u/Dependent_Site718

I understand it has been dropped by Microsoft, but they seem to have thrown a spanner in the works, to make it unusable?

Encountering problems with existing desktop shortcuts, I opted to delete it, with a view to reinstall.

THE ORIGINAL ISSUE

Upon opening any WordPad desktop shortcut, I suddenly found my saved items wrapped in a MASS of gobbledygook, like this, cut (in part) and pasted.

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\nouicompat\deflang2057{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Calibri;}}

Sadly when I was able to find a way to reinstall WordPad?

Upon testing, when I opened the saved "document" I found I STILL had the issue that made me delete WordPad in the first place, which is why I suspect Microsoft may have deliberately muggered it up.