Microsoft's Notepad has been around for over four decades. The simple text editor has remained largely unchanged for much of that time, though it has seen a surge in development of late. For example, Notepad now supports character count. One constant people have been able to count on is that Notepad is free and does not require an account. Both of those have now come into question, though the situation is not as bad as it once appeared.
Notepad now includes a prompt to sign in to a Microsoft account, an addition that drew worry and criticism. But the prompt only refers to those who want to use the AI-powered Rewrite feature. You can still use Notepad without a Microsoft account or a paid Microsoft 365 plan. I've also seen a separate prompt to sign up for a Microsoft 365 Personal or Microsoft 365 Family account when trying to use Rewrite within Notepad. Notably, both those plans require payment.
