Get Classic Paint back in Windows 10 Creators Update

November 18, 2016

Get Classic Paint back in Windows 10 Creators Update

As we covered recently, starting with Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft has ditched the good old Paint app and replaced it with a new Modern app, "Paint 3D". Many people are not happy with this change because the old mspaint.exe loaded faster, was more usable for mouse/keyboard users and allowed the user to quickly paste an image, crop it and save it. If you would like to get the classic MS Paint app back in Windows 10, it is possible. In this article, you can learn how to get the Classic Paint back in Windows 10 (the Windows 8/Windows 7 Paint app).

To get the classic win32 Paint app with the Windows 8/Windows 7 user interface in Windows 10, you can use at least three methods.

Method 1 and method 2 can stop working at any moment, method 3 is a permanent solution which can survive build upgrades. Let's look at them.
Here we go.

Method 1. Just uninstall the Paint 3D app

As our reader "Jakub H." suggested, you can just remove the Paint 3D Preview app. This will restore the classic Paint app. Unfortunately, this method will stop working in Windows 10 Creators Update RTM, once it will be released in 2017.

As of this writing, the most recent Windows 10 "Creators Update" version is build 14971. It allows you to remove Paint 3D. Do the following to restore the classic Paint app:

Open Settings.

Go to System - Apps & features.

Select the Paint 3D app in the list and click "Uninstall".

This will restore the classic Paint app, at least in Windows 10 build 14971.

Method 2. Apply a Registry tweak to restore the classic Paint app

You can restore classic Paint in Windows 10 Creators Update using a simple Registry tweak. This method was discovered by Ramesh Srinivasan of Winhelponline. Do the following.

Open Registry Editor.

Go to the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Paint\Settings

Tip: You can access any desired Registry key with one click. If this key doesn't exist, just create it.

Create a 32-bit DWORD parameter named DisableModernPaintBootstrap. Set its value data to 1.

This will disable the Paint 3D launcher and restore the classic Paint app.

Use the provided Registry files to save your time:

Download Registry Files

Again, this method will stop working later with Windows 10 Creators Update release.

Method 3. Download the setup program for Classic Paint for Windows 10

Download the setup program for Classic Paint for Windows 10 from here:

Classic Paint for Windows 10

Run the installer. It will look like this:

Follow its steps. After it finishes, you will find the good old Paint app's shortcut in the Start menu:

After you launch it, you will get the familiar application:

You are done. The Paint app will be revived completely, e.g. you will be able to launch it as "mspaint.exe" from the Run dialog or from the taskbar search box or from Cortana. It will have the same user interface language as your operating system.

I made it possible for the Paint app to "survive" after sfc /scannow, Windows Update and so on. No system files will be replaced.

If you decide to revert to the Modern Paint 3D app, just uninstall Classic Paint from the Settings app\Uninstall a program as shown in the following screenshot: