Notepad Adds Image Support for Markdown in Windows 11

ChatGPT · 2026-02-20T06:12:12-0500

Microsoft’s quietly ambitious push to turn Notepad into a modern Markdown-first editor has taken another step: image handling is being tested inside Windows 11 Notepad, and while Microsoft’s internal tests reportedly show minimal performance impact, security experts and power users are warning that every convenience added to what was once the simplest app in Windows increases the attack surface and the complexity of secure deployments. ([windowslatest.com]test.com/2026/02/19/exclusive-microsoft-is-adding-image-support-to-notepad-on-windows-11/)

Background / Overview

Notepad has been a paradox: beloved because it does very little, and visible because everyone opens it dozens of times a day. Over the last two years Microsoft has steadily broadened Notepad’s capabilities—adding Markdown rendering, a formatting toolbar, lightweight table support, AI-assisted writing tools on qualifying hardware, and Copilot integration—shifting the app from a spare text scratchpad toward a compact authoring surface. The latest step under test is full image support inside Notepad’s Markdown flow, surfaced as an image icon in preUI and described by reporters as present in the “What’s new” dialog.
Why does this matter? Because Notepad’s modern behavior—rendering Markdown, turning text into clickable links and (now) images—changes the threat model. A plain .txt editor that rendered text only had almost no attack surface; a Markdown renderer that fetches or embeds content, recognizes links and protocol handlers, and converts markup into interactive UI elements has many more entry points for abuse. Microsoft’s decision to enable these features by default, while offering toggles in Settings, raises an important trade-off between everyday productivity and systemic security risk.ft is testing (what we know)

An image button appears in the Notepad toolbar in some Insider preview builds’ “What’s new” dialogs, though it may be non-functional in initial previews. Reporters who saw the preview say the button is deliberate and functional behavior is being developed for wider testing.
Microsoft reportedly told internal testers that the feature’s performance impact is minimal in their test runs. The feature will be enabled by default when rolled out broadly, but users will be offered an option to disable image/Markdown rendering in Notepad settings.
The addition is part of a broader movement to replace WordPad-style functionality inside Notepad after WordPad’s deprecation, consolidating lightweight editing and Markdown workflows into the modern Notepad package.

These points come from reporting based on internal sources and Insider observations; Microsoft has not published an official public feature announcement with exhaustive technical detail at the time of reporting. That means some operational details—how images are fetched, what formats are supported, or how remote content is sandboxed—are still unverified beyond the reporting. Treat claims of minimal performance impact and default-on behavior as credible reporting, but not as a substitute for the vendor’s security and telemetry documentation when it arrives.

The security wake-up call: CVE-2026-20841

The practical reason this new image support is getting serious scrutiny is that Microsoft recently had to patch a high-severity remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Notepad tied directly to how the app handled Markdown links (CVE‑2026‑20841). The vulnerability allowed specially crafted Markdown files to include links that, when clicked, could hand off non‑standard URIs to the OS or protocol handlers and thereby trigger code execution under the user’s privileges. Microsoft shipped the fix as part of its February 2026 Patch Tuesday updates and via an updated Notepad package. Public trackers assigned a CVSS score of 8.8 to the issue.
Why this matters to the image story:

Notepad’s Markdown renderer had already converted text into clickable UI elements (links), and that conversion was the precise attack vector for CVE‑2026‑20841.
Adding image support means Notepad will process more content types and potentially perform network fetches or file operations automatically—each of which can introduce new classes of risk beyond link handling.
The recent exploit demonstrates that modern features in formerly tiny utilities can have real security consequences for users and organizations if they are not designed with principle-of-least-privilege and robust input validation front and center.

Technical risk surface introduced by image support

Image rendering in a text editor sounds benign, but in modern document and web contexts images are surprisingly capable attack vectors. Below are the major technical concerns administrators and security teams should consider.

1) Remote image fetching and metadata leakage

If Notepad renders images referenced by remote URLs (for example, the Markdown pattern

), simply opening a .md file could cause the app to fetch remote resources. Those requests leak:

the user’s IP address,
their system’s user‑agent strings,
possible internal network identifiers if a proxy or local resource is referenced,
and any cookies or auth tokens if network contexts are misconfigured.

Attackers can use remote image requests as a fingerprinting channel or a beacon to confirm when a target opened a file. Many defenders already block similar behavior in email clients and document viewers; the same logic should apply if Notepad fetches images.

2) Data URIs and embedded payloads

Markdown and HTML allow data URI images (data:image/png;base64,...). Decoding base64 payloads is normally safe for raster images, but the presence of extremely large embedded data could be used for resource exhaustion attacks (memory/CPU/IO). An attacker might craft a file that causes Notepad to decode very large embedded images and thereby force high memory use or out-of-memory conditions. Defensive limits and resource quotas matter. This is a denial-of-service concern rather than arbitrary code execution in many cases—but DoS is a legitimate vector against user productivity and endpoint stability.

3) SVG and vector image risks

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) are XML-based and can contain scripts, external references, and interactive elements. SVGs can therefore be used to smuggle active content—scripts, external resource references, and forms—if they are rendered in a context that executes embedded scripts or dereferences external URIs. Browser and framework vendors have repeatedly warned about SVG risks; attackers have used malicious SVGs to bypass protections or to craft phishing and command-and-control mechanisms. If Notepad’s image support includes SVG rendering without sanitization, the app could be vulnerable to new classes of exploits.

4) Protocol handlers and unverified schemes

CVE‑2026‑20841 relied on Notepad passing links to registered protocol handlers (ms‑appinstaller, file://, smb://, etc.) without sufficient validation or explicit user confirmation. Image handling could introduce analogous issues—if Notepad obeys special URIs inside image references or image metadata, it may end up invoking platform services or handlers unexpectedly. Ensuring that Notepad does not automatically invoke protocol handlers for image URIs without explicit, secure confirmation is crucial.

5) Image decoder vulnerabilities

Historically, many remote code execution vulnerabilities arise not from the container app but from image decoders and libraries (e.g., flaws in GIF, JPEG, PNG, or WebP decoders). If Notepad extends image format support and reuses native or third‑party decoders, any vulnerabilities in those codecs become part of Notepad’s attack surface. Enterprise-managed environments should treat new image-handling features as they would any additional surface—by ensuring up-to-date decoding libraries and layered endpoint protection. This is not hypothetical: image codec vulnerabilities have been exploited in the past in major desktop apps. (See vendor advisories on codec CVEs for examples.)

Privacy and enterprise-compliance considerations

Remote image fetching can violate data loss prevention (DLP) policies if the mere act of opening a document leaks tenant‑internal metadata to an external domain. Enterprises should evaluate Notepad image rendering against internal DLP rules.
Metadata in embedded images (EXIF, GPS tags) could leak location or device information when images are embedded or exported. Notepad’s behavior on metadata exposure should be clarified by Microsoft.
For managed devices, IT should have Group Policy, MDM, or Store/package controls to disable Notepad’s advanced rendering until vetted. Microsoft’s toggle to disable features is useful, but centralized controls are essential for enterprises.

Practical recommendations — for users, admins, and developers

Below are concrete steps readers should consider immediately and during the upcoming rollout.

For individual users

Install the February 2026 Patch Tuesday updates and the latest Notepad package to ensure CVE‑2026‑20841 fixes are applied.
Treat .md files from unknown senders as untrusted—open them in a plain-text editor or view them in a sandbox or VM if you must inspect unknown content.
When the new Notepad image option appears, consider disabling image rendering if you prefer the classic minimal surface or if you work with untrusted files frequently. Windows Latest reports the feature will be toggleable in Settings.

For IT and security teams

Prioritize deployment of the February 2026 Windows cumulative updates and any Notepad Store package updates across managed devices—vulnerable Notepad builds are flagged in multiple vulnerability trackers.
Use configuration management (Group Policy, Intune) to centrally disable advanced Notepad rendering or to restrict Store package updates until the feature has been assessed and approved. If no native policy exists, use application control to restrict Notepad’s access to network resources.
Configure egress controls and network-based HTTP(S) filtering to prevent unmanaged outbound image fetches from desktop apps in high-risk segments. This reduces beaconing, metadata leakage, and attacker confirmation channels.
Update endpoint detection and response (EDR) signatures to flag Notepad spawning unusual processes or making unexpected network requests tied to file openings. CVE‑2026‑20841 demonstrated how a simple user click can trigger protocol handler activity; visibility matters.

For developers and open-source maintainers

Review any tooling that generates Markdown for your projects. Consider embedding images as relative file paths or packaging documentation with safe previews rather than linking to untrusted remote content.
If your app consumes user-provided images, adopt strict sanitization for SVGs, filter remote references, and enforce resource quotas for embedded data URIs. The security community has repeatedly flagged SVG as a special-case asset that needs sanitization.

What Microsoft should publish (and what we’ll be watching for)

Public reporting describes the feature as “image support” and claims Microsoft’s internal testing showed minimal performance impact, but the important operational questions remain:

Will Notepad fetch remote images automatically when opening a document, or will it only render local images?
Which image formats will be supported—PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG—and how will vector formats (SVG) be handled and sanitized?
Will Notepad use a conservative rendering sandbox for image decoding to limit the blast radius of codec bugs?
Will protocol handlers be explicitly blocked for image URLs, or will there be a user confirmation step before any external protocol is invoked?
Will Microsoft provide enterprise policy controls (Group Policy / MDM) to disable image fetching or to restrict Notepad’s network capabilities?

Microsoft’s public documentation or release notes should answer these questions before a broad, default-on rollout; until then these are reasonable areas of concern and should guide defensive planning. Windows Latest reported that the feature will be enabled by default but toggleable in Settings; the company framed the work as making Notepad more capable for Markdown workflows while keeping performance impact low. This is a credible vendor narrative, but it requires transparent technical detail to meet enterprise security expectations.

The trade-off: utility versus minimalist safety

Notepad’s historical value is its minimal attack surface—an attribute that’s both functional and strategic. Replacing WordPad’s capabilities inside Notepad has practical benefits: fewer apps for basic document tasks, unified UX, and better Markdown parity for users who share documents. But the recent CVE shows how a tiny convenience—automatically converting a link into a clickable element—can become an exploitation vector.
This is a classic trade-off:

Benefits of image and Markdown support:
Better workflow for users who want quick authoring and lightweight documentation.
Reduced friction for content creation without requiring full-fledged Word processors.
Consistency with modern tooling and parity with many popular Markdown editors.
Risks introduced:
Increased attack surface (remote fetches, image decoders, vector formats).
Potential for social‑engineering exploitation via beaconing or protocol invocation.
Greater complexity in security testing for each new format or rendering behavior.

Organizations and users should evaluate whether the productivity gains align with their threat models. For many consumer users the defaults will probably be acceptable; for higher-risk environments (sensitive corporate endpoints, high-value targets), the safest choice may still be to keep Notepad in a plain-text mode or to disable the new features until proper controls exist.

Longer-term considerations and design recommendations

If Microsoft intends Notepad to become a Markdown-first, lightweight editor that replaces WordPad-like features, the company should apply several engineering and policy measures:

Adopt a secure-by-default posture: default to safe rendering that does not fetch remote content automatically; require explicit user consent for network retrieval.
Maintain strict codec isolation: image decoders should run in sandboxes or use system-provided, well-patched decoders to limit the impact of a flawed codec.
Sanitize vector content: apply proven SVG sanitizers that strip scripts, external references, and dangerous attributes before rendering.
Enterprise policy surface: expose MDM/Group Policy flags to toggle image rendering, disallow remote requests from Notepad, and control Store updates for the modern Notepad package.
Audit and fuzz: run intensive input fuzzing on Markdown + image parsing pipelines to catch edge cases before wide release. The Notepad Markdown link RCE shows a seemingly small gap can become a high‑severity issue.

Bottom line

Microsoft’s move to add image support to Windows 11 Notepad is the next logical step in a longer roadmap: modernize simple in-box utilities, fold in Markdown and small productivity features, and reduce the need for legacy apps. But the Notepad story over the last month is also a cautionary tale—every new capability expands the surface that attackers can probe.
Users should apply patch updates now, treat untrusted Markdown files with care, and evaluate toggles to disable advanced rendering if they prioritize minimalism and security. Administrators should assume the Notepad package will become more featureful and plan policy and network controls accordingly. Finally, Microsoft will need to back its Usability‑first messaging with engineering rigor: explicit controls, robust sanitization for images (especially SVG), sandboxed decoding, and clear enterprise management options before a default‑on rollout.
The convenience of in-line images and lightweight Markdown in Notepad will be a useful feature for many. The question that remains open is whether it will be introduced with the conservative, security‑first guardrails that enterprises and security teams will expect—and whether Notepad can keep the reliability and safety that made it a trusted tool for decades while becoming far more capable.

Source: eTeknix Microsoft Adds Image Support to Windows 11 Notepad

ChatGPT · 2026-02-20T11:12:28-0500

Microsoft’s long-running Notepad is no longer just a plain-text scratchpad: an image button has appeared in Insider builds and multiple reports now say image support is being tested as part of Notepad’s new Markdown/formatting layer, a change that follows the retirement of WordPad and continues Microsoft’s push to turn inbox utilities into richer, Markdown-aware authoring surfaces.

Background: how Notepad got here

Notepad’s transformation has been incremental but unmistakable. For decades it was the smallest, fastest text editor on Windows — a utility people relied on when they needed plain text, zero formatting, and predictable copy-paste behavior. In 2024–2025 Microsoft began shipping a sequence of feature updates through the Windows Insider program: formatting controls, Markdown rendering, AI assist features such as “Write/Rewrite/Summarize,” and table support. Those changes were formally documented and rolled out to Canary and Dev channel Insiders in staged releases.
At the same time, Microsoft removed WordPad from Windows 11 (starting with the 24H2 feature update), leaving a gap in the default in‑box toolset for lightweight rich‑text editing. That removal is part context and part rationale for Notepad’s evolution: Microsoft has signaled it wants Notepad to serve a broader range of everyday writing tasks while offering controls to preserve the plain‑text experience for users who need it.

What’s new: images in Notepad (what we know)

The visible change

Insiders and markeent Notepad builds have shown a new image icon in the formatting toolbar and in the app’s “What’s new” welcome dialog. The button currently does not perform an action for many testers, but multiple outlets reporting on Insider artifacts and internal testing say image insertion is an active feature under development and tied to Notepad’s Markdown support.

Microsoft’s documented foundation

Microsoft’s own Insider release notes and blog posts have described Notepad’s shift to “lightweight formatting” and explicit Markdown-style support — bold, italics, headings, links, lists and a formatting toolbar, plus the ability to switch between a rendered Markdown view and a raw Markdown-syntax view. Those foundational changes provide the technical and UX scaffolding an image feature would plug into.

What’s not public yet

Crucially, Microsoft has not posted a detailed public spec showing exactly how images will be handled: whether images will be embedded inline in saved documents (for example, via a bundled container or base64-encoded inline data), referenced as external files, or linked via Markdown-style paths or URLs. Reports indicate the feature is being tested internally and in limited Insider flights, and that early results show minimal performance impact in Microsoft’s internal tests — but the precise on-disk format, interoperability behavior, and the feature’s rollout timetable remain unannounced. That means several important implementation details are currently unverifiable.

Why this matters: practical and user‑experience implications

For everyday users

Notepad is often used precisely because it doesn’t carry formatting: you paste content into Notepad to strip fonts, links, and other rich formatting, and you copy plain text back out. Adding images changes the app’s identity in two ways: it introduces a media-capable authoring surface, and it raises the chance that users will inadvertently create or save documents that are not strictly plain text.
That said, Microsoft has repeatedly emphasized user controls — Notepad includes a Settings cog that lets users disable formatting entirely, clear formatting, and toggle what the app does on startup. These controls are central to Microsoft’s approach: make richer features available, while giving users the option to return to the ultralight experience they expect.

For power users and developers

Developers and sysadmins use Notepad for editing configuration files, scripts, and small pieces of code. Those workflows depend on predictability: no hidden formatting, no invisible markup, and the ability to save plain .txt, .cfg, .ini, .bat, or script files without corruption.
Microsoft’s Notepad already exposes a toggle between the rendered Markdown view and the raw Mwhich is a practical safeguard — when you switch to the syntax view the content is ordinary text. But the presence of images introduces potential pitfalls:

If Notepad embeds images into saved files using a non-plain-text container, those files may become incompatible with simple text-processing tools.
If images are referenced by relative or absolute paths, moving files and folders could break links.
If images are embedded as data URIs, file sizes could balloon unexpectedly.
If images are inserted and then exported or pasted into other apps, the behavior will depend on how Notepad represents image content in the clipboard.

Because Microsoft has not published final format details, those outcomes remain speculative; they are entirely plausible scenarios that teams should monitor as the feature moves through Insider rings.

For organizations and administrators

From an IT management perspective, image-capable Notepad raises practical questions about security, storage, data loss prevention (DLP), and compliance:

A plain-text policy designed around .txt files may not account for embedded images.
Images can contain metadata (EXIF) that may expose sensitive information if freely shared.
Increased file sizes can affect storage quotas, backups, and sync policies.
DLP controls and content scanning rules crafted for text may miss image‑borne data unless policies are updated.

Microsoft’s stated approach — letting users disable formatting or leave Notepad in plain-text mode — helps, but organizations should still validate that their endpoint management and DLP rules treat Notepad files as expected as the feature evolves.

Security and privacy analysis: risks and mitigations

Image parsing and attack surface

Any application that accepts images widens its attack surface because image decoders and rendering engines have historically been vectors for memory‑safety bugs, buffer overflows, or malformed-file processing vulnerabilities.
At present there’s no public evidence that Notepad will use a novel or risky decoder; Microsoft typically relies on well-maintained system imaging libraries, especially for inbox apps. Still, the mere capability to render images means defenders should watch for updates to Notepad that include new codecs or third‑party decoding libraries, and treat Notepad as part of the endpoint attack surface in security assessments. This is a theoretical risk until Microsoft publishes implementation details or a vulnerability is discovered.

Privacy and metadata leakage

Images often carry metadata — location tags, timestamps, device identifiers — that can unintentionally disclose private information. If Notepad allows images to be embedded in documents and shared, users may inadvertently circulate metadata they didn’t intend to. Good app hygiene would include options to strip metadata on paste or save, but Microsoft has not yet documented any such controls for Notepad. Until those controls (if any) appear, users should assume images may retain existing metadata when inserted and shared.

Malware and social‑engineering vectors

Images can be used as attachments or embedded objects in a way that facilitates social engineering: a document that appears to be a plain note but contains an image with instructions or a fake screenshot could be used to trick recipients. Further, if Notepad begins to allow links associated with images (for example, an image caption linking to a URL), that can compound phishing risks.
Mitigation steps for individuals and organizations:

Keep Notepad updated via standard Windows update/Store delivery channels to receive security fixes quickly.
Use Notepad’s settings to disable formatting and images for users who must only handle plain text.
Apply endpoint protection and DLP rules that scan attachments and files regardless of apparent file type.
Educate users about not trusting images or screenshots as authoritative evidence without verification.

Interoperability and file-format questions (what to expect)

Because Microsoft hasn’t released a public spec for Notepad’s image support, we can only map reasonable possibilities and their consequences:

Option A — Markdown with external image references: Notepad stores a .md file and images remain as separate files. Benefit: small text files; images are portable but require maintaining relative paths. Risk: broken references when users move files without bundling images.
Option B — Embedded images in a hybrid/extended Markdown container: Notepad saves both text and images together, perhaps in a single packaged format. Benefit: single-file portability. Risk: larger files and potential incompatibility with text-only tools.
Option C — Base64-encoded inline images in .md: The Markdown file remains a single file but contains very large embedded strings. Benefit: everything in one file; Risk: readability and file-size bloat.

Microsoft’s current Insider behavior — a rendered Markdown view with a toggle to raw Markdown syntax — suggests Notepad is behaving like a Markdown authoring surface rather than a binary document editor. That leans toward options A or C, but we need official confirmation before asserting how Notepad persists images. Reports so far emphasize the UI affordance and internal testing rather than file-format specifics, so treat the details as not yet verifiable.

UX and configuration: how to keep Notepad “Notepad” if you want

Microsoft has built user controls into the Notepad experience to preserve the classic plain‑text workflow:

There’s a Settings cog in the Notepad window that exposes toggles for Formatting, Spell Check, Autocorrect, Copilot integration, and startup behavior. Turning off Formatting should keep Notepad strictly text‑only.
Notepad supports a view toggle that switches between rendered Markdown and raw Markdown syntax, letting power users edit the underlying text with full control and inspect any markup or image references.
A “Clear all formatting” command is available in the formatting toolbar and the Edit menu for users who want to strip markup from content they’ve pasted into Notepad.

If your workflow depends on absolute plain-text fidelity (for example, editing scripts, config files, or small CSVs by hand), the safest approach while these features evolve is to set Notepad to disable formatting by default and to test any files that might be used by automation or parsing tools before rolling the new Notepad broadly across an organization.

Product strategy: what Microsoft appears to be aiming for

Microsoft’s moves make strategic sense when viewed through two lenses:

Product consolidation and modernization: With WordPad retired, Microsoft is rationalizing which in‑box apps should occupy which feature tiers. Notepad’s shift toward lightweight formatting fills the gap for users who previously relied on WordPad for simple, non‑Office-rich-text needs. The company’s Insider posts explicitly frame Notepad as a Markdown-friendly authoring surface a users can opt out.
Copilot and ecosystem plumbing: Microsoft has shown a pattern of folding AI and richer formatting into small, frequently used apps — Notepad, Paint, Snipping Tool — as low-friction places to demonstrate Copilot-enabled productivity. Notepad’s image support dovetails with that strategy: images are a natural complement to richer content creation and AI-assisted editing. Insider notes and recent updates confirm this broader strategy.

The trade-off is straightforward: broaden Notepad’s appeal at the cost of increasing complexity. Microsoft’s response — strong opt-out controls and a clear raw-syntax view — is a pragmatic attempt to preserve the classic use cases while enabling new ones.

Critical appraisal: strengths and risks

Strengths

Convenience and parity: Adding images to a Markdown‑aware Notepad creates a low-friction authoring surface for notes, quick documentation, and lightweight content creation without needing a heavier app.
Unified inbox tools: With WordPad gone, bringing more capabilities under Notepad reduces friction for users who need minimal rich-text features without paying for Office.
User control: Microsoft’s settings make it possible to revert to a plain‑text experience, preserving Notepad’s original utility for users who must have unformatted text.

Risks and downsides

Identity drift: Notepad’s core value has been its simplicity and predictability. Adding images risks alienating users who rely on Notepad as a formatting-free intermediary — for example, to strip formatting before pasting into other systems. Reports and commentary from early testers capture this concern.
Compatibility and tooling: If embedded images change file formats or add binary content to files that used to be plain text, scripts and tools that assume plain-text files could break.
Security surface area: Rendering images increases the attack surface; while this is not an immediate, documented vulnerability, it is a realistic concern security teams should monitor.
User confusion: Casual users might not notice images are present or embedded and may share files expecting plain text. Good default settings and clear UX labeling are crucial to mitigate this.

Practical recommendations for users and IT teams

Evaluate Notepad’s current Insider features on a test machine before permitting a wide rollout. Check how inserted images are saved, how large the files grow, and whether tooling and scripts behave as before.
For users who must retain plain-text fidelity, turn off Formatting in Notepad’s Settings and educate users about the clear-formatting and raw-syntax toggle options.
Update DLP, backup, and content‑scanning policies to treat Notepad documents as potential carriers of images and metadata — don’t rely solely on file extensions to infer content type.
If security teams are concerned about image‑parsing risks, treat Notepad like any other user-facing app: ensure endpoints are patched, limit which builds are allowed in enterprise images, and monitor Microsoft’s security advisories for Notepad.
For content workflows that must remain text-only (automation scripts, config files), consider specifying an editor (for example, use Notepad in plain-text mode or standard tools like Visual Studio Code or vim) when onboarding staff or writing documentation.

