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Microsoft is killing WordPad in Windows after 28 years
(www.bleepingcomputer.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I think a file manager, text editor and command prompt are pretty essential too. And when you've added those, where exactly is the limit where it becomes "application software"?
I don't have an answer for that, but I know Wordpad is definitely not essential and I doubt anyone would use it if it didn't come with Windows