Get back classic Paint After Installing the Windows 10 Creators Update

Microsoft announced that Paint 3D preview app is now built-in to Windows 10 since the Creator’s Update Preview build 14971. That’s great. But what’s more interesting is that, launching mspaint.exe starts the modern or UWP Paint 3D app in the Creators Update. This post tells you how to get back classic Paint in Windows 10 Creators Update.

Paint replaced by Paint 3D?

The classic Paint (aka Microsoft Paint or Paintbrush) application still widely used by many. It’s still one of my favorite programs and can’t imagine losing it – and as a matter of fact, it’s still my primary image cropping tool. Although Microsoft may have plans to scrap classic Paint completely just as they did to Sticky Notes in the Anniversary Update, the good news is that the classic Paint desktop program still hasn’t gone away.

The old Paint still works in Windows 10 Creator’s Update Preview! That’s true. I’ve found a way to launch classic Paint after installing the Creator’s Update Preview build 14971.

Start classic Paint after installing Windows 10 Creators Update Preview

The super-secret registry edit to bring back the old Paint is as follows:

Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and go to:

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

or

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

Note: The “Paint” key don’t exist by default. You need to create it manually, and then the “Settings” subkey.

Changes made to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE would apply the setting for all users on the computer.

In the right-pane, create a DWORD value named DisableModernPaintBootstrap

Double-click DisableModernPaintBootstrap and set its value data to 1

Exit the Registry Editor.

Start mspaint.exe. Voila! It now launches the classic Microsoft Paint application instead of the modern Paint 3D.

This registry edit doesn’t prevent you from using the Paint 3D Preview. You can launch it from the Start menu shortcut.

Open an image with Paint 3D via Command-line

To open an image file with the Paint 3D app using command-line, use this command-line syntax:

mspaint.exe file_name /ForceBootstrapPaint3D