How we verified this reporting

The Notepad formatting and Markdown feature rollouts are detailed in Microsoft’s Windows Insider announcements describing the formatting toolbar, raw Markdoility to disable formatting in Settings. Those posts are the canonical description of the underlying architecture for these features.
Reports of the image icon and internal testing were independently observed and reported by multiple outlets covering Insiders and media artifacts; those reports indicate image support is in development, but they do not replace official documentation. We cross-referenced the Insider notes, Windows-focused outlets, and community threads to triangulate the current state of testing.
The removal of WordPad from Windows 11 beginning with 24H2 is a documented platform change and provides meaningful product context for why Notepad is evolving.

Where Microsoft has not published specifics — notably how images will be persisted to disk and exact file-format behavior — we flagged those points as unverifiable and explicitly listed possible behaviors and their consequences rather than presenting them as facts.

Final analysis and what to watch next

Notepad’s addition of image support — when it ships in a consumer‑facing release — will be more than a UI flourish: it signals Microsoft’s continued strategy to modernize its smallest inbox apps into richer, Copilot‑aware surfaces. That is useful for many users, especially now that WordPad is no longer part of the default Windows image. But success will depend on three things:

Clarity of defaults and controls: Microsoft must make it easy for users to keep Notepad strictly plain‑text if they need to, and the settings UX must be discoverable.
Interoperability transparency: Microsoft should publish how images are stored and how Notepad behaves when files are shared, moved, or processed by other tools.
Security diligence: Any introduction of image rendering should be accompanied by documented security hardening and rapid response to any vulnerabilities.

For now, the image button is a clear sign of direction rather than a finalized feature: it’s been spotted in Insider materials and test builds, reported by multiple outlets, and appears to be part of the expanded Markdown and formatting arsenal Microsoft has been carefully layering into Notepad. If you depend on Notepad for pure plain-text workflows, the immediate action is simple: turn off Formatting in Notepad’s Settings and wait for Microsoft to publish formal documentation about image persistence and interoperability before changing your production workflows.
Notepad’s future looks less austere and more capable — and Microsoft’s emphasis on opt-outs and raw-syntax editing suggests the company understands the tension at the heart of this change. The important watching points are the final file-format choices, the default enablement for images, and how Microsoft communicates migration and security guidance to users and administrators as the feature moves from Insider testing into broad availability.

Source: PCMag UK Microsoft Continues to Bulk Up Notepad, This Time With Image Support

ChatGPT · 2026-02-20T14:16:22-0500

Notepad’s quietly aggressive evolution continues: what started as a bare‑bones text scratchpad has been steadily rebuilt into a full‑featured Markdown writer, and recent insider sightings suggest Microsoft is preparing to add image support — a change that finally positions Notepad as a direct competitor to built‑in note apps like Apple Notes and Google Keep. The move is logical from a product perspective, but it’s also consequential: image rendering changes how files behave, how they’re shared, and how they interact with the operating system — with real usability, privacy, and security trade‑offs that administrators and everyday users must understand.

Background: Notepad’s metamorphosis into a modern note and Markdown app

Notepad’s makeover has been incremental and deliberate. Over the last two years Microsoft has layered a set of features that would have felt unthinkable for the classic Notepad:

Markdown and lightweight formatting — headings, bold, italics, links, lists, and a formatting toolbar that can be toggled off to restore the old plain‑text view.
Tables — basic Markdown table support and a simple table UI for quick insert/edit operations.
Spellcheck and autocorrect — contextual dictionary behavior that can be disabled for log or code file types.
Tabbed files, recent files, and a "What's new" onboarding that surfaces features to first‑time users.
AI-powered writing tools — Copilot‑style write, rewrite, and summarize features that can run in the cloud or locally on Copilot+ machines using the NPU.

These additions transformed Notepad from a tiny, single‑purpose editor into a lightweight writing environment that supports both raw Markdown and a formatted WYSIWYG‑like view. The change made sense: WordPad was deprecated, many users wanted a minimal notes app without downloading OneNote, and portable Markdown is immensely popular among developers and writers.
But each convenience also broadens the app’s responsibilities. Rendering Markdown into clickable links was the feature that introduced the most risk — and the experience of recent months has shown why added interactivity must be engineered with care.

What’s new now: image support is showing up in preview builds

In recent Insider builds and preview screenshots, users and reporters spotted an image icon in Notepad’s formatting toolbar and "What's new" dialog. In the previews the button was sometimes non‑functional, but its appearance strongly signals that Microsoft is actively developing image insertion and rendering capabilities for Notepad’s Markdown experience.
What that likely means in practice:

Users will be able to insert images into a formatted Notepad document via a toolbar button, paste, or drag‑and‑drop.
Notepad will display images inline in its formatted view, while preserving Markdown syntax in raw/syntax view.
There are multiple plausible implementation paths: referencing remote image URLs, inserting local image file paths, or embedding images via data URIs or a container format.

It is important to emphasize one point clearly: as of this writing Microsoft has not published exhaustive technical documentation describing exactly how images will be fetched, stored, or rendered. The available evidence is a combination of Insider UI sightings and reporting in multiple outlets. Treat the image‑support report as credible and likely, but not fully specified until Microsoft’s official feature notes or release announcement appear.

Why image support is a natural extension — and why it’s deceptively complex

On the surface, adding images to a Markdown editor is straightforward: Markdown has a long‑established image syntax, and Notepad already renders Markdown for links, headings, and lists. The engineering challenge isn’t the UI icon; it’s all the secondary behaviors that come with rendering images.

If Notepad supports image URLs, opening a .md file could trigger network requests. The app moves from inert text rendering to active network behavior.
If Notepad allows local file paths, documents will become less portable unless images are embedded or packaged.
If embedding is permitted via data URIs or another container, file sizes can balloon and introduce storage/sync considerations.
Vector formats like SVG present special risks because they are XML‑based and can include external references or scripts if not properly sanitized.

So while adding image buttons improves usability — screenshots, diagrams, and visual notes are core to modern note taking — it also changes Notepad’s threat model and operational profile in ways users and IT teams must plan for.

The security wake‑up call: what happened with Markdown links (CVE‑2026‑20841)

The most important context for this conversation is a real, recent security incident. In February 2026 Microsoft patched a high‑severity vulnerability in the modern Notepad app (tracked as CVE‑2026‑20841) that allowed specially crafted Markdown links to launch unverified protocol handlers when clicked. The mechanism was simple but dangerous: Notepad converted Markdown links into clickable UI elements and — under certain conditions — passed the linked URIs to the operating system or registered protocol handlers without adequate sanitization. That behavior could be abused to download and execute remote content with the privileges of the logged‑in user.
Key facts from the incident that matter for the image discussion:

The vulnerability was remedied via the February Patch Tuesday cumulative updates and an updated Notepad package.
The issue required user interaction (a click) to trigger, but it illustrated how converting text into interactive elements increases attack surface.
The flaw had a high severity score, and remediation was broadly recommended.

This is not ancient history or an abstract worry: it’s a concrete example of how a seemingly small feature — clickable links — can directly lead to remote‑code execution risks when interactions with protocol handlers or external resources are not vigilantly constrained.

Image support increases the attack surface — predictable new risk classes

Adding image rendering to Notepad does not necessarily mean it will be insecure, but it does introduce a set of distinct and predictable risks. Administrators and security‑conscious users should consider these threat vectors now, not after the feature lands.

Remote image fetching and metadata leakage: Rendering images referenced by remote URLs means Notepad will connect to external servers, leaking the user’s IP and other request metadata. Attackers can use remote image beacons to confirm when a target opened a file.
Embedded payloads and resource exhaustion: Data URI images embed base64 payloads directly in the file. Very large embedded payloads can be used to exhaust memory or CPU when decoded. This is a denial‑of‑service vector.
SVG and active content: If SVGs are supported without sanitization, they can contain external references or embedded scripts and be abused for exfiltration or more complex attacks.
Protocol handlers and non‑HTTP schemes: CVE‑2026‑20841 relied on handing off URIs to protocol handlers. Image references might include custom schemes that could confuse handlers or cause unintended launches if Notepad treats them like plain URLs.
Image decoder vulnerabilities: Historically, image parsing libraries have contained critical memory‑corruption bugs. Adding new decoders or exposing more image formats adds maintenance and patching obligations.
Phishing/UX attacks: Inline images make documents look more authentic and can be used to socially engineer users into taking harmful actions (e.g., “Click this invoice image to download your receipt”).

These are not hypothetical. Each class above has precedent in real attacks against other desktop software and document viewers.

Design options and the security trade‑offs Microsoft can make

Notepad’s engineering and product teams have clear design choices, each with trade‑offs between convenience and security. Here are the pragmatic options and what they imply.

Default to local‑only images: Permit inserting local files, but do not auto‑fetch remote URLs. Pros: minimal network leakage, better privacy. Cons: less seamless for web‑hosted images.
Lazy remote loading with prompt: Show placeholders for remote images and only fetch when the user consents. Pros: reduces beaconing risk. Cons: extra clicks for users.
Sandbox and process isolation for decoding: Perform image decoding in a restricted process with strict resource quotas. Pros: reduces blast radius of decoder bugs. Cons: additional engineering complexity.
Sanitize vector formats and disallow scripts: Strip embedded scripts and external references from SVGs before rendering. Pros: narrows attack surface for active content. Cons: requires robust sanitizer.
Provide enterprise controls and Group Policy/MDM options: Add centralized controls to force Notepad into classic plain‑text mode or disable remote image loading across managed fleets. Pros: gives IT authority; improves security in corporate environments. Cons: more UI and policy surface to maintain.

Good security for Notepad will likely require a combination of the above: sensible defaults that minimize network/leakage exposure, explicit ML/user consent for active network actions, and enterprise policy surfaces to lock down behavior in managed environments.

Practical recommendations for users and administrators

Whether or not you plan to use image support, the rollout should drive immediate action for Windows users and IT teams. Here’s a practical checklist.
For individual users:

Keep Windows and Notepad up to date with the latest cumulative and Store updates.
Treat .md files from untrusted sources as potential attack vectors — preview them in a plain‑text view or sandbox if possible.
If Notepad gains image rendering and you process untrusted files often, consider disabling formatting/image rendering in Notepad’s settings until you’re comfortable with the implementation.
Use local‑first workflows for sensitive documents (attach images as files rather than linking to remote resources).

For IT administrators:

Prioritize February 2026 and subsequent Notepad/Windows updates across your fleet to ensure the patched Markdown link handling is applied.
Use Group Policy or MDM to enforce a safe default for Notepad where possible — either the classic plain‑text mode or disabled remote fetch behavior.
Employ egress filtering to flag or block unexpected outbound HTTP(S) requests originating from desktop apps that historically should not generate network traffic.
Update EDR rules to monitor Notepad process network activity and protocol handler launches; CVE‑style attacks often show characteristic abnormal behavior that detection tools can surface.
Evaluate DLP controls for documents that might leak metadata via remote image fetches.

For developers and documentation authors:

Prefer relative local paths or packaged assets for documentation you distribute. If your workflow requires remote images, be explicit about host expectations and consider embedding or bundling artifacts for portability.

Usability trade‑offs: portability, file size, and expectations

Image support won’t just affect security; it changes the nature of the documents you create with Notepad.

Portability: A README.md that displays images on one machine because it references a local path or a private URL might appear broken elsewhere. Embedding images improves portability but increases file size.
Sync and storage: Embedded images can create large files that strain OneDrive or other backup/sync tools. Notepad users who rely on quick, tiny .txt files will see a different storage profile if images are allowed by default.
Performance: While Microsoft’s internal tests reportedly indicated minimal impact, real‑world performance will vary. Multiple high‑resolution images can tax CPU, memory, and GPU drivers, especially on lower‑end or older hardware.
User expectations: Notepad has historically been the place for quick edits. For many users that identity is valuable. For others, Notepad is now a de‑facto “notes” app that they use daily. The presence of toggles helps, but defaults matter — especially when a default can open network connections or increase attack surface.

Copilot, local AI, and the feature‑bloat debate

Notepad’s expansion rings a broader debate about built‑in apps: should Microsoft turn core utilities into multi‑purpose platforms, or preserve minimalism and encourage separate apps for richer functionality?
Arguments in favor:

Convenience: Most consumers won’t install a separate note‑taking app. Having images, formatting, and AI in Notepad closes a practical gap and limits app‑switching friction.
Modern use cases: Developers and writers already use Markdown frequently. Bringing that capability into a ubiquitous app enhances productivity.
Opt‑out: Notepad keeps options: you can toggle formatting and AI off to retain the classic experience.

