Microsoft Notepad is a simple text editing program that is bundled with the Windows Operating System and has been since the first version of Windows in 1985. Notepad is simple and easy to use. There are no tags, no complex formatting and no colors, features or choice of fonts. The first incarnation of the Notepad program was in the software that was bundled in with the Microsoft Mouse (a driver used to detect mice), two years before the Windows release of Notepad as we know it today.
All files created by the notepad program are saved with the TXT file extension. The simplicity of Notepad means that it can be used to edit files that can be used in DOS. In older versions of Notepad there is a 64k limit on edited files.
The Notepad program that was released with the Windows XP and Windows 2000 has the ability Unicode files, even ones that are missing bytes, but it does so incorrectly and is not stable or reliable. These issues were later corrected with the Windows 7 and Windows Vista versions of the Notepad program.
