Notepad in Windows 10 will warn users if they are using old version

Notepad in Windows 10 can notify users that a new version is available with a button to launch the new version. It is not known under what circumstances the notification appears.

The notification was spotted by security researcher and Windows Internals expert Alex Ionescu. He publishes a screenshot of the notepad notification. It shows a yellow bar in the simple text editor that says a new version of Notepad is available, with a button to start it.

This new version concerns the slightly modernized app that Microsoft can provide with updates via the Microsoft Store. Microsoft put this version in its download store last year and with the arrival of Windows Insider build version 21337, the app is present in the OS with a new icon and can be updated via the Microsoft Store. The app has also been given a ‘search and replace’ function and supports UTF-8.

An editor at Bleepingcomputer writes that his experience was that Notepad automatically rebooted to the new version, without notification. It is therefore unclear under what circumstances this message appears.