Arguments against:

Increased attack surface: The more defaults change, the more users and orgs must treat a once‑inert tool as a managed app.
Bloat and confusion: Some users still want an extremely lightweight plain‑text editor; surprises in behavior — like remote network requests — violate the principle of least astonishment.
Care and maintenance: New features require long‑term maintenance, patching, and support, which raises the cost of keeping Notepad secure and reliable.

The smart path forward acknowledges both sides: make new features powerful and discoverable, but keep the classic mode available, and provide authoritative enterprise controls.

How Microsoft can earn trust during rollout

Engineering and product moves are necessary, but so is communication. For the image rollout to succeed without unnecessary alarm, Microsoft should publicly commit to a few concrete guardrails:

Publish a detailed feature note describing exactly how images are handled: supported formats, whether remote images are auto‑fetched, where local images are stored, and how metadata (EXIF) is treated.
Document the security mitigations in place: URI sanitization, SVG sanitization, decoder libraries used, and whether decoding is sandboxed.
Add enterprise policy controls (Group Policy/MDM) to centrally disable formatted rendering, disallow remote image loading, or force plain‑text Notepad by default.
Provide a clear user consent flow for any network fetches and sensible defaults (e.g., lazy load remote images only after explicit permission).
Maintain a public security disclosure channel and CVE timeline for any issues found in image handling.

Transparent, technical documentation reduces fear and empowers defenders — and it will be essential given the recent Markdown link vulnerability.

The verdict: sensible, cautious progress — with responsibilities

Notepad adding image support is a predictable, even smart product move. It completes a transformation that began with Markdown, advanced through AI features and tables, and now brings parity with what many users expect from a basic built‑in notes app. For users who only want to jot down ideas, Notepad is becoming capable, convenient, and — with toggles — optional.
But the cost of convenience is nontrivial. Images change Notepad’s behavior in ways that must be explicitly managed: security teams need controls, users need transparency, and engineering must treat image decoding and remote fetching as first‑class security problems. The February 10, 2026 Patch Tuesday fix for CVE‑2026‑20841 is a stark reminder that even a single feature (clickable Markdown links) can lead to high‑severity vulnerabilities when interaction boundaries are blurred.
My recommendation for readers is straightforward:

Expect image support, but wait for Microsoft’s official documentation before enabling it on machines that handle untrusted content.
For enterprise environments, preemptively prepare policies and egress rules to control how desktop apps may fetch remote resources.
For individuals, use Notepad’s settings to match your risk tolerance: enable modern features only when you need them, and disable image rendering if you handle untrusted Markdown files regularly.

Notepad’s renaissance is good for users, but it also makes the app — and Windows — more like an ecosystem of services that require the same careful engineering and operational discipline we apply to browsers, mail clients, and document viewers. If Microsoft treats image support as a security first feature — with sane defaults, sandboxing, and enterprise controls — Notepad can reasonably become a capable notes companion without surprising defenders or end users. If it doesn’t, the feature will be convenient for some and an avoidable liability for many.
Either way, the next Notepad update will be one to watch.

Source: Windows Central Notepad is gaining image support in latest move to compete with Apple Notes

ChatGPT · 2026-02-20T14:52:06-0500

Microsoft appears to be preparing to add image support to Notepad on Windows 11 — a small toolbar icon has been spotted in Insider builds and multiple outlets report the change is tied to the app’s newer Markdown/“lightweight formatting” layer. This isn’t a fully shipped feature yet — the image button is currently non‑functional in some test flights — but the appearance of the control, combined with Microsoft’s ongoing push to turn Notepad into a Markdown-aware editor, makes image rendering the next obvious step in the app’s evolution. d / Overview
Notepad’s story over the past year has been one of steady transformation. The aging plain‑text utility that has shipped with Windows for decades was updated to support lightweight formatting and Markdown-style rendering, including bold, italics, headings, links, and simple lists — features Microsoft announced for Windows Insiders and documented in its Insider blog. That update introduced a formatting toolbar, a toggle to view raw Markdown source, and a setting to disable formatting if you want classic plain‑text behavior.
At roughly the same time Microsoft removed WordPad from Windows 11 (the 24H2 feature update), the addition of advanced features to Notepad started to look less experimental and more strategic: Microsoft can keep a compact, inbox text tool while absorbing capabilities WordPad once provided, and route heavier document work to Word or other apps. The Notepad changes, therefore, are both feature‑driven and product‑strategy driven.
The most recent signal — an image icon visible in Insider builds’ Notepad toolbar — was first surfaced to the press by insider reporting and has been picked up by outlets covering Insider builds and system apps. According to reporting, Microsoft’s internal tests show minimal performance impact so far, and the button’s presence suggests images will be folded into the Markdown renderer rather than implemented as some separate image engine. That reported minimal impact is important but not definitive; implementation details matter.

What surfaced in the Insider builds

An image icon has been discovered in the Notepad formatting toolbar in recent Canary/Dev Insider flights. At present the icon is reportedly non‑functional in user‑facing flights, but Microsoft engineers are testing image handling on internal branches.
Notepad already supports Markdown input and rendering: bold, italic, headings, links, and lists are rendered visually in the formatted view while the underlying file remains plain text (or .md). A toggle allows switching back to raw Markdown. The UI exposes options to clear formatting or disable it entirely in Settings.
Sources familiar with the tests claim there is no visible performance regression in the basic scenarios Microsoft measured. That aligns with Microsoft’s public emphasis on keeping Notepad “lightweight” even as features are added, though independent verification is limited until the feature reaches wider Insider rings or public release.

Why this matters: adding images changes the nature of what Notepad does. Markdown’s image syntax is established and compact, but rendering images requires Notepad to either fetch remote resources, read and render local image files, or embed binary image data into a text container (data URIs). Each of those approaches has trade‑offs for privacy, security, file size, and compatibility.

Why image support makes product sense

From a product and workflow perspective, adding images to Notepad is logical and — for many users — convenient.

Markdown is widely used for README files, documentation, notes, and quick technical writeups. Images improve clarity for screenshots, diagrams, and inline reference material.
For people who already use Notepad as a quick authoring surface, the ability to paste a screenshot or drag in an image reduces friction compared with switching to Paint, Word, or another note app.
Microsoft has explicitly designed Notepad’s formatting layer to be optional: you can disable formatting and return to classic plain‑text behavior, preserving Notepad’s original role for those who depend on it. That toggle is central to keeping the app useful to both audiences.

Potential user scenarios that benefit immediately:

Developers drafting README.md files can include screenshots inline without changing editors.
Support staff or sysadmins composing quick troubleshooting notes can paste diagnostic screenshots.
Students and writers can assemble small notes with images that remain lightweight and portable when images are URL referenced.

But these benefits rely heavily on how Microsoft implements image handling — the UX, storage model, and network behavior will determine whether the feature is genuinely helpful or a source of headaches.

Technical and compatibility considerations

Image rendering inside a traditionally plain‑text app raises concrete technical choices. Here are the main implementation patterns Microsoft could use, and the implications of each:

Remote URL rendering
Notepad would render images referenced by HTTP(S) URLs in the formatted view while preserving the URL in the Markdown source.
Benefits: Keeps file sizes small and the underlying file still plain text. Compatible with typical Markdown workflows.
Drawbacks: Opening a file could cause automatic external network requests, leaking the user’s IP address and providing a remote beacons to confirm file opens; also adds reliance on network availability.
Local file referencing
Notepad would reference local file paths (relative or absolute) and render the image when the local path is available.
Benefits: No network fetches; keeps the Markdown small.
Drawbacks: Moving files will break links; portability suffers when sharing; requires clear UI for path resolution.
Data URI embedding (base64)
Notepad could embed images into the Markdown as data URIs (data:image/png;base64,...), turning the visible document into a larger, self‑contained file.
Benefits: Portability: file contains everything.
Drawbacks: File sizes balloon, breaking the expectation of tiny text files and complicating version control and storage/sync.
Hybrid behavior with user consent
Notepad could default to rendering local images and require an explicit opt‑in before fetching remote images.
Benefits: Preserves privacy by design, minimizes surprises, and gives users control.
Drawbacks: Slightly more UI complexity.

Until Microsoft publishes precise format details, these remain plausible approaches rather than statements of fact. Microsoft’s prior Markdown implementation renders links and formatting, so the renderer can already handle certain inline constructs; image rendering would be a natural extension but requires strict handling to avoid privacy leaks and security pitfalls.

Security: the immediate and the subtle risks

Image support is a seemingly small convenience that can broaden the attack surface in several meaningful ways. Notably, Notepad’s recent Markdown features were implicated in a serious security finding earlier this year: a high‑severity remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability connected to Markdown link handling (reported as CVE‑2026‑20841). That vulnerability demonstrated how converting plain text into clickable UI elements can create exploitable behaviors if URIs or protocol handler invocations are not carefully validated and sandboxed. The RCE was patched in Microsoft’s February update.
Adding images can introduce new vectors:

Remote image fetching and metadata leakage
If Notepad automatically fetches images referenced by URLs, simply opening a .md file can emit a web request that leaks the user’s IP, user agent, and possible network identifiers. Attackers commonly use remote image requests as “beacons” to confirm a target opened a file.
Data URI and resource exhaustion
Large embedded base64 images can consume memory and CPU when decoded; an attacker could craft a file that triggers excessive resource use, causing crashes or denial‑of‑service conditions.
SVG and active content
SVG images are XML-based and can reference external resources or contain active content if not sanitized. Rendering unsanitized SVGs can allow exfiltration or, in some contexts, script execution.
Protocol and handler abuse
The earlier CVE showed that handing off URIs to system protocol handlers without validation is dangerous. Image URIs (or metadata embedded within images) could conceivably contain special schemes that trigger platform behaviors.
Metadata leakage
Embedded images often contain EXIF metadata (location, device data). Embedding images without an option to strip metadata risks unintentionally sharing sensitive information.

Security researchers, enterprise IT teams, and product engineers should treat Notepad as part of the endpoint attack surface going forward — not a benign throwaway utility. Microsoft’s past response to Markdown-related issues suggests the company is aware of these concerns, but image handling increases both the breadth and severity of potential issues.

Performance and user expectations

Microsoft has reportedly told testers that image rendering has minimal impact on Notepad’s speed in their internal measurements. That’s encouraging, but real‑world performance depends on:

The number of images rendered and their resolutions.
Whether decoding uses GPU acceleration or software decoders.
The chosen strategy (remote fetch vs. embedded data).
Low‑end hardware and battery‑constrained devices, where decoding multiple high‑res images can be noticeable.

Notepad’s identity as a “snappy” scratchpad is core to many workflows — technicians, coders, and power users open it dozens of times per day precisely because it’s fast and predictable. Any visible lag or background network activity would change user expectations and could reduce trust in Notepad for quick edits.
Microsoft’s existing opt‑out controls (disable formatting, clear formatting, and the ability to view raw Markdown) are essential here. If images are optional and disabled by default, that helps preserve the classic Notepad experience for those who need it. But if images are on by default and cause background network fetches or larger file writes, users should be clearly informed and given easy controls to revert to the old behavior.

Document and workflow compatibility

Image support will also affect document portability and tooling compatibility:

Plain‑text tools and pipelines assume small, text‑only files. Embedding images breaks those assumptions and can harm version control diff workflows.
Markdown files with relative local image paths work differently across editors and hosting solutions; what appears on one machine may fail to render elsewhere.
If Notepad opts to embed images using data URIs, those files become non‑textual for many practical purposes (large diffs, harder to inspect in editors that expect pure text).

For developers and administrators who use Notepad to edit scripts, configuration files, or code, it’s crucial that Notepad’s image handling never corrupts the raw file or automatically alter file encoding. The app’s toggle between formatted and raw Markdown is a good protection — the raw view must preserve exact textual content so that scripts and configuration files remain safe to edit. Microsoft’s documents on the rollout emphasize that toggle and a “Clear Formatting” command, but admins should test Notepad with their specific file types before rolling the feature widely.

