Microsoft is adding spellcheck and autocorrect to its Notepad app on Windows 11, and it only took 40 years.

On Thursday, the Microsoft blog announced this as a preview release for testers, also known as Windows Insiders. Notepad, the notes-writing app has been around since 1983, but hasn't received a lot of attention in recent years thanks to the release of more advanced PC text editors like Notepad2 and Notepad++.

But it's better late than never for Notepad, which is finally getting some meaningful upgrades as of late. That includes a character count, and AI-powered explanations via Copilot. Per the announcement, Notepad will now highlight misspelled words and offer suggested corrections when you click or tap on the word. Notepad's autocorrect feature will automatically correct commonly misspelled words.

Spellcheck and autocorrect will be enabled as the default setting for most files, but default off for coding-related files. They can be toggled on or off in the Notepad settings page.

In addition to an overdue upgrade to Notepad, Microsoft had some new hardware to share on Thursday. The tech giant announced the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, which come with a built-in Copilot key on the keyboard as well as other Copilot AI software features.