# MS Paint 22 Hacker News commenters recommended MS Paint and 43 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Free, lightweight image editor bundled with Windows that people use for quick cropping, screenshot markup and simple edits. Critics say newer versions add unwanted AI and tracking features and lack basic tools. ## Why people recommend it - Lightweight and fast for simple edits (5 comments): "Cropping and editing screenshots (eg add red circle) in a very lightweight application." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49428838)) "Interesting how they have kept MS-Paint as simple as Notepad for three decades" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50120787)) "did appreciate the dumb simplicity of parts of it. Especially MS Paint" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47161036)) - Replaces third-party apps for everyday tasks (3 comments): "they're quite solid and have become everyday tools that eliminated the need to reach for some other third party apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46569091)) "anything, MS paint would be fine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46714081)) "Paint works great for that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49446794)) ## What people warn about - Hidden GUID tracking raises privacy concerns (3 comments): "The highly privacy-invasive level of provenance tracking which Microsoft has added goes beyond the EU's new mandates." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49423770)) "Injecting hidden GUIDs into local files without explicit user consent is a massive privacy overreach." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49431255)) "giving users a false sense of control while the invisible GUID persists regardless" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49431615)) - Unwanted AI and feature changes (4 comments): "I'm mixed on the enhancements to Paint" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47157298)) "Then they should've left those things off by default, rather than messing with the expected flow of the application for everyone." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49429011)) "adding features that you want to cram down their throats to promote other products that you want them to use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49426799)) - Missing features like clone tool (3 comments): "It's not a godsend if it lacks features, eg. it would be much more useful for editing photographs if it had a clone tool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49431824)) "they can now vibecode all the missing features into MS Paint without having to dig into the legacy codebase themselves" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50118772)) "there really is no excuse for paint to lack functionality found in ImageMagick 30 years ago" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50119698)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Paint.NET](https://hackerapproved.com/p/paint-net.md): 30 recommend - [KolourPaint](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kolourpaint.md): 5 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "MS Paint", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ms-paint/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).