New paint still sucks

Question

So I still find problems with the new version of paint. Specifically, now I discovered that copy/pasting and rotating changes the colour of some pixels ever-so-slightly, which makes the fill tool tedious to use. It honestly makes the program only good for cropping screenshots and nothing else.

However, after reading more complaints (valid complaints I might add), it seems the old version was 32-bit and the new one is 64-bit? Does this mean if I uninstall, then try reinstalling the 32-bit version, it will be the old (good) version? If not, Christ Microsoft, why kill something that was thriving and replace it with something that feels like it's trying to be something it can't be? Someone else said it already, but there's multiple ways you can keep this pile of garbage and also give us access to the good one.

Answer 1

Hi Danny,

Thank you for posting your question here! I totally understand your frustration here but let me explain it to you.

The new Paint changes pixel colors slightly when you copy paste or rotate which breaks the fill tool This is not user error It happens because the modern version uses new color handling and scaling. The old classic Paint handled pixels exactly as they were. Sadly, uninstalling and reinstalling or looking for a 32-bit version will not bring the old one back Microsoft removed that path.

Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thank you and I appreciate your effort.

Regards,

Angelique P.

Answer 2

Uninstalling Paint and then installing a 32-bit package will not restore an older “classic” Paint; it only installs the current Paint build that matches the chosen architecture (x86, x64, or ARM64). The installer variants are just different builds of the same modern Paint app, not different feature generations.

The color changes seen when copying, pasting, and rotating are not addressed in the provided documentation, and there is no supported method here to revert to an older, pre‑update Paint version on Windows 11.

If Paint is not functioning properly or shows undesirable behavior, the documented options are:

1. Uninstall and reinstall the current Paint version using the official installers for the correct architecture:
   • Paint Windows 64-bit (most common)
   • Paint Windows 32-bit
   • Paint Windows ARM64
2. If an app misbehaves after Windows changes (for example, compatibility or graphics issues), run the compatibility troubleshooter and update device drivers to the latest versions via Windows Update.

These steps can help if the issue is due to corruption or compatibility, but they will not switch Paint back to an older design or behavior.

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References:

• Uninstall and reinstall Paint and Snipping Tool
• Make older apps or programs compatible with the latest version of Windows
• Application card: Microsoft Paint
• Overview of the compatibility considerations for 32-bit programs on 64-bit versions of Windows