Dave Plummer, a former Microsoft engineer renowned for his contributions to Task Manager and Space Cadet Pinball, has embarked on an intriguing project: recreating Notepad in a mere 2.5 kilobytes. This endeavor, aptly named TinyRetroPad, manages to incorporate essential features such as Open, Save, Find and Replace, printing, font selection, word wrap, and the unsaved changes prompt—all within an executable that is astonishingly smaller than the accompanying image.
In recent months, Plummer has taken to voicing his critiques of Windows 11, suggesting that the operating system is in dire need of a moment akin to Windows XP SP2. He believes that Microsoft should focus on fixing existing issues rather than continually adding new features. Furthermore, he has expressed concern that Windows 11 has morphed into a platform primarily designed to promote Microsoft’s other products, subtly steering users toward Edge, OneDrive, and Copilot.
How does TinyRetroPad fit an entire Notepad into 2.5KB?
Plummer clarifies that the creation of TinyRetroPad is not a feat of magic but rather a clever utilization of existing Windows infrastructure. The operating system already provides a comprehensive suite of components necessary for a Windows application, including a window manager, menus, common dialogues, clipboard handling, and more. Thus, a small native program can leverage these built-in resources, allowing it to function seamlessly without the need to reinvent the wheel.
As Plummer aptly puts it, “it arrives with a lunchbox and a map of the city.” The maturity of the operating system serves as a vast library of pre-solved problems, enabling a tiny executable to tap into this reservoir of functionality and appear to perform remarkable feats.
TinyRetroPad is a derivative of Matt Power’s Dave’s Tiny Editor, which itself was based on the tiny.asm project that Plummer developed years ago to demonstrate the concept of a minimal Windows application. It operates as a thin wrapper around RICHEDIT50W, a rich text control that has been part of Windows for decades. This control handles character drawing, cursor management, selection, cut, copy, paste, and undo history—all tasks that Windows already manages internally.
Plummer meticulously documented the growth of TinyRetroPad, noting the byte cost of each feature added:
- The introduction of the File menu increased the size to 1,375 bytes.
- The unsaved changes prompt, requiring a real dirty flag and close functionality, brought it to 1,622 bytes.
- Adding Find and Replace pushed the total to 2,143 bytes.
- Printing, the most significant addition, raised the size to 2,476 bytes.
None of this would be possible without Crinkler, a compression linker designed for the demoscene that optimizes and rearranges the executable rather than simply linking it. Interestingly, some features may not increase the file size due to the way the code compresses, while others might expand the size unexpectedly, illustrating the complexities of code efficiency.
However, TinyRetroPad is not without its limitations. It currently lacks a dedicated Releases page, and executables built with Crinkler may trigger false positives from antivirus software. Users have reported various issues, including excessive memory usage and compatibility problems with older versions of Windows.
Why the internet keeps calling Windows 11’s Notepad bloated
The modern iteration of Notepad has evolved into a prime example of feature creep, with the typical Windows 11 installation of notepad.exe weighing in at approximately 352KB, and the overall installation size nearing 808KB. This is largely due to the fact that the executable serves as a stub pointing to a UWP and WinUI app, culminating in a total disk footprint of around 5MB. In contrast, the original Notepad from the Windows XP era was a mere 65KB.
While the bloated Notepad doesn’t directly consume precious memory, the shift away from its original simplicity has sparked significant backlash among users. Although features like tabs and autosave have been positively received, the introduction of Markdown formatting in June 2025 raised eyebrows, especially since WordPad already existed 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 like cut and paste. The addition of a Create a table tool in January 2026 and image support shortly thereafter only compounded the issue, as these features were built on the same Markdown engine.
In a telling turn of events, Microsoft acknowledged an 8.8 rated remote code execution flaw linked to a malicious Markdown link, illustrating the vulnerabilities introduced by this feature creep. A simple text editor devoid of link handling would not have faced such risks.
The real argument is about Windows, not Notepad
Interestingly, Windows 11 LTSC, the long-term servicing edition designed for enterprises resistant to constant changes, still includes the classic Notepad, devoid of Copilot and Markdown features. Similarly, Windows 10 retains the traditional version. TinyRetroPad is essentially resurrecting what was quietly retired from Windows 11.
Plummer emphasizes that the goal of TinyRetroPad was never to encourage widespread use of a hand-assembled 2.5KB editor. Instead, it serves as a demonstration of the untapped potential inherent in Windows, challenging the modern app development paradigm that often prioritizes bundling every conceivable feature over leveraging existing OS capabilities.
In a recent analysis, Windows Latest found that the modern Media Player in Windows 11 takes several seconds to open a video and consumes 377MB of memory while idle, in stark contrast to the legacy version, which plays videos instantly and uses only 103.4MB, despite predating HEVC support.
While the demand for modern-looking applications in Windows 11 is understandable, it should not come at the expense of efficiency and user control. Microsoft’s classic applications, developed decades ago without today’s advanced tools, remain robust and visually appealing. The focus should shift from hardware to a mindset that values efficiency in software development, ensuring that every new iteration is as streamlined as possible, not merely because it can be done.