MS Paint app’s Windows 11 renaissance continues with dark mode, other updates

Enlarge / Paint's long-promised dark mode is now available to Windows Insiders. (credit: Microsoft)

In the summer of 2021, Microsoft’s efforts to redesign its software for the Windows 11 era were just kicking into high gear. The company announced an overhaul for the venerable MS Paint that promised, among other things, dark mode support, but the version of the app that appeared along with Windows 11 in October 2021 was missing the feature.

Now, Windows Insiders in the Dev and Canary channels can finally begin testing a darker version of the Paint app. The update, announced on the Windows Insider blog yesterday, also introduces more granular zoom settings and a zoom slider in the lower-right corner of the app, a new Settings page, new keyboard shortcuts, and “many accessibility and usability improvements to dialogs throughout the app.”

Features rolled out to the Windows Insider channels don’t always make it into the regular builds of Windows 11 that most people use, but these kinds of app updates generally make it out to everyone within a few weeks or months.