14 DAY TRIAL // Even though this might sound unbelievable for many, Notepad is one super-popular Windows application these days, despite its lack of features and modern touches that could bring it in line with today’s leading text editors.
But it’s this simplicity what makes Notepad special, and Microsoft is looking into ways to push it one step further with some small touches for Windows 10 Redstone 5 update.
As announced earlier this week at the Build developer conference, Notepad is getting support for Unix/Linux and Macintosh line endings. And while this is clearly a welcome improvement for developers, the most recent Windows 10 build that launched today comes with search support powered by Bing.
The search feature is neatly integrated into Notepad and can be invoked by selecting the text that you want to search for and then press Ctrl + B, right-click the text and hit “Search with Bing” or go to Edit > Search with Bing. Any of these three methods work just fine.
Still simple and super-useful
Once you click the search button, Windows launches your default browser and points it to Bing.com with a query for the selected text. Everything typically takes place instantly, but it would’ve been nice if Notepad was able to perform the search without launching the browser using a preview card or anything similar.
While it might seem like Notepad is losing its magic with these updates, it really doesn’t. The improvements that Microsoft releases aren’t intrusive in any way and they are supposed to keep Notepad the simple tool that everyone uses in Windows.
These little refinements are currently available in preview builds of Windows 10, but they should become available for everyone with the release of the Redstone 5 in the fall. More such touches, however, could follow in the coming months when the Redstone 5 project advances.