The concern is that more features introduces more risk. See CVE-2026-20841 for a recent example. If the application remained a simple text editor, it is unlikely exploits like this would be possible.
but i dont think most people here are complaining because of security risk... otherwise they wouldnt be recommending things like notepad++, other obscure editors, or editors with way larger code bases.
The truth is, unless Notepad got some kind of makeover, it was a useless vestige. It obviously wasn’t a good text editor for plain monospaced text. Having basically zero features didn’t serve anyone - why not use Notepad++ or vim in that case?
I think the most popular use of notepad is to read text files quickly and these days that often includes Markdown files. It makes perfect sense for Notepad to evolve into something that’s actually useful for lightly formatted text formats.
That's a false sense of security. We have a LONG list of vulnerabilities in open source software that were "simple" programs for decades. The house of cards approach to security is just not it.
https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-20...