Its why Microsoft spent so much time talking about the Surface Pen when it updated the Surface Pro a few months ago, and its why it launched the Surface Studio last October. Heck, its why it keeps calling every new Windows OS update a creators update. It wants those usersDogs have loved us for thousands of years, despite humanitys many flaws and foibles. New research suggests dogs were domesticated from wolves just oncethats. InformationWeek. com News, analysis and research for business technology professionals, plus peertopeer knowledge sharing. Engage with our community. Transforming its most enduring creative application into something more robust is a clear next step. Eventually Microsoft could kill the ugly version of Paint we love in order to release shiny new version of Paint or a Paint adjacent application. Or Microsoft could just leave MS Paint in the Deprecated column for a while, a cool app eventually destined to be forgotten as younger computer users snap up alternate tools like Photoshop Express or Autodesk Sketchbook. Either way Microsoft Paint isnt dead, its just deprecated, and Microsoft has made no comment on how long it could be deprecated. So maybe dont go ordering funeral flowers just yet. Weve reached out to Microsoft to learn more about the plans for Paint and will update if we hear back get back to us. Update A Microsoft spokesperson responded with the following statement MS Paint is not going away. In addition to the new 3. D capabilities, many of the MS Paint features people know and love like photo editing and 2. D creation are in Paint 3. D the new app for creativity, available for free with the Windows 1. Creators update. In the future, we will offer MS Paint in the Windows Store also for free and continue to provide new updates and experiences to Paint 3. D so people have the best creative tools all in one place. So there you have it. MS Paint is safe. Microsoft via The Guardian.