Another Windows 11 "oddity"

Aries

Aries

New Member
I use the option Diagnostics->Display Pre-processor Output quite often to check whether conditional coding (selected via #define) has worked as it should, or to compare different versions of a program which has #include files.

On Windows 11, Picaxe "encounters an error" after "Check syntax" with the option set. No more information than that, but I have worked out that Picaxe uses Wordpad to display the output, and the last Windows 11 update removed Wordpad once and for all.

If you are in this position, it is possible to copy Wordpad from a Windows 10 machine or, if you haven't had the upgrade yet, to save it on your WIndows 11 machine.

There's an explanation of how to do it here ...
www.pcworld.com

WordPad is now gone from Windows 11. Here's how to bring it back

With the arrival of Windows 11 version 24H2, WordPad is officially gone. Want to keep using it? You're in luck.
www.pcworld.com www.pcworld.com
 
Aries,

A timely warning of something that will affect a lot of PICAXE uses as they upgrade or move to Win11 PCs.

I had seen it reported that wordpad was being removed from Win11 but I was not aware that it was going to prevent me seeing my preprocessor output in PE.
 
system11 said:
Do you think they'll issue a software update to address this?
Click to expand...
Yes, but I expect it won't be anything you will enjoy.

When a feature doesn't work, but not many people use it anyway, Rev-Ed just delete the feature. If its not there, it doesn't need fixing !.

There is a way that Rev-Ed could fix this properly, just add a check-box to allow a user-selected 3rd party editor.
However, based on Rev-Ed's track record in this area, I don't expect to see any sensible solution ever.
 
I don't know about anyone else, but I find the "Display Pre-Processor Output" essential. If it didn't exist, I might have to write one myself.

Apart from the "official" work-around - reinstall WordPad - I suspect that renaming some other editor to WordPad.exe and having it on the path would work as well (and I am not that keen on WordPad anyway because of the length of the lines I write).
 
It's annoying in general that Microsoft keeps doing things like this - we use wordpad at work to open binary files to check that they are in fact binary (an encryption test) - if you open the same file with notepad it will say 'permission denied' instead even though there's no permission issue.
 
system11 said:
It's annoying in general that Microsoft keeps doing things like this - we use wordpad at work to open binary files to check that they are in fact binary (an encryption test) - if you open the same file with notepad it will say 'permission denied' instead even though there's no permission issue.
Click to expand...

MSFT is a business, and they (like anybody else) want to stay lean and profitable ... hanging on to devs to maintain a little-used tool doesn't make sense. I get where they're coming from. They announced Wordpad was going away in Q3/2023 ... that's plenty of time for a business that depends on Wordpad for its workflow to find an alternate solution.

It'd be great if RevEd pushed a patch to allow us to select our text editor of choice ... Notepad++ or Sublime would be what I'd go with.
 
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A patch that will attempt to shell notepad++, wordpad or notepad (in that order) is now available on the PE6 download page. This should therefore work on any windows 11 system that has lost wordpad access.

If you still have wordpad, or don't use the diagnostic preprocessor output to start with, the patch is not required.
 
Yes, it's dumb of Microsoft to delete such a tiny but useful legacy program as Wordpad. It was only deleted in the recent 24H2 "update". Per that and other articles, I copied Wordpad off an older computer (any Windows 10 or a pre-update Win 11 machine) using the following path:

This PC/Local Disk C:/Program Files/Windows NT/Accessories

Copy the Accessories Folder (3 files total) and store on a thumbdrive, renaming the folder "Wordpad" to copy onto another computer.

Microsoft previously announce plans to delete MS Paint, but relented after user backlash. Give Microsoft a piece of your mind using their Feedback Hub (type into search bar) and let's get Wordpad back!
 
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