Paint 3D Is Gone: What Happened, Does It Still Work, and What to Use Now (2026)

Paint 3D is discontinued. Microsoft deprecated it in August 2024 and removed it from the Microsoft Store on November 4, 2024, so it can no longer be downloaded officially for Windows 11 or 10, and it gets no more updates. If Paint 3D is already installed on your PC, it keeps working; do not uninstall it if you still use it. For most of what people used it for, the classic Paint app in Windows 11 is now the replacement: it has layers, transparency and one-click Remove background, which covers Paint 3D's famous Magic Select. The Photos app also removes backgrounds. For real 3D work, use free tools like Blender or Tinkercad. Its companion app, 3D Viewer, followed it out of the Store on July 1, 2026. Avoid "Paint 3D download" sites, since none of them are Microsoft.

Ethan's daughter had a school project half done in Paint 3D on the old family laptop: a poster with a cut-out photo of the class pet, some 3D stars and text. When the new Windows 11 laptop arrived, Paint 3D was nowhere to be found, and the Store had no listing for it. A search turned up several sites offering a "free Paint 3D download", which is where Ethan stopped and called Jake. Jake's advice took ten minutes. Leave the old laptop's Paint 3D alone and use it to export the project as an image and a 3D file. Then rebuild the poster in Windows 11's Paint, whose Remove background button cut out the class pet in one click. Skip the download sites entirely. The poster was finished that evening, with layers that Paint 3D never had. This page explains what happened to Paint 3D and 3D Viewer, whether and how you can still use them, and what to use instead for each thing Paint 3D did.

What happened to Paint 3D

Paint 3D arrived with the Windows 10 Creators Update in April 2017, as part of Microsoft's push into 3D and mixed reality. It let anyone make simple 3D scenes from shapes, add stickers and text, cut objects out of photos with a tool called Magic Select, and share models through an online community called Remix 3D. For a while it was preinstalled on Windows 10, and many people, especially students, used it as a friendlier image editor than classic Paint.

Microsoft's interest in consumer 3D faded over the following years. Remix 3D closed first, then Paint 3D stopped being preinstalled, and Windows 11 shipped without it. In August 2024, Microsoft added Paint 3D to its list of deprecated features, and on November 4, 2024, removed it from the Microsoft Store. The companion app 3D Viewer followed: deprecated in February 2026 and removed from the Store on July 1, 2026. Windows Mixed Reality, the platform that much of this was built for, was removed from Windows 11 in version 24H2.

Meanwhile, classic Paint, which Microsoft had once planned to replace with Paint 3D, did the opposite of disappearing. It was redesigned for Windows 11 and gained dark mode, layers, transparency, background removal and, on some PCs, AI features. In the end, the old app absorbed the useful parts of the new one, which is why most people no longer need Paint 3D at all.

Does Paint 3D still work if it is installed?

Yes. Removal from the Store means you cannot download it, not that it is deleted from PCs that have it. If Paint 3D is on your PC, it keeps opening and working, and your projects are still there. Microsoft no longer releases updates for it, so any bugs it has stay, and future Windows updates could eventually affect it, though there is no announced date for that.

To check whether you have it, open Start and type Paint 3D, or open Settings, Apps, Installed apps and search for it. On many Windows 10 PCs that came with it, it is still there; on Windows 11 PCs, it is only there if someone installed it before November 2024, or if the PC was upgraded from Windows 10 with it installed.

If you rely on it, a few precautions help. Do not uninstall it, since you cannot get it back from the Store. Keep copies of your projects outside the app, as described below, so that if the app ever stops working, your work does not stop with it. And start learning a replacement now, at your own pace, rather than in a hurry when a deadline arrives, which is what happened to Ethan's daughter.

The same applies to 3D Viewer: existing installations continue to work after its July 1, 2026 removal, but it can no longer be downloaded, and it was never preinstalled on Windows 11.

Moving to a new PC: Paint 3D does not come along

The most common way people discover Paint 3D's retirement is the one Ethan's family hit: a new PC arrives, and Paint 3D is not on it and cannot be installed. Windows' transfer and backup tools move your files and settings, and Store apps that are still available reinstall themselves from the Store, but an app that is no longer in the Store cannot be brought across.

The fix is to plan the move from the old PC. Before retiring it, open Paint 3D there and export every project you care about as PNG and GLB, as described above, and copy the files to the new PC through OneDrive, a USB drive or a network share. If the old PC stays in the house for a while, keep Paint 3D on it as a fallback for any project you forgot, but do not depend on it long term; old PCs have a habit of being given away or recycled.

On the new PC, set Paint as the default for images if you like, pin it to the taskbar, and spend ten minutes trying layers and Remove background on an old export. That small rehearsal is usually enough for Paint 3D users to feel at home.

Is it safe to keep using Paint 3D?

For everyday use, yes, with sensible caution. Paint 3D is a Store app that runs in a restricted environment, and it does not need internet access for most of what it does. Not receiving updates means any security issue found in it from now on will not be fixed.

The sensible approach is to open only your own files and images from trusted sources in it, keep Windows itself updated, and move to a replacement within a reasonable time. An image editor that opens untrusted files is a theoretical risk, which is why the general rule for unsupported software is to use it less over time rather than more. If your organization has rules about unsupported software, they apply to Paint 3D too.

Can you still download Paint 3D? (and why to avoid download sites)

Not from Microsoft. Since November 4, 2024, the Microsoft Store no longer offers Paint 3D, and Microsoft does not provide an installer anywhere else. Some accounts that installed it earlier may still see it in the Store's Library, but you should not count on reinstalling it that way.

