Microsoft is removing Paint 3D, which was once supposed to replace MS Paint in Windows 11 and 10

Microsoft has just removed Paint 3D from the Windows Store. This means you can no longer find, download, or even update Paint 3D from the Windows Store in Windows 11 or 10. However, Microsoft has confirmed that Paint 3D will not stop working and those who installed it will be able to continue using it.

Paint 3D was once supposed to replace Microsoft Paint. In 2017, when Paint 3D debuted, Microsoft management believed that the future of 3D creativity was with Windows Mixed Reality. For those who don’t know, Paint 3D has 3D brushes, 3D shapes, some cool effects, 3D library and other features to help you create 3D art for free.

Despite all the good things, Paint 3D never stood out as a classic Paint replacement, and Microsoft also decided not to kill the classic program in favor of a 3D version. After community outrage, Microsoft clarified that it does not want to remove Paint and will support both programs.

Although the outrage died down, it didn’t help Microsoft’s 3D push, and Paint 3D fell short of the company’s internal expectations. Fewer people downloaded it, and even fewer liked Paint 3D because of its lack of features.

Over time, Microsoft changed its position and decided to add new functions to the classic Paint and put Paint 3D on the back burner. Later, the company announced the end of support for Paint 3D, which will be removed in a future release.

While Paint 3D wasn’t a good replacement for MS Paint, it was still one of the best 3D art programs on Windows, as one creator described:

“As a software developer, Paint 3D is easier for me to use. Over the years I have created programmatic graphics such as banners and background images. The regular Paint application is not so convenient. Why can’t you just stop updating the app and leave it in the MS Store to be available for download? Please think about it, maybe you have nothing to lose if we continue to use it. As a developer, I like to code in Unix because it’s lightweight, but Paint 3D allowed me to code in Windows.”

Similar sentiments at Feedback Hub after Microsoft announced its plans to discontinue Paint 3D.

Paint 3D has been removed from the Microsoft Store

Feedback usually doesn’t change Microsoft’s decisions, and Paint 3D is unfortunately no exception.

Today is November 4th, and Paint 3D is no longer available in the United States and other regions.

You won’t be able to find Paint 3D in the Microsoft Store if you search for it in Windows 10 or Windows 11. The Paint 3D Store listing link also redirects to the Microsoft Store home page or returns a 404 (not found) error. ) pages.

At this point, if you have Paint 3D, it still displays a small banner that says “Paint 3D will not be available in the Microsoft Store and will not receive future updates starting November 4, 2024.”

For some reason, Microsoft recently updated Paint 3D and added an option to close this banner so you can continue using the app after it’s removed from the Windows Store.

In our Windows Latest tests, we noticed that Paint 3D still works fine, but there are some bumps after the latest updates, as some of our readers have pointed out. For example, Paint 3D no longer appears in the “Open with” menu or in the default program list in Settings.

Are you still using Paint 3D? We have uploaded it to our cloud storage as a backup