Microsoft is going to kill Microsoft Paint

Later this year Microsoft will release the Fall Creators Update for Windows 10. The update will introduce a number of new features, including the Fluent Design System, Timeline, and a Cloud-Powered Clipboard. But it's also set to remove or deprecate a number of features and applications, one of which will surprise many of you.

As MSPoweruser reports, there's a few surprising and not so surprising removals. For example, Outlook Express is being removed, as is Reader app and Reading List (functionality is being integrated with Microsoft Edge). Screen saver support is also being removed from themes and will disappear from the Control Panel eventually. But the biggest surprise? Microsoft Paint, a.k.a. MS Paint, is being deprecated.

Deprecation means that development of the software is ending, which typically happens not long before an application reaches the end of its life. So with MS Paint deprecated, Microsoft will likely remove it completely from Windows 10 in the near future. The full list of which applications and features are being deprecated or removed from Windows 10 is available to view on the Microsoft support site.

There are many free and more feature-rich alternatives to MS Paint available, but having Paint available has meant many users still rely on it, or turn to it when they need to quickly adjust or create an image on a Windows machine. So I'm sure it will be missed.

There's no specific date for when the Fall Creators Update will be released beyond "Late 2017." So you still have a few months to complain to Microsoft about their decision to drop MS Paint. For anyone needing an alternative, I rely on the excellent and free Paint.net for all my image editing.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.