The End of an Era: Microsoft’s Bold Move Against Paint 3D

Microsoft is preparing to pull the plug on Paint 3D, its ambitious attempt at revamping the beloved and enduring Paint program. The company had already stopped packaging it with Windows, and in two months, Paint 3D will be completely discontinued.

Microsoft announced that “Paint 3D is deprecated and will be removed from the Microsoft Store on November 4, 2024.” Paint 3D users are being notified within the app, and Microsoft updated its depreciated features catalog with the new entry too. It will still be available on PCs that already have it installed, but the app will soon stop receiving support or updates, and in a few months it won’t be available to download.

Paint 3D was released in as a planned replacement for the classic Windows Paint application, with the added ability to create and view 3D designs, in addition to typical drawing and image editing. It could turn your doodles, emojis, or pictures into 3D objects. Microsoft had hoped that it woulkd gain popularity and a community of creators would eventually develop around it.

Sadly for Paint 3D, it never took off. Pro designers found that it wasn’t as powerful as other 3D software already on the market, and most other people continued to use the classic Paint app as normal. Unlike classic Paint which is as simple as it comes, Paint 3D doesn’t have an intuitive interface. In 2021, Microsoft stopped shipping Paint 3D with newer builds of Windows 11. The company also removed Paint 3D from the right-click context menu, but the app remained available in the Microsoft Store.

With Paint 3D gone, Microsoft is refocusing its efforts on the original Paint app. Microsoft Paint has a layer feature now and Microsoft is adding some AI functionality , though the Cocreator AI is only available on Copilot+ computers.

Source: Windows Latest