Dave Plummer, the retired Microsoft engineer renowned for his contributions to Task Manager and Space Cadet Pinball, has made waves in the software development community with his latest endeavor: TinyRetroPad. This remarkable project encapsulates the essence of Notepad within a mere 2.5 kilobytes. Despite its diminutive size, TinyRetroPad boasts an impressive array of features including Open, Save, Find and Replace, printing, font selection, word wrap, and an unsaved changes prompt, all neatly packed into an executable that is smaller than the accompanying image.
Plummer has recently engaged in candid discussions with Microsoft regarding Windows 11, advocating for a much-needed reset akin to Windows XP SP2. He believes the operating system has morphed into a platform primarily designed to promote Microsoft’s other products, such as Edge, OneDrive, and Copilot, rather than focusing on user experience.
How does TinyRetroPad fit an entire Notepad into 2.5KB?
According to Plummer, the creation of TinyRetroPad is not a feat of magic but rather a testament to the capabilities of Windows. The operating system already includes essential components for application development, such as a window manager, menus, common dialogues, clipboard handling, and more. Thus, a compact native Windows program can leverage these existing features, allowing it to function seamlessly without the need for extensive additional resources.
As Plummer aptly describes it, “it arrives with a lunchbox and a map of the city.” A mature operating system serves as a vast library of pre-solved challenges, enabling a small executable to tap into this wealth of resources and deliver impressive functionality.
TinyRetroPad is a derivative of Matt Power’s Dave’s Tiny Editor, which itself is based on tiny.asm, a project Plummer developed years ago to demonstrate the potential for creating the smallest complete Windows application. The application acts as a thin wrapper around RICHEDIT50W, a rich text control that has been part of Windows for decades. This control manages everything from drawing characters to handling selection and clipboard operations, meaning that Windows already provides the necessary infrastructure for these functions.
Plummer meticulously documented the growth of TinyRetroPad, noting how each feature incrementally increased the file size:
- The introduction of the File menu raised the size to 1,375 bytes.
- Adding the unsaved changes prompt pushed it to 1,622 bytes.
- Incorporating Find and Replace brought it to 2,143 bytes.
- Printing represented the most significant leap, culminating in a total of 2,476 bytes.
This achievement would not have been possible without Crinkler, a specialized compression linker designed for the demoscene. Crinkler optimizes the executable by rearranging and compressing the code, often resulting in features that do not significantly increase file size due to efficient compression of repetitive elements.
However, TinyRetroPad is still a work in progress. Users have reported issues such as high memory consumption and compatibility problems with older versions of Windows, highlighting the challenges of developing such a compact application.
Why the internet keeps calling Windows 11’s Notepad bloated
In stark contrast, the modern Notepad has evolved into a case study of feature creep. The notepad.exe on a standard Windows 11 installation weighs in at approximately 352KB, with the installation size nearing 808KB. This is largely due to its transformation into a UWP and WinUI app, which collectively occupy around 5MB on disk. For perspective, the original Notepad from the Windows XP era was a mere 65KB.
While the increased size does not directly impact memory usage, the shift away from Notepad’s original simplicity has sparked considerable backlash. Features like tabs and autosave have been welcomed, yet the introduction of Markdown formatting in June 2025 raised eyebrows, especially since Windows already offered WordPad for such tasks before its discontinuation.
By August, the right-click menu had become cluttered with Copilot options, prompting Microsoft to redesign it to restore basic functionalities. The addition of a Create a table tool and image support in subsequent months only added to the complexity. This feature expansion culminated in a significant security flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-20841, which allowed malicious links to execute code with the user’s permissions—something a basic text editor would not have encountered.
The real argument is about Windows, not Notepad
Interestingly, Windows 11 LTSC, the long-term servicing edition designed for enterprises, continues to provide the classic Notepad devoid of Copilot and Markdown features, as does Windows 10. TinyRetroPad seeks to resurrect the simplicity that Microsoft has quietly phased out in Windows 11.
Plummer emphasizes that the goal of TinyRetroPad is not to encourage widespread adoption of a 2.5KB editor but to highlight the untapped potential within Windows. Modern app development often defaults to bundling every conceivable feature, neglecting the robust capabilities already present in the operating system.
In a recent evaluation, Windows Latest discovered that Windows 11’s Media Player takes several seconds to open a video and consumes 377MB of memory while idle, compared to the legacy version that plays videos instantly with only 103.4MB of memory usage. This disparity underscores the need for modern applications to balance aesthetics with efficiency and control.
While Microsoft is entitled to bundle subscription services within their applications, it is essential to remember that Windows 11 itself is a paid product. The classic applications, developed decades ago without today’s advanced tools, remain effective and visually appealing. The challenge lies not in the hardware but in the mindset that every new iteration must prioritize efficiency, simply because it is feasible to do so.
