In 2017, Microsoft announced that it was going to move Microsoft Paint into the Microsoft Store so that it could be updated more frequently. Well, that’s finally happening. What’re four years between friends?

“MS Paint is here to stay, it will just have a new home soon, in the Windows Store where it will be available for free,” Microsoft noted at the time. Right, this was so long ago that the Microsoft Store was still called the Windows Store.

At the time of the original announcement, Microsoft expected that Paint 3D would replace Paint and that it could appease customers by making Paint available as an option from the Store. But Paint 3D never emerged as a viable Paint replacement, thanks in part to its cartoonish, touch-based UI, and in part because literally no average Windows 10 users care at all about 3D.

So Microsoft backtracked, stating that it would keep Paint in Windows 10 going forward.

Microsoft still hadn’t added Paint to the Store. But it did add some new features: Microsoft announced new keyboard input support in mid-2019.

Flash forward two more years and we’re finally seeing more movement on this. Aggiornamenti Lumia reports that Paint is finally available in the Microsoft Store, though I’m not seeing it yet. And Microsoft is removing the 3D tools, including Paint 3D, from Windows 10. All is right in the world.

Well, not all. Microsoft is also putting Notepad in the Store now. For some reason.