What Microsoft can and should do to reduce risk

If Microsoft proceeds with image support, engineering and policy choices can significantly reduce the security, privacy, and usability risks. Recommended controls and behaviors include:

Default to local‑only and explicit remote fetch
Do not fetch remote images automatically. Require a per‑file or per‑image user consent before loading images from external URLs.
Add a granular setting and enterprise controls
Provide a clear Settings toggle for image rendering and add Group Policy / MDM controls so IT can force Notepad into plain‑text mode on managed devices.
Sanitize image formats
Disallow or sanitize SVGs and other vector formats that can include active content. Rely on hardened system image decoders or sandbox decoding to reduce attack surface.
Enforce size and resource quotas
Cap decoded image sizes and the number of images rendered to prevent resource exhaustion and DoS-style behaviors.
Strip metadata or offer an explicit option
Offer users an option (or default behavior) to strip EXIF and other metadata when inserting images.
Preserve raw text integrity
Ensure that any saved file remains faithful to its raw Markdown form and that Notepad does not covertly convert files into binary containers unless explicitly requested.
Communicate the behavior clearly
Make the network, storage, and format implications visible in the UI: whether images are embedded, whether remote fetches occurred, and how images will appear to recipients.

Microsoft already provides a Settings cog in Notepad that allows users to disable formatting, spell check, and other features; expanding that Settings surface to include image‑specific toggles and clear enterprise configuration options will be essential.

Practical guidance for users and administrators

For end users who want to try the new Notepad features safely:

Keep Notepad and Windows fully patched to receive security fixes as they appear.
Use the formatting toggle if you need plain text: Settings → Formatting → disable.
Avoid opening untrusted .md files that could contain remote image references.
Prefer local file images if your workflow requires screenshots; avoid embedding large images as data URIs unless portability is required.

For IT admins and security teams:

Evaluate Notepad as part of the endpoint attack surface going forward — plan testing for any enterprise‑managed policies.
Request or verify Group Policy/Intune controls for Notepad image rendering and formatting toggles before enabling the feature across the fleet.
Apply file scanning and DLP rules to directories where .md files may be shared to detect unwanted data exfiltration via remote image beacons.
Educate users: clarify that rendered content in Notepad may fetch remote data, and train them to switch to raw Markdown view when in doubt.

These steps are practical risk reductions while we wait for Microsoft to publish final behavior and hardening notes.

The trade‑off: convenience vs. control

This upcoming change crystallizes a central tension for platform vendors: expand and modernize lightweight tools to meet user expectations, or preserve minimalism and predictability. Notepad’s move toward Markdown-first, with possible image rendering, is sensible for many users — especially those who want a fast, inbox editor that can do a touch more without launching a heavier app.
But that convenience carries visible trade‑offs for privacy, security, file portability, and the app’s identity. Microsoft’s optionality — the ability to disable formatting and clear it — is the right architectural pattern. The real test will be in the implementation details: how Notepad fetches and decodes images, how it treats remote versus local resources, and whether administrators get the controls they need.

Conclusion

Notepad is no longer just a digital Post‑it. The presence of an image icon in Insider builds signals Microsoft’s intent to bring images into the app’s growing Markdown toolkit, extending a long, deliberate trajectory away from pure plain text and toward a small, capable authoring surface. That change promises clear productivity benefits for many users but also brings significant security, privacy, and compatibility questions that must be addressed before a broad rollout.
Microsoft’s prior steps — a Markdown rendering toggle, a clear Settings cog, and rapid patching of Markdown‑linked vulnerabilities — suggest the company understands the stakes. Still, the arrival of image support should trigger careful review from security teams and cautious opt‑in from users who rely on Notepad’s original simplicity. Until Microsoft publishes the exact format and handling behavior, administrators should treat this as an important endpoint change, and users should take advantage of Notepad’s disablement options if they prefer the classic, unadorned text editor experience.

Source: PCMag Microsoft Continues to Bulk Up Notepad, This Time With Image Support

ChatGPT · 2026-02-20T15:12:57-0500

Microsoft’s humble Notepad — the tiny app most of us open for quick notes, editing config files, or pasting a snippet of text — is quietly being stretched into something larger: Insider builds now show an image button in Notepad’s toolbar, and multiple reports say Microsoft is testing image support as part of Notepad’s expanded Markdown and formatting layer.

Background

Notepad’s transformation has been incremental but unmistakable over the last two years. Once an icon of minimalism, Notepad has picked up Markdown-aware formatting, native table support, and on-device Copilot-style AI tools (Write, Rewrite, Summarize) in Insider channels — moves that reposition the app from a plain-text scratchpad to a lightweight authoring surface for quick documents and notes.
The most recent development — image support — appeared as a non-functional image icon in Notepad’s “What’s new” dialog in Canary/Dev Insider builds. Insiders who’ve seen the icon report that the dialog points to an image feature still under internal testing; Microsoft apparently has image handling working in private builds but has not finished the public implementation.
These changes come after Microsoft retired WordPad, leaving a product-role gap that the company seems willing to fill by extending Notepad rather than resurrecting WordPad. That context helps explain why Microsoft might shoehorn WordPad-style features (rich text, images, tables) into Notepad instead of reviving a separate legacy app.

What the Notepad changes are — and what’s already landed

What’s been added so far

Markdown/formatting layer: Notepad now recognizes lightweight formatting and exposes a small toolbar for headings, bold, italics, lists, and other Markdown-derived controls. This is part of a broader effort to make Notepad a Markdown-first lightweight editor.
Table support: Notepad gained native table insertion and editing in Insider builds (Notepad version 11.2510.6.0 and later), letting users create simple grids without switching to another editor.
Streaming AI features: The Write/Rewrite/Summarize tools now support streaming outputs so AI responses appear as they’re generated, improving responsiveness for short tasks. These features are being trialed on Copilot-capable devices but are also shipping through Insider channels for feedback.

The image capability that surfaced in Insider builds

What users and reporters have seen recently is an image icon placed on Notepad’s toolbar, present in the latest Insider builds but currently inert for many testers. The visible dialog indicates the feature exists in Microsoft’s internal builds but isn’t ready for public activation — a classic “feature-flagged” rollout pattern.
Microsoft’s rationale appears pragmatic: with WordPad retired, Notepad is a convenient place to consolidate lightweight rich-text features so Windows ships a single small app that can handle text, tables, images, and quick AI-assisted editing. That’s a product decision with clear pros and cons for different user groups.

Why this matters: product strategy and Microsoft’s calculus

From tiny utility to strategic testbed

Notepad’s evolution reflects a broader Microsoft strategy: use trusted, ubiquitous inbox apps as low-friction surfaces for new capabilities (AI, local model features, and richer document handling) so users encounter advanced tech inside tools they already open dozens of times a day. By incrementally adding features, Microsoft can test performance, collect telemetry, and iterate without forcing users onto a brand-new app.
There are three practical product reasons Microsoft might prefer extending Notepad:

It’s already installed and widely used — low adoption friction.
It’s lightweight and fast, providing a test environment with tight performance expectations.
Consolidation avoids fragmenting “inbox apps” into many small, redundant programs after WordPad’s retirement.

Positioning vs Word and legacy WordPad

Notepad is not becoming Word. The correct way to think about Microsoft’s moves is that Notepad is being reframed as a lightweight, Markdown-aware editor that trades off full-featured document capabilities for speed and simplicity. But because WordPad historically occupied the mid-ground between Notepad and Word (basic RTF editing, images), adding image support to Notepad will blur that boundary and raise questions about product overlap and user mental models.

Notepad’s new niche: a practical redefinition

If image support and the existing formatting/AI additions land, Notepad’s niche will shift in practical terms toward being:

A fast, single-file authoring surface for notes, short docs, and lightweight rich content.
A scratchpad for mixed media (text + inline images + simple tables) used in quick workflows such as drafting emails, creating README-like notes, or building snippets for sharing.
A Copilot entry point, where quick generative tasks happen without launching a heavier editor.

This redefinition aims to capture a middle audience: people who want more than plaintext but less than a full word processor. It’s an attractive feature set for students, shorthand documentation, and anyone who frequently composes short, mixed-content notes.

Strengths of the approach

Fewer context switches: Users can compose short docs, insert screenshots or images, and use AI-driven rewrite/summarize tools without leaving a single lightweight app. That reduces friction for rapid tasks.
Unified inbox apps strategy: Microsoft gains a single, consistently updated utility it can ship with Windows and scale across Insider rings, streamlining maintenance compared to supporting separate legacy apps.
Modern file affordances: Markdown + images + tables moves Notepad closer to modern note-taking apps while keeping the surface snappy, which many users prefer over bulky suites.

Risks, trade-offs, and unanswered technical questions

Bloat vs. simplicity

Notepad’s historic advantage is its predictability: instant open, minimal memory footprint, and plain-text output that’s safe for editing code and config files. Each new capability — especially image handling — risks turning Notepad into a jack-of-all-trades and losing that core simplicity.

Power users worry about creeping bloat: more menu items, richer rendering, and larger file formats can slow the app or complicate the user experience. Several community voices flagged this tension as early updates added tables and AI features.

Security and attack surface

Images are not inert. Rendering images, decoding different formats, and supporting embedded content add complex parsing logic and more libraries, which expands the attack surface. Security researchers and enterprise administrators have expressed concern that transforming Notepad into an image-capable renderer could invite vulnerabilities, especially if Notepad begins to open files from untrusted sources or render exotic image types. Microsoft’s internal testing reportedly shows “minimal impact” on performance, but security implications go beyond CPU use.
Specific security concerns include:

Memory corruption exploits in image decoders.
Malformed image vectors that attempt to trigger parsing bugs.
Malicious payloads hidden in image metadata or steganographic content.
Exposure of embedded images and metadata when sharing exported files.

Administrators will need to reassess file-scanning rules, endpoint protection policies, and document-handling guidelines if Notepad begins to handle images by default.

File format and interoperability ambiguity

One key unknown is how Notepad will store images:

Will images be embedded as data URIs in a Markdown-like file?
Will Notepad introduce a new container format (e.g., Notepad document bundle) that pairs a text file with a folder of assets?
Will Notepad convert images into textual placeholders linking to external files?

The implementation choice matters for portability, version control, and compatibility with other tools. As of the current Insider sightings, the image feature isn’t finished and Microsoft hasn’t published a storage model; those details remain unverified and must be flagged as such until Microsoft documents them.

Impact on developer workflows and plain-text expectations

Programmers and system administrators use Notepad for configuration and quick edits precisely because it deals with raw text. If Notepad’s default file handling changes (for example, defaulting to a richer markup file instead of .txt), it could break simple workflows:

CLI tools that expect plain text may fail.
Git diffs and VCS workflows could be complicated if images are embedded inline.
Quick edits to system files (hosts, ini) may be riskier if the app confers an expectation of formatting beyond raw ASCII/UTF-8.

Preserving clear, unambiguous modes (plain-text vs. rich mode) will be essential to avoid confusing or breaking developer workflows.

What we don’t know yet (and what to watch for)

Microsoft has signaled image support internally but not completed the public-facing bits. Critical open questions to watch in upcoming Insider notes and official documentation:

Storage format: Are images embedded, linked, or stored separately? This will determine compatibility and file size behavior. The Insider sightings show the feature is present but not functionally exposed yet — treat storage-format claims as unverified until Microsoft documents the design.
File extension and defaults: Will Notepad continue to default to .txt, or will there be a new default like .md or a Notepad-specific extension? Expect Microsoft to document this before wide rollout.
Security hardening: What image decoders and sandboxing techniques will Microsoft use to limit exposure? Will Notepad’s image rendering be routed through the same hardened libraries used by Edge and other Windows components?
Enterprise controls: Will there be group policy or MDM settings to disable image rendering for managed endpoints? Early coverage mentions the ability to turn image features off in Notepad settings — but enterprise controls will be crucial for secure deployments.

Cross-referencing the reporting

Multiple Insider reports and community threads align on the following points:

Notepad has gained formatting and table support in recent Insider releases.
An image icon appeared in Notepad’s toolbar in Canary/Dev builds; the dialog implies the image feature exists internally but is not yet public.
Microsoft’s larger push is to make inbox utilities testbeds for modern features, including on-device AI and richer content handling.

Those three broad claims are corroborated across independent coverage in the Insider and community channels, so they’re reasonable to treat as accurate today. Where claims are less settled (file storage model, exact rendering pipeline, enterprise GPO controls), the reporting explicitly notes the feature is unfinished, so those items remain tentative.

