Microsoft's Notepad AI Feature Sparks Controversy: Clarifying the Windows 11 Sign-In Requirement

No, Notepad for Windows 11 doesn't require you to use a Microsoft account -- unless you're trying to use AI

Copilot+ PC users may get hit with a popup demanding a login within Notepad, but context matters. For the past few days on Twitter, a particularly alarming screenshot has spread of a forced Microsoft account sign-in screen appearing on Windows 11 -- this screenshot, originally posted by @TheBobPony, was captioned with "Sign in with a Microsoft Account for Notepad!?," showing a quite understandable amount of distaste for this needless new bloat on Notepad. But it turns out that, while this screenshot is indeed real, those eagle-eyed enough should already be able to tell that something isn't quite lining up here. In fact, nearly any Windows 11 user could open up the fully updated Notepad without getting this pop-up at all, even if they aren't already signed into a Microsoft account. So, what's the deal here? The key is in the exact wording, identifiable within the first sentence: "Sign in with your Microsoft account to use Rewrite and its features in Notepad." This is a prompt that exists, yes, but one that's exclusive to Copilot+ PCs and explicitly requires the user to trigger it by clicking the Rewrite button, as confirmed by our own testing. So, despite many valid arguments against Microsoft's generative AI push in Windows and Microsoft needlessly bloating its operating systems, the controversy in this particular case seems overblown. While a misclick may have perhaps prompted this pop-up and subsequent misunderstanding, it does just seem like an innocuous issue blown out of proportion. Of course, features reliant on generative AI are going to expect you to be signed into an account that can be charged (or at least logged) for using those features, even if you've inexplicably decided that your word processing in Notepad of all places is in need of AI-driven rewrites. So, for those who caught wind of this and were worried, relax:The barebones Notepad functionality you know and love hasn't gone anywhere and you are, in fact, still in control of the buttons you press. While the addition of AI features to what's supposed to be a lightweight, barebones text editor is still kind of annoying for several reasons, it isn't actually being forced on any end users -- and I'd even go as far as to argue that if you're using a Windows 11 PC at all, particularly the Copilot+ PCs this feature is limited to, the minimal overhead incurred by supporting AI features you aren't using probably isn't your biggest performance concern. Still, if you want to forego even the chance of dealing with whatever Microsoft decides to shove into its basic text editor next, Notepad++ has long been an excellent alternative.

Seen those complaints online about having to sign in to your Microsoft account to use Windows 11's Notepad app? It's all a load of hot air

There's still a fair bit of anger about Microsoft adding more and more capabilities to Notepad when it's designed to be a streamlined text editor Is the idea of Windows 11 users now having to sign in to use the Notepad app a new scheme concocted by Microsoft to annoy folks? Fortunately, this very much isn't the case, even though many people have jumped to this conclusion. The prospect was raised by BobPony who (along with other denizens of X) pointed out that after the recent update for the Notepad app, it was now asking them to sign in to their Microsoft account. This immediately attracted a considerable amount of anger, because the whole concept of Notepad is that it's a super-streamlined text editor you can quickly fire up and use. So, not only is this a stumbling block running against the fundamental design of Notepad in that respect, but some folks don't have or want a Microsoft account either. While this is indeed happening to some Windows 11 users, the reason for this is explained in the text accompanying the pop-up requesting login, which states: "Sign in with your Microsoft account to use Rewrite and its features in Notepad." The Notepad update has brought in the ability to use Rewrite, which is a Copilot feature that gets the AI to redraft any selected text (an ability seen in testing with Windows 11 late last year). As Tom's Hardware, which noticed the above post on X, points out, this dialog prompt only appears for those who are clicking the Rewrite button in Notepad. Also, if you do see this dialog, and don't want to sign in as requested, you can simply close it. You won't be able to use the Rewrite feature, though, unless you do sign in to your Microsoft account. In many ways, then, this is a storm in a teacup scenario - but there is an underlying reason why people might be easily angered here. Firstly, there's been a broader push to cajole folks to sign up for a Microsoft account, including a bunch of 'suggestions' infiltrating Windows 11 in various bits of the interface. So, anything like this is going to annoy some users, guaranteed, even though Microsoft notes that a sign-in is necessary to use the Rewrite capability due to "AI safety and security purposes" (pertaining to any requests you make). Secondly, again looking at this incident (or lack of an incident is a better way to describe it, perhaps) from a wider perspective, it's another pushback against Notepad getting beefed up. As mentioned above, the whole idea of Notepad is that it's a barebones and lightweight text editor, and yet Microsoft has kept on adding extra trimmings since the launch of Windows 11. That includes the likes of dark mode, multi-step undo, and spellchecking plus autocorrect, and now we have the mentioned AI rewriting feature in Notepad. And no, of course, you don't have to use any of these elements, but the worry is, they're still hanging around in the background and possibly bloating Notepad more so that it isn't quite as peppy and responsive as it once was. (Although Microsoft has, at least, recently tweaked the app to load a bit faster). That's why you can see some of those replying to the post on X are urging anyone who's fed up with this new path WordPad appears to be on to consider Notepad++ instead. Indeed, I'd throw in the top recommendation from our list of the best text editors too, namely Sublime Text.