Microsoft Paint

Raised as a usability problem by 24 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2013–2026), in 21 threads.

People raised many different problems with Microsoft Paint, but no single problem has yet been raised by 3 people in 3 different months and threads.

Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.

The newest 26 complaints

Upsell prompts use dark-pattern UI that pushes users toward paying2026-10-16
Arrow keys moved the mouse cursor unexpectedly, making the pointer seem haunted2025-04-29
Cut and move leaves a transparent hole, making simple edits hard2024-08-12
Commenter couldn't figure out how to generate an image from a doodle2024-05-23
Too cumbersome to set up and use, lacks common controls2024-05-23
Palette management and tool switching are terrible, and 8-bit images are effectively unworkable2023-09-20
Tool selection and options are hard to make sense of; UI logic feels weird2023-09-20
Ribbon wastes screen space, takes more clicks, and collapses to unusable when window shrinks2023-09-18
Icon-only toolbar makes infrequently used app slow to decipher2023-08-24
Takes many seconds after clicking add text before typing can start2023-06-23
Simple operations need more clicks and lack keyboard shortcuts than older versions2023-05-29
Standard keyboard shortcuts like Alt-F-A for Save As are missing2022-09-30
Windows 11 rewrite dropped keyboard shortcuts users rely on, like Alt+F then A2022-05-02
Confusing unsaved-changes warning in an unfamiliar language left user unsure how to exit2022-04-23
Can't find how to see screenshots; Info link jumps back to home page2021-06-13
Each new Microsoft release is less intuitive, so users struggle to know what to click2020-07-09
Every keypress or click takes an extra 50-100ms to register, feeling sluggish2020-04-18
UI is clunky when used on a mobile browser2020-02-26
Menu items are hard to tap because the tap targets are small2020-02-25
No paste-as-new-image option, so pasted screenshots must be cropped; drawings land on the background layer and can't be adjusted2019-04-24
Pencil, brush, spray and line tools each have their own separate width settings2018-01-18
Ribbon redesign makes the newer Paint unpleasant to use compared to XP version2017-07-24
Hard to reselect a text box to edit text after deselecting it2017-07-24
Print is hidden behind a dropdown menu, hard to find on the ribbon2015-07-05
Has annoying bugs and worse usability than Kolourpaint2014-03-28
The ribbon interface is confusing to the commenter2013-07-24