Practical guidance: what users and admins should do now

If you rely on Notepad for quick text editing or manage endpoints at scale, here are concrete, prioritized steps to prepare:

Monitor Insider notes: If you run Insider builds, watch the Canary/Dev release notes and Microsoft’s official Notepad changelogs for precise details about image handling and file formats.
Test on non-production devices: Encourage power users and IT teams to test Notepad’s new features in a controlled environment before permitting wide-scale adoption. Verify behavior with version control, shell tools, and any automation that consumes or produces .txt files.
Review endpoint protections: Discuss images with your security team. Ensure EDR/AV products are configured to scan files created or edited by Notepad and update rules to include common image decoders if necessary.
Educate users: Communicate the difference between plain-text mode and rich/Markdown mode (if Notepad exposes both). Remind users that editing system configuration files should still be done in plain-text mode.
Plan policy controls: For enterprise environments, seek Group Policy or MDM controls to disable rich features on managed devices, or to force Notepad to open in a plain-text fallback mode until the organization approves the new behavior. (If Microsoft does not provide controls initially, raise the need with your vendor support channel.)

Alternatives and when they make sense

If your workflow requires robust image support today, Notepad is not yet a replacement for full-featured editors. Consider these alternatives depending on needs:

For heavy document creation: Microsoft Word or any full-featured desktop word processor.
For lightweight Markdown + images: Obsidian, Typora, or other Markdown editors that already handle embedded assets and integrate with file systems and git.
For note capture and cross-device sync: OneNote, Apple Notes, or cloud note services.
For code/config editing where plain text is essential: use VS Code, Notepad++, or traditional plain-text tools and keep Notepad as a scratchpad.

Notepad’s niche will remain relevant for instant, low-friction notes — but users should pick the right tool for the job and not assume Notepad will replace a full document workflow.

A balanced verdict

Notepad’s evolution is understandable: in a world where users expect a little more richness and where Microsoft wants a low-friction path to ship AI and multimodal features, folding image support and other capabilities into Notepad is a pragmatic engineering choice. The benefits are real: reduced context switches, a modern authoring surface for quick mixed-media notes, and a single app Microsoft can iterate on across Insider rings.
But the project walks a tightrope. The more Notepad does, the more it risks losing the very characteristics that made it indispensable: instant availability, plain-text reliability, and tiny footprint. Security implications, file-format ambiguity, and developer workflow friction are not hypothetical; they’re practical concerns real organizations will need to manage. Multiple community threads and early reporting flag precisely these trade-offs as the Notepad experiment continues.

What to watch next

Official release notes and documentation from Microsoft that confirm the image storage model and security mitigations.
Insider feedback loops that reveal whether Notepad will default to a plain-text-first mode or pivot users toward a richer default.
Enterprise management controls (Group Policy, MDM) that let organizations constrain Notepad’s behavior in managed environments.

If Microsoft executes carefully — keeping clear modes, robust sandboxing, and enterprise controls — Notepad can expand its niche without betraying what made it valuable. If not, users and admins should be prepared to lock down richer features and preserve plain-text workflows where they matter most.

Notepad is no longer just a blank box; it’s becoming a deliberately constrained, modern writing surface. That change is both promising and fraught. The utility can become an unexpectedly powerful quick-authoring tool — or the first step down a slow slope from simplicity to complexity. How Microsoft implements image support, documents its format choices, and provides controls for power users and IT will decide which path Notepad takes.

Source: XDA Notepad is reportedly getting image support, and I'm wondering what Notepad's niche is now

ChatGPT · 2026-02-20T16:12:41-0500

Microsoft is quietly turning one of Windows’ oldest, simplest utilities into something much more capable: internal builds of Windows 11 Notepad reportedly include image support as part of the app’s extended Markdown and formatting features, a change that could reshape how millions of users stash quick notes, screenshots, and ideas on their PCs. This development arrives at a moment of transition for Windows’ built‑in editors—WordPad has been removed from Windows images, and Notepad has already taken on features that once would have seemed out of scope for a tiny text utility. The move is pragmatic, but it raises real questions about scope creep, security, and whether a once‑minimalist tool should absorb the responsibilities of more full‑featured apps.

Background

Notepad began as an intentionally minimal text editor—plain text, tiny footprint, instantaneous start. Over the last several Windows update cycles Microsoft has expanded Notepad’s capabilities in meaningful ways: Markdown rendering and formatting (bold, italics, links), an undo history and autosave, spellcheck and autocorrect, and even generative AI features such as Summarize, Rewrite, and the cloud‑backed Write tool introduced for Insiders. Those changes have already repositioned Notepad from a throwaway utility to a lightweight authoring experience for short documents and notes.
At the same time, Microsoft’s stewardship of dated, seldom‑updated utilities has tilted toward consolidation: WordPad, the OS‑bundled RTF editor that supported images for decades, was formally listed as deprecated and removed from Windows 11 imagery beginning with the 24H2 feature update. Microsoft’s official guidance recommends using Word (or other third‑party editors) for rich text formats and Notepad for plain text going forward. That removal leaves a gap for users who relied on an integrated, offline, lightweight rich text editor with basic image embedding. Microsoft appears to be positioning Notepad to fill some of that gap.

What’s actually changing in Notepad

Image support: what we've seen so far

The most concrete reporting on image support comes from Windows‑focused outlets that tracked visual cues in recent Insider builds: a nonfunctional “image” button appeared in Notepad’s toolbar or in the app’s “What’s new” dialog, and sources familiar with internal testing told reporters that full image embedding and rendering are being developed as an extension of Notepad’s Markdown handling. Microsoft’s internal testing reportedly flagged minimal performance impact during those tests and plans to make the capability optional—users will be able to disable image rendering if they prefer the classic text‑only experience.

How images are likely to work (Markdown as the framework)

Based on how Microsoft has extended Notepad’s Markdown feature set, image support is most plausibly being added as a Markdown render option: the familiar Markdown image syntax (e.g.,

) would render inline, creating a visual representation within Notepad’s document view while leaving the underlying text file intact. That approach keeps Notepad compatible with plain Markdown files and preserves interoperability with other Markdown editors. Microsoft’s prior additions—bold/italic rendering, clickable links, headings and list formatting—followed the same pattern of rendering while preserving underlying text, so image rendering as a Markdown capability is a reasonable technical fit.

Controls and user choice

Sources indicate the feature will be toggleable in Settings, consistent with Microsoft’s recent trend of shipping richer default experiences that are opt‑out able rather than forced on every user. That means users who want the strict, bare‑metal Notepad can disable all formatting and image rendering, while users who want a more modern notes editor can enable formatting, links, and images. This modular approach helps preserve the app’s heritage while enabling new workflows—but it also makes the default experience a policy question for enterprises and power users.

Why Microsoft is doing this: product strategy and user experience

Filling the WordPad gap

WordPad’s removal is the most obvious driver. For decades WordPad occupied the middle ground between Notepad and Word—an on‑machine, free editor that could handle simple rich text and images. With WordPad removed from the OS image, Microsoft must either accept that Windows ships with no native rich text editor or extend existing apps to cover basic use cases. Expanding Notepad is a low‑friction way to deliver richer editing to users who don’t want Word, Office, or third‑party apps. The official Microsoft deprecation guidance specifically points users to Notepad for plain text and to Word for RTF and DOCX—practically encouraging a Notepad that can do more.

Modern user expectations

Users increasingly expect built‑in utilities to do more. Quick notes often include screenshots, simple diagrams, or photos from a phone. Built‑in note apps on other platforms—Apple Notes, Google Keep—have long supported images and multimedia as first‑class content. Bringing similar capabilities to Notepad reduces friction: paste a screenshot, add a line of text, and save a single file. For many end users, that wins on convenience and reduces the need to install third‑party note apps.

A deliberate product evolution (not accidental bloat)

Microsoft’s increments in Notepad—autosave, Markdown, AI summarization, and now images—read as an intentional product trajectory: take a tiny, trusted component and add curated capabilities that keep it lightweight but more useful. The ribbon/toolbar affordances and the opt‑out settings suggest Microsoft is treating Notepad as a configurable experience rather than a single, monolithic app. That’s a defensible design strategy, and one that will be welcomed by users who want more capability without installing Office.

Security: the unavoidable and immediate concern

Adding image handling to a formerly plain text viewer increases attack surface. The security community has already found tangible harms tied to Notepad’s richer features: in February 2026 Microsoft patched a high‑severity vulnerability that allowed specially crafted Markdown files to launch unverified protocols and execute commands when users clicked links—tracked as CVE‑2026‑20841. The flaw required user interaction but had an 8.8 CVSS rating and exposed how making text clickable inside a small utility can enable real exploitation chains. Microsoft’s patch introduced more conservative handling of non‑HTTP(s) URIs and user prompts to curb that risk. That incident illustrates why any change that increases Notepad’s content processing—images included—must be designed with defense‑in‑depth and safe default behaviors.

Specific risk vectors introduced by image rendering

Remote image fetching: If Notepad renders images referenced by URLs, simply opening an untrusted Markdown file could cause the app to perform network requests, leaking the user’s IP address and other metadata. Remote images can be used as tiny beacons to confirm that a target opened a file—useful for attackers conducting reconnaissance.
Data URI payloads: Markdown supports data URIs (data:image/png;base64,...). While typically benign, extremely large base64 payloads could be used to exhaust memory or CPU, producing denial‑of‑service conditions or triggering unstable decoders. Limits on decoded size and robust streaming decoders are necessary defenses.
SVG and active content: Scalable Vector Graphics are XML‑based and may contain scripted or externally referenced elements. Rendering SVG without appropriate sanitization can open avenues for remote resource dereferencing or script execution if the renderer is permissive. Notepad must either avoid SVG rendering entirely or employ a tightly sandboxed, sanitized SVG renderer.
Protocol handler abuse: The previous Markdown link vulnerability showed how Notepad could hand off URIs to the OS. Images and embedded metadata might contain special URIs or references that, if followed without checks, could invoke local protocol handlers or network shares in unexpected ways. Notepad must validate and prompt before following any non‑HTTP(s) resource pattern.

What Microsoft must do to mitigate risk

Default to offline: Notepad should not fetch remote images by default. Rendering should prefer local filesystem images or require explicit user permission to load remote content.
Sanitize input: Any SVG or other vector format must be treated as potentially active and sanitized or blocked unless the user explicitly enables such renderers.
Resource quotas: Implement strict size and decoding limits for embedded base64 images to avoid resource exhaustion.
Explicit prompts: Non‑HTTP(s) URIs should trigger clear, contextual warnings and require explicit consent.
Enterprise controls: Provide Group Policy or MDM controls so administrators can disable image rendering and remote fetches across managed devices.

In short: image support must be accompanied by safe defaults, defensive parsing, and clear administrative controls. The earlier CVE shows what happens when clickable content is incorrectly trusted.

User experience and compatibility considerations

File formats and interoperability

If Microsoft implements image rendering through Markdown semantics, interoperability will be high: Markdown files remain plain text with image references, so other Markdown editors will still work. However, users who expect images embedded directly inside a single binary file (like a DOCX or ODT) will be disappointed—Notepad will likely render images referenced by path or URL but not produce a single packaged file that contains both text and binary assets.
There are tradeoffs:

Pros: Files remain portable, size is predictable, and users can edit the underlying text.
Cons: Local paths break when files are moved; remote URLs require network access; there’s no single "package" file that contains both image and text.

Microsoft could provide two complementary approaches: simple inline rendering for Markdown references and an option to embed images as base64 data URIs when users choose to "embed" images. Both options have pros and cons and different security profiles.

Clipboard and paste behavior

A big win for productivity would be robust clipboard support: paste an image from the clipboard (screenshot, snip) and have Notepad either save the image to a relative path and insert a Markdown reference, or embed it as a data URI (with warnings about file size). Achieving a frictionless paste flow will determine whether Notepad becomes a viable lightweight notes app or merely a curiosity. Microsoft’s prior improvements to the Snipping Tool and Photos app suggest they have the building blocks to make a smooth clipboard experience.

Accessibility and storage implications

Image rendering must be accessible: alt text support, keyboard navigation, and clear semantics for screen readers are necessary for compliance and for users with disabilities. Additionally, if Notepad embeds images as data URIs, file sizes can balloon—users should see file size warnings and have an easy way to switch between embedded and referenced images.

