Microsoft Paint has been a classic app in Windows for decades, but I haven’t liked recent changes—especially the forced introduction of Copilot, which brings AI features. So, I found a free and open-source alternative to use instead.
What is Microsoft doing with Paint?
Paint has been in Windows for more than 40 years, and in that time frame, it hasn’t undergone many dramatic changes. Usually new versions of Paint bring minor changes to the user interface, minor new features, and some support for new file types. It isn’t the type of program to get huge, sweeping updates after each version of Windows. After all, it is designed to be simple and reliable above all else.
There are two major exceptions in recent versions of Windows: Paint 3D and Paint with Copilot.
Paint 3D was the version of Paint introduced with the Windows 10 Creators update, failed to gain any traction with users, and was eventually deprecated.
The other came with Windows 11. Microsoft revamped the user interface, added support for layers and transparency, and stuck on Copilot, which adds AI features.
This kind of feature creep—especially relating to Copilot—has become common for some of the basic essentials packaged with Windows, including Notepad.
Microsoft keeps reinstalling Copilot, so I found a way to rip it out of Windows for good
You can get rid of all those stubborn AI components for better privacy and performance.
However, I have no real need for these features in Paint. They add bloat with no real payoff, and I definitely don’t need Copilot in Paint.
Since Paint has been trending towards a more fully featured program, I decided to just replace it with something that was already there but still lightweight.
What do I need in a Paint alternative?
Paint, even with its recent unnecessary additions, has a few things going for it.
- It is very lightweight and loads quickly, even on low-power PCs.
- The user interface is very simple, and there aren’t many nested settings to dig through.
- It supports a large range of file formats, which makes it helpful for quickly converting images between formats.
- It “just works.” It doesn’t require any significant setup or fuss to use.
With that in mind, I started with the free and open-source apps available for Linux, since they’re often designed with low-power or minimalist setups in mind.
I tried a handful of options based on reviews in the Kubuntu app store (Discover), but I almost immediately fell in love with Krita.
Krita is a graphics editor from the KDE Community and is actually designed to be competitive with Photoshop. I didn’t put it toe-to-toe with Photoshop, but I did put it against Microsoft Paint.
There are a few noteworthy differences:
- Krita takes about 2 seconds to launch for me, while Paint launches in less than a second.
- Krita’s user interface has a lot more buried in menus, but all the basic editing tools I want are exposed in the interface. They also resemble Photoshop very closely, which made using them easy.
- It supports every file format I’ve ever used and plenty I’ve never even heard of.
- It worked out of the box with no fussing.
- It has no unnecessary AI features.
Krita’s interface is a bit busier than I’d like, and it doesn’t start as quickly as Paint. However, I found it easy enough to use, and I’m not bothered by the two-second startup time.
I really like how Krita displays the brush presents at the bottom right of the screen—it makes it extremely easy to know exactly what I’m going to get.
Installing Krita on your PC
Krita is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. I downloaded the installer from the Krita website and used that to install, but you don’t have to do it that way.
If you prefer, you can download Krita from the Microsoft Store, the Epic Games Store, or the Steam Store, though they’re not free. It costs $10 on Steam and the Epic Game Store, and $15 on the Microsoft Store.
I’d recommend grabbing it directly from the developers for free and then donating if you like it.
I’ve now spent several days with Krita, and despite my original reason for downloading it, I’ve come to use it as a replacement for both Affinity and Photoshop most of the time.
I’ve found that it boots faster than either of those applications, doesn’t require an account, and doesn’t have any pesty AI features no one asked for.
It’ll probably become my go-to graphic design program for all use cases, not just Paint.
