where's this "like" button they write about at the bottom?

gunrunnerjohn · Aug 25, 2025

T38 said:
Now where's this "like" button they write about at the bottom?

MisterEd · Aug 26, 2025

You can use both the Windows 11 and Classic versions. However, you have to pick one as the default for opening files. I have shortcuts to them on my taskbar so that I can choose which one to use.

1: Windows 11 Notepad
2: Notepad Classic
3. Notepad++
4:: Windows 11 Paint
5: Paint Classic

Bree · Aug 26, 2025

T38 said:
I'm old (over 50) and once I'm comfortable with, say, Paint, the W11 version (24H2) forces me to spend a rubbish-ton of precious time learning how to use the "new, improved!!!" version.....

Welcome to Eleven Forum.

I was in my 60's when my Windows 7 got the free upgrade to Windows 10. W10 came as a real shock to the system and shook me out of the lethargy I could feel myself slowly sinking into. Now in my 70's I find the 'challenge of the new' is what keeps my little grey cells feeling young and active

T38 said:
I'd love to move my W7 version to the new laptop (which has worked on earlier versions of Windows) but it no longer works. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

For MSPaint.exe, and any other 'out of the box' MS apps, there are two parts you'll need to copy over. The first is the *.exe itself. The second is the language resource file, *.exe.mui. This is found in a sub-folder of the folder containing the *.exe. MS keep the language separate from the .exe so that it can easily be localised for any language. This folder will be named en-US, or similar for other languages (eg. en-GB, fr-FR, etc.).

You'll need to copy the .exe and the .mui for all the languages your system uses, putting each .mui in its own sub-folder.

Here is Win7's Paint (check the version/date) running in the Latest Windows 11 Insider Canary build.

Kees · Aug 26, 2025

Hazel123 said:
So when you download it, what happens to the installed version on Windows 11? Does it replace it or do you just end up with two versions?

No, you will have two versions. The Windows Paint App you'll have to uninstall/disable, which you can do in the Start menu (right mouse button). As far as I remember it is not shown in Revo uninstaller in this case. In practice it is not really removed but just disabled (if you create another account on the same computer, this app will be there again).

Maybe the option for removing the app Paint only is possible in the EU. I can't check if it does function in other countries.

Kees · Aug 26, 2025

rk911 said:
Care to share which photo editing app you're using?

I am using a very old version (over 20 years) of a well-known photo editing program. That's all I would like to say about it.

Bree · Aug 26, 2025

Kees said:
I am using a very old version (over 20 years) of a well-known photo editing program. That's all I would like to say about it.

My 'go to' photo editor is Paint Shop Pro v7.04 that I bought a long time ago. I still have the original CD and manuals.

I'm not asking what you use, but, like my PSP7, yours is probably a 32 bit program. If so, it's limited to using 2GB of physical RAM. You may be interested in making it 'Large Address Aware' and able to use up to 4GB.

See: Paint Shop Pro 4.12 and 7.04 and 8.1 and 9.01 -post #23

32-bit processes on 64-bit Windows are also limited to 2 GB. However, they can use the "large address aware" flag ... and increases the limit to 4 GB.

2 GB limit - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Hazel123 · Aug 26, 2025

Installed

(Classic paint). I pinned it to the start menu but it doesn't appear in the list of apps or start menu programs - so how do you uninstall later if you want to?

Edit - yes it is in the list of apps in settings - I was looking under P for Paint instead of C for Classic Paint

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