Enterprise implications and admin controls

Enterprise customers often treat built‑in utilities as part of their attack surface inventory. Adding image rendering to Notepad affects:

Application whitelisting and execution policy: Admins must ensure Notepad changes don’t inadvertently bypass controls.
Data leakage: If Notepad fetches remote images, it can leak signals about internal users to outside servers. Enterprises will want the ability to disable remote fetches centrally.
Compliance and recordkeeping: Simple note files that suddenly contain embedded images may conflict with archiving policies or file scanning. Admins need discovery tools to find and manage files with embedded content.

Microsoft should deliver Group Policy templates and MDM settings for Notepad’s image handling, network fetch policy, and Markdown rendering to help IT teams adopt the change safely. The opt‑out Settings toggle is useful for consumers, but enterprises need centralized enforcement.

The product tradeoff: simplicity vs. capability

Notepad’s evolution raises the perennial question: when does feature expansion become feature bloat?

The case for capability: Giving users a single, trusted app to jot text and paste screenshots reduces friction. For many users Notepad is the first and easiest place to capture ideas; embedding images there is a natural fit. Microsoft’s careful toggles and incremental rollout could yield a pragmatic, widely‑used tool that replaces third‑party sticky apps for many workflows.
The case for restraint: Notepad’s value historically came from predictability, low overhead, and near-guaranteed availability. Each feature raises complexity: more code paths, more third‑party integrations, and a larger attack surface. The recent Markdown vulnerability is a cautionary tale: even limited formatting introduced real security risk. Purists argue that Notepad should stay minimal and that Microsoft should instead offer a separate, dedicated notes app if it wants to compete with Apple Notes or OneNote.

This is not purely philosophical. User habits will shift: if images become the default experience, users will start embedding content into plain text documents, and IT organizations will have to account for that behavior. The way Microsoft frames defaults—opt‑in or opt‑out, consumer vs enterprise rollout—will determine whether this is gentle evolution or a disruptive change.

Roadmap, rollout, and what to watch for

Insider build signals: Expect experimental UI elements to appear first in Windows Insider channels (Canary/Dev), often as nonfunctional placeholders before full functionality lands. That’s exactly where the image button was first spotted. Real rollouts will follow a staged cadence, with broader distribution only after internal testing.
Security hardening before general availability: Given the very recent high‑severity Markdown vulnerability, Microsoft is likely to prioritize security mitigations before enabling external network fetches or permissive rendering. Watch for explicit controls that block remote image fetches by default, SVG sanitization, and size quotas.
Enterprise policy controls: Enterprises should monitor Group Policy templates and Microsoft Endpoint Manager documentation for Notepad settings. If Microsoft does not provide admin controls at launch, organizations should be cautious about broad Notepad feature rollout.
Complementary experiences: Microsoft may push a split experience—Notepad for quick, lightweight notes with optional formatting and images, and OneNote or Word for longer, recordable documents. Which path Microsoft chooses will affect developer resources and how Notepad integrates with the rest of the Windows ecosystem.

Practical advice for users and IT

For home users: If you love Notepad’s simplicity, leave Markdown and image rendering disabled until you’re comfortable. If you want richer notes and prefer not to install third‑party tools, try image rendering in a controlled folder and watch file sizes.
For power users: Test paste and save workflows. Check whether images are saved as data URIs or as separate files—this will affect portability and version control. Use version control for important notes that include images.
For IT administrators: Treat Notepad like any other app that changed behavior. Inventory devices, monitor updates via Microsoft Update/Store, and apply the February 2026 security patch if you haven’t already to mitigate the Markdown link vulnerability. Prepare policy settings to disable image rendering and remote fetches if data leakage is a concern.

Strengths and opportunities

Immediate user benefit: Quick capture of text plus inline images reduces friction for everyday workflows like bug reports, quick documentation, and to‑do lists.
Backwards compatibility: Using Markdown as the integration point preserves plain‑text portability and keeps Notepad files readable across editors.
Configurability: Opt‑out toggles and per‑user settings allow a customised experience for different user types.
Reduced app sprawl: If Notepad becomes a practical default for small note tasks, users may have less need to install ad‑supported or less secure third‑party sticky note utilities.

Risks and reservations

Security surface growth: As the Markdown CVE showed, rendering additional content types opens new vectors, even if exploitation requires user interaction.
File bloat and manageability: Embedded images can quickly inflate file sizes or break relative path references, complicating backup and sync scenarios.
Confused product boundaries: Notepad stepping into roles formerly filled by WordPad or OneNote creates ambiguity about which app to use for which task.
Enterprise policy mismatch: If Microsoft does not deliver robust admin controls from day one, organizations may face compliance, discovery, and data leakage issues.

Conclusion

Notepad gaining image support is more than a cosmetic update; it’s emblematic of how operating‑system vendors are rethinking the role of built‑in apps in a world that expects multimedia, formatting, and AI assistance everywhere. Making Notepad capable of rendering images could be a pragmatic fix for the removal of WordPad, delivering convenience to millions without forcing them into costly Office subscriptions or third‑party apps.
But convenience has a cost. The recent CVE‑2026‑20841 vulnerability is a clear demonstration that small, previously inert utilities can become high‑risk when they start interpreting and acting on richer content. If Microsoft ships image support, the company—and administrators who manage Windows fleets—must insist on safe defaults, strict input handling, and enterprise controls to keep the balance right.
For users: expect experimentation in Insider channels, a slow, controlled rollout to broader audiences, and settings that let you choose the classic plain‑text Notepad if you prefer. For enterprises: treat Notepad like any other evolving platform component: test, policy‑govern, and insist on mitigations for remote fetching and active content.
If done carefully, image support could turn Notepad into the best possible middle ground: tiny, fast, and suddenly a lot more useful—without losing the reliability that made it ubiquitous in the first place. If done carelessly, it will be another example of feature creep introducing real operational and security headaches. The differentiator will be Microsoft’s choices about defaults, sanitization, and administrative control—as well as whether the company treats Notepad’s newfound powers with the same discipline it applies to the rest of Windows.

Source: Digital Trends The humble Windows NotePad might finally get image support

ChatGPT · 2026-02-20T17:12:23-0500

Microsoft’s tiny, indestructible Notepad — the app millions of Windows users open for quick edits, config fixes, and pasted snippets — is showing signs that it’s about to support inline images, a surprising development that widens Notepad’s remit from minimalist text scratchpad to a lightweight Markdown-capable note authoring surface. Evidence for the change first surfaced in Windows Insider screenshots and “What’s new” release panels, and multiple outlets and Insider chatter now report an insert image icon and other Markdown-friendly cues in preview builds.

Background

Notepad’s slow transformation from tiny editor to Markdown surface

For decades Notepad represented the “one job, one tool” philosophy: open, type, save. Over the last couple of years Microsoft has incrementally rebuilt the app to support Markdown rendering, basic formatting, tabs, autosave, tables, and even AI-driven text tools like Rewrite and Sum moved Notepad into a different product category — not quite a replacement for Word, but far richer than the original bare-bones editor. The company has been rolling many of these features to Windows Insiders for testing before a wider release.

Why the image button matters

Adding an image insertion UI element is not just a cosmetic step. It signals that Notepad’s Markdown view will no longer be strictly text-first: users could paste, embed, or reference image files inline, and Notepad will render them automatically. That changes the app’s threat model, performance profile, file-size expectations, and compatibility with plain-text workflows — particularly for developers, sysadmins, and anyone who relied on Notepad’s tiny footprint. Early reports say Microsoft’s internal tests show minimal performance impact in basic scenarios, but the devil is in the implementation detai]

What we can verify right now

Where the evidence comes from

Windows Insiders have seen updated “What’s new” screenshots that include an insert image icon in the Notepad toolbar; this surfaced in reporting by outlets that followand in community threads created by Insiders and testers.
Neowin has seen and published the same “What’s new” screenshots highlighting an image button and reported the discovery, noting Microsoft hasn’t formally announced the feature yet.
Windows-focused community forums and Insider threads are actively discussing the change and pairing it with Notepad’s recent Markdown and table support rollouts.

Taken together, these independent sightings form a consistent signal: image handling is being tested inside Notepad’s Markdown/formatting layer in Insider channels and is likely to be promoted for broader testing if no major blockers appear.

What Microsoft has not (yet) confirmed publicly

Microsoft has not published a formal blog post or product-notes page that explains the image experience, exact formats supported, whether images are embedded or linked, or how remote images (URLs) are handled. Until those specifics are documented by Microsoft, several critical implementation details remain speculative. Reported screenshots in “What’s new” indicate intent, not final behavior.

Why Microsoft would add images to Notepad (product rationale)

Adding images to Notepad is a logical extension of its Markdown-first direction. Here’s why it makes product sense:

Markdown workflows commonly rely on images for screenshots, diagrams, and visual documentation; native support reduces friction for README files and quick documentation.
Many users already treat Notepad as a lightweight note-taking surface; allowing screenshots or pasted images keeps more of the workflow inside one app rather than forcing context switches to Paint or Photos.
Microsoft has consistently folded richer features into small inbox apps (Paint, Photos, Snipping Tool) to give casual users more capability without introducing separate heavy apps — adding images to Notepad follows that broader strategy.

However, practical benefits come with trade-offs: image embedding changes file portability, storage costs (especially with base64/data URI embedding), and network behavior if remote URLs are resolved automatically.

Technical scenarios Microsoft must choose between — and their implications

If Notepad implements image support, engineers must decide how images are represented and rendered. Each choice carries different trade-offs:

Local file references (relative paths)
Pros: Keeps files small if images are stored separately; aligns with many developer workflows.
Cons: Breaks portability — a README.md with ./images/foo.png won’t render if opened on another machine without the images.
Remote URL references (http/https)
Pros: Simple to implement for rendering hosted images.
Cons: Opening a Markdown file may trigger network requests that leak metadata (IP, user agent) and act as beacons to confirm a file was viewed. Enterprises often block such behavior for DLP/privacy reasons.
Embedded data URIs (data:image/png;base64,...)
Pros: Single-file portability; image travels with the .md file.
Cons: Files balloon in size and can introduce resource exhaustion vectors if attackers embed huge payloads.
Vector support (SVG)
Pros: High-fidelity scaling, small size for diagrams.
Cons: SVG is an XML format that can contain scripts, external resource references, and interactive elements; unsafe handling can enable XSS-like or exfiltration behaviors unless strictly sanitized. Vendors have repeatedly warned about SVG risks and recommend sanitization and restrictive handling.

The security and privacy consequences change depending on which of the above Notepad chooses, and whether rendering is performed in a sandbox that restricts network, file-system, and protocol handler interactions.

Security: a real-world warning from February 2026

Microsoft’s recent experience shows these problems are not hypothetical. On February 10, 2026, Microsoft issued a cumulative security update to address a high‑severity vulnerability in the modern Notepad app (tracked as CVE‑2026‑20841). The flaw allowed specially crafted Markdown links to hand off non‑standard URIs and protocol handlers to the OS without sufficient validation, enabling remote content to be invoked in the context of the logged‑in user. The vulnerability had a public CVSS score of 8.8 and was patched via Patch Tuesday and an updated Notepad package.
Why that matters for image support:

Notepad’s Markdown renderer already converts some text elements into actionable UI items (links). That conversion was the exact attack surface exploited in CVE‑2026‑20841. Extending rendering to images increases the set of things Notepad must safely parse and process.
Remote images or crafted image URIs could become analogous vectors: an image reference that includes a protocol handler or a nonstandard scheme could trigger unintended behavior unless Notepad sanitizes URIs and blocks risky schemes.
SVGs, data URIs, and other binary formats add decoding and parsing complexity — each decoder is a potential source of memory-safety bugs and denial-of-service (DoS) conditions if not hardened.

Microsoft’s patch for the February Markdown link issue adds more reason for cautious rollout: it demonstrates how a seemingly small convenience in a tiny app can have outsized security consequences when interactive behavior is introduced.

Specific technical risks and mitigations to watch for

Below are concrete attack surfaces Microsoft must address — and what defenders should look for.

Remote image fetching (beaconing)
Risk: Opening a file that references http(s) images can leak the user’s IP and confirm file access to a remote server.
Mitigation: Default to blocking remote fetches in a secure mode, or prompt before fetching; provide enterprise policies to disable remote resolution.
Protocol handler invocation via URIs embedded in image references
Risk: Non‑http schemes (file://, ms‑installer://, smb://) used in image URIs could trigger local handlers.
Mitigation: Strip or block non‑http(s) schemes in image src attributes; require explicit user confirmation for any non‑http(s) action. The February Patch Tuesday behavior suggests Microsoft will add gating for unverified protocols.
SVG active content and external references
Risk: Inline scripts, event handlers, and external references inside SVG can lead to active content execution, exfiltration, or DoS.
Mitigation: Render SVGs only in a sanitized, image-only mode (no scripting); treat SVG as untrusted content and either rasterize to PNG in a sandbox or apply strict sanitization before rendering. Industry guidance recommends serving untrusted SVG as <img> to avoid script execution.
Data URI decoding and resource exhaustion
Risk: Extremely large base64 payloads embedded in data URIs can exhaust memory or CPU when decoded.
Mitigation: Enforce size quotas, streaming decoders that cap memory, and explicit user consent for large embedded images.
Image codec vulnerabilities
Risk: Image decoders are a long-standing source of memory-corruption bugs in operating systems and libraries.
Mitigation: Use OS-level, sandboxed decoders and keep code paotepad’s rendering relies on vetted, updated libraries.

Security is not an afterthought: Notepad’s new behaviors must be implemented with explicit, documented constraints and enterprise controls.

Usability and compatibility considerations

Markdown is simple, but implementations differ

Markdown has a small, established image syntax — for example,

— but there are many flavors and extensions (CommonMark, GitHub Flavored Markdown, Markdig extensions). Notepad will need to declare which syntax it honors, how it handles relative paths, and how it renders images in the formatted vs. raw view. Providing a settings toggle to switch between rendered and raw Markdown (or defaulting to raw for .txt and rendered for .md) preserves backward compatibility for users who expect plain text.

Portability and storage

If images are linked by relative path, the .md file + images must be distributed together.
If images are embedded (data URIs), file sizes can grow dramatically — affecting version control and cloud sync (OneDrive/Git). Notepad should warn users about embedded-image file sizes and provide tools to save images separately.

Accessibility

Any image feature must encourage or require alt text for accessibility. Markdown supports alt text; Notepad’s UI should surface alt text fields and respect screen-reader output.

Enterprise guidance: what IT should do now

Patch immediately. Ensure Windows machines receive Microsoft’s February 2026 cumulative updates and that Notepad packages are updated to the patched builds (patched builds were distributed during the February Patch Tuesday cycle). This reduces the immediate risk from CVE‑2026‑20841 and related issues.
Plan policy controls. Ask Microsoft for or test Group Policy / MDM options to:
Disable Notepad’s formatting/rendered view.
Disallow remote image fetching in Notepad.
Prevent Notepad from invoking external protocol handlers without user confirmation.
Monitor Insider channels before wide deployment. If your organization enrolls devices in Insider rings, treat image support as a feature in active development; test for data leakage or unexpected protocol invocations in a lab before allowing it in production images.
Educate users. Remind staff not to click unexpected links in .md files and to be cautious with files from untrusted sources — the exploit chain in CVE‑2026‑20841 relied on a click in a rendered Markdown file.
Evaluate alternatives where minimalism is required. For users and automated workflows that rely on Notepad’s historical plain-text simplicity, consider standardizing on truly plain-text editors (Notepad++ or other locked-down editors) where rendering features are not permitted. Microsoft Store policies and configuration should be used to manage which Notepad version is permitted.

Community reaction and the “Notepad identity” debate

Not everyone welcomes the change. A vocal group of users and developers consider Notepad’s evolution to be feature creep: once-atomic utilities that “do one thing well” are becoming multi-featured apps that layer AI, rich formatting, and cloud interactions — and that transition has raised concerns about bloat, new attack surfaces, and broken expectations for power users. Some users have publicly said they’ve migrated to alternatives such as Notepad++ or store apps like QuickPad to maintain the old, ultra-light experience. Other users appreciate the new capabilities and see value in modern conveniences like tables, simple markup, and inline images.
From a product standpoint, Microsoft faces a balancing act: add modern features to make built-in apps more useful to casual users while preserving the minimal, dependable tools that developers and sysadmins depend on.

Practical recommendations for everyday users

If you prefer classic Notepad behavior, check Notepad’s settings for a “render formatting” toggle and turn it off when you want plain-text-only editing. If such a toggle is not present, consider using an alternative editor that guarantees raw plaintext.
Don’t click links in .md files received from unknown senders; treat .md attachments with the same caution you apply to .docx or .zip files. The February 2026 patch shows how clickable Markdown elements can be weaponized.
If you use Notepad for documentation with images, prefer relative local references or keep your images in a dedicated folder alongside the .md file to avoid automatic remote fetches and privacy leaks, and keep an eye on file sizes if you copy images inline.

How Microsoft should ship image support (a short checklist)

If Notepad truly ships image handling, it should meet these minimum expectations:

Default to no automatic remote requests; require explicit user action to fetch external images.
Block or sanitize non‑http(s) URI schemes used in image references and disallow protocol handler invocation from image URLs.
Sanitize SVGs aggressively or rasterize them in a secure sandbox before rendering.
Enforce size limits on embedded images and warn the user before saving large binary payloads into text files.
Provide enterprise policy controls for IT to disable formatting, remote fetches, or image rendering entirely.
Document the supported Markdown image syntax, supported formats (PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG), and the security model clearly in release notes.

Meeting these requirements would reduce the most obvious attack surfaces while preserving much of the usability gain for people who want inline visuals.

Conclusion

The appearance of an insert image icon in Notepad’s Insider “What’s new” screen is more than a tiny UI tweak — it reflects a broader product shift that turns one of Windows’ oldest and most trusted utilities into a richer authoring surface. That evolution brings genuine convenience for everyday note-taking and Markdown workflows, but it also introduces new security, privacy, and compatibility considerations that Microsoft and IT teams must address before the feature becomes ubiquitous.
We already have a concrete case study: the February 2026 Markdown link vulnerability (CVE‑2026‑20841) shows how converting inert text into interactive UI elements can be weaponized. If Microsoft implements image support responsibly — by defaulting to conservative behavior, sandboxing decoders, sanitizing vectors like SVG, and exposing enterprise controls — Notepad can gain useful capabilities without turning into a surprising attack surface. If it does not, even small conveniences could produce large problems for privacy and enterprise security.
For now, users and IT administrators should watch Insider notes closely, apply February 2026 patches if they haven’t already, and treat any Notepad update that expands rendering behavior as a change in security posture that deserves testing and policy planning.

Source: Neowin Notepad is getting image support for some reason

Navigation section

Notepad Adds Image Support for Markdown in Windows 11

Notepad’s slow evolution into a formatted editor​

WordPad’s removal and the rationale for change​

What’s already in Notepad: Markdown, tables and AI features​

What Windows Latest reports about image support​

Why image support makes product sense — and what it could look like​

Security and privacy implications​

Usability and compatibility trade-offs​

What the company can and should do to reduce risk​

Practical advice for users and administrators​

The competitive and ecosystem angle​

Why this matters beyond the app​

Conclusion​

AI

Background / Overview​

The security wake-up call: CVE-2026-20841​

Technical risk surface introduced by image support​

1) Remote image fetching and metadata leakage​

2) Data URIs and embedded payloads​

3) SVG and vector image risks​

4) Protocol handlers and unverified schemes​

5) Image decoder vulnerabilities​

Privacy and enterprise-compliance considerations​

Practical recommendations — for users, admins, and developers​

For individual users​

For IT and security teams​

For developers and open-source maintainers​

What Microsoft should publish (and what we’ll be watching for)​

The trade-off: utility versus minimalist safety​

Longer-term considerations and design recommendations​

Bottom line​

AI

Background: how Notepad got here​

What’s new: images in Notepad (what we know)​

The visible change​

Microsoft’s documented foundation​

What’s not public yet​

Why this matters: practical and user‑experience implications​

For everyday users​

For power users and developers​

For organizations and administrators​

Security and privacy analysis: risks and mitigations​

Image parsing and attack surface​

Privacy and metadata leakage​

Malware and social‑engineering vectors​

Interoperability and file-format questions (what to expect)​

UX and configuration: how to keep Notepad “Notepad” if you want​

Product strategy: what Microsoft appears to be aiming for​

Critical appraisal: strengths and risks​

Strengths​

Risks and downsides​

Practical recommendations for users and IT teams​

How we verified this reporting​

Final analysis and what to watch next​

AI

Background: Notepad’s metamorphosis into a modern note and Markdown app​

What’s new now: image support is showing up in preview builds​

Why image support is a natural extension — and why it’s deceptively complex​

The security wake‑up call: what happened with Markdown links (CVE‑2026‑20841)​

Image support increases the attack surface — predictable new risk classes​

Design options and the security trade‑offs Microsoft can make​

Practical recommendations for users and administrators​

Usability trade‑offs: portability, file size, and expectations​

Copilot, local AI, and the feature‑bloat debate​

How Microsoft can earn trust during rollout​

The verdict: sensible, cautious progress — with responsibilities​

AI

What surfaced in the Insider builds​

Why image support makes product sense​

Technical and compatibility considerations​

Security: the immediate and the subtle risks​

Performance and user expectations​

Document and workflow compatibility​

What Microsoft can and should do to reduce risk​

Practical guidance for users and administrators​

The trade‑off: convenience vs. control​

Conclusion​

AI

Background​

Notepad’s slow evolution into a formatted editor

WordPad’s removal and the rationale for change

What’s already in Notepad: Markdown, tables and AI features

What Windows Latest reports about image support

Why image support makes product sense — and what it could look like

Security and privacy implications

Usability and compatibility trade-offs

What the company can and should do to reduce risk

Practical advice for users and administrators

The competitive and ecosystem angle

Why this matters beyond the app

Conclusion

Background / Overview

The security wake-up call: CVE-2026-20841

Technical risk surface introduced by image support

1) Remote image fetching and metadata leakage

2) Data URIs and embedded payloads

3) SVG and vector image risks

4) Protocol handlers and unverified schemes

5) Image decoder vulnerabilities

Privacy and enterprise-compliance considerations

Practical recommendations — for users, admins, and developers

For individual users

For IT and security teams

For developers and open-source maintainers

What Microsoft should publish (and what we’ll be watching for)

The trade-off: utility versus minimalist safety

Longer-term considerations and design recommendations

Bottom line

Background: how Notepad got here

What’s new: images in Notepad (what we know)

The visible change

Microsoft’s documented foundation

What’s not public yet

Why this matters: practical and user‑experience implications

For everyday users

For power users and developers

For organizations and administrators

Security and privacy analysis: risks and mitigations

Image parsing and attack surface

Privacy and metadata leakage

Malware and social‑engineering vectors

Interoperability and file-format questions (what to expect)

UX and configuration: how to keep Notepad “Notepad” if you want

Product strategy: what Microsoft appears to be aiming for

Critical appraisal: strengths and risks

Strengths

Risks and downsides

Practical recommendations for users and IT teams

How we verified this reporting

Final analysis and what to watch next

Background: Notepad’s metamorphosis into a modern note and Markdown app

What’s new now: image support is showing up in preview builds

Why image support is a natural extension — and why it’s deceptively complex

The security wake‑up call: what happened with Markdown links (CVE‑2026‑20841)

Image support increases the attack surface — predictable new risk classes

Design options and the security trade‑offs Microsoft can make

Practical recommendations for users and administrators

Usability trade‑offs: portability, file size, and expectations

Copilot, local AI, and the feature‑bloat debate

How Microsoft can earn trust during rollout

The verdict: sensible, cautious progress — with responsibilities

What surfaced in the Insider builds

Why image support makes product sense

Technical and compatibility considerations

Security: the immediate and the subtle risks

Performance and user expectations

Document and workflow compatibility

What Microsoft can and should do to reduce risk

Practical guidance for users and administrators

The trade‑off: convenience vs. control

Conclusion

Background

What the Notepad changes are — and what’s already landed

What’s been added so far

The image capability that surfaced in Insider builds

Why this matters: product strategy and Microsoft’s calculus

From tiny utility to strategic testbed

Positioning vs Word and legacy WordPad

Notepad’s new niche: a practical redefinition