Searching for a Paint 3D download turns up sites offering the app for Windows 11, including installer files and packages. None of them are Microsoft, and none can be verified as untouched copies. Some repackage the original app; others bundle adware or worse, and a few are simply ad farms. Installing app packages from unknown sites also usually means turning on developer settings or running scripts, which weakens your PC's protections. For an app whose job is now done better by tools that are free and official, the risk is not worth it.

If someone in your family absolutely needs Paint 3D for one more project, the safe source is a PC that still has it installed, used in place. Otherwise, the alternatives below do the job. Our guide to installing programs safely covers how to tell official downloads from imitations, which is useful well beyond Paint 3D.

Save your Paint 3D projects before you move on

Paint 3D keeps projects inside the app, which is convenient until you need them somewhere else. Before you stop using it, or move to a new PC, export each project you care about in the formats you might need later.

1. Open Paint 3D and open the project from the Menu, Open page.
2. Select Menu, then Save as.
3. Choose Image to save a flat picture, such as PNG, which keeps transparency, or JPG. This is what you will usually need for posters, documents and slides.
4. Choose 3D model to save the 3D objects, for example as GLB, FBX or 3MF, which Blender and many other 3D tools open. GLB is a good default.
5. Optionally, save it as a Paint 3D project too, which only Paint 3D opens but keeps everything editable while the app still works.
6. Copy the exported files to your Documents folder, a USB drive or cloud storage.

For projects that are mostly 2D, the PNG is what matters: you can open it in Windows 11's Paint and keep working, adding layers on top. For projects with 3D objects you want to change, the GLB file opens in Blender or online 3D tools. Ethan's daughter exported her poster as PNG and her stars as GLB, though in the end she simply redrew the stars in Paint.

Classic Paint is the replacement for most Paint 3D jobs

Windows 11's Paint is the app most Paint 3D users should move to, and it is already on your PC. It was redesigned for Windows 11 and has gained, over several updates, most of the features that once made Paint 3D the better choice for 2D work.

Layers. Paint now has layers, opened from the Layers button on the toolbar. You can add, hide, reorder and merge them, so a photo, a cut-out and some text can each sit on their own layer and be moved separately, something Paint 3D only partly offered.

Transparency. Paint supports transparent backgrounds and saves them in PNG files, so cut-out images can be placed on other backgrounds in documents and slides without a white box around them.

Remove background. One click removes the background from an image, leaving the main subject, which is the most popular thing people used Paint 3D's Magic Select for. You can also select an area first to remove the background only there.

Text, shapes and brushes. Paint's text, shapes, brushes and fill tools cover the 2D drawing parts of Paint 3D. Its brushes are simpler than Paint 3D's, which had textures such as watercolor and oil; for artistic painting, a dedicated free app may suit you better.

AI features on some PCs. On Copilot+ PCs and with a Microsoft account, Paint adds AI tools such as Cocreator, which turns a sketch and a description into an image, and generative tools for filling or erasing parts of a picture. These are optional and not needed for anything Paint 3D did. Our guide to whether you need a Copilot+ PC explains which features need the special hardware.

What Paint does not do is 3D. It has no 3D shapes, no 3D stickers and no way to rotate objects in space. For the many people who only used Paint 3D's 2D tools, that does not matter; for those who loved its 3D side, the 3D section below has better options.

Paint 3D vs Paint: what each can do

People often ask whether Paint can really replace Paint 3D, or whether something is lost. This comparison covers the features people used most.

The honest summary: for 2D work, Paint now does more than Paint 3D did, with layers being the biggest gain. For 3D work, Paint does nothing, and Tinkercad or Blender take over. The only things genuinely lost are Paint 3D's textured brushes and its playful 3D stickers, and free painting apps such as Krita cover the brushes well.

Replacing Magic Select: removing backgrounds

Magic Select, Paint 3D's tool for cutting a person, pet or object out of a photo, was its most loved feature, and it has three good replacements in Windows 11.

In Paint, open the photo and select Remove background on the toolbar, in the Image section. The background disappears, leaving the subject on a transparent layer. Add a new layer below it for a new background, or save it as a PNG to use elsewhere. If the result includes too much or too little, use the eraser to tidy up, or select the area around the subject first and then remove the background.

In the Photos app, open the photo, select Edit, and use the background tools, which can blur, remove or replace the background. This is handy when you want a quick result without layers, such as a portrait with a plain background. Our guide to the default Photos app covers choosing which app opens your pictures.

In PowerPoint, if you have Microsoft 365, select a picture and choose Remove Background on the Picture Format tab, with tools to mark areas to keep or remove. It is surprisingly precise and useful for school projects that end up in slides anyway.

The results from all three are as good as Magic Select's, and often better, since the newer tools use more modern image recognition. Ethan's daughter tried Paint first, and the class pet came out cleanly on the first click.

Rebuild a Paint 3D poster in Paint, step by step

Most Paint 3D projects are posters, collages or cards: a photo, a cut-out, some decorations and text. Here is how Ethan's daughter rebuilt hers in Windows 11's Paint, a process that works for almost any such project.

1. Open Paint and set the canvas size with Image, Resize, or start by opening the background picture you want.
2. Select Layers on the toolbar to show the layers panel.
3. Add a new layer with the plus button, then paste or open the photo you want to cut out onto it.
4. With that layer selected, choose Remove background. Tidy the edges with the eraser if needed.
5. Move and resize the cut-out with the selection tool until it sits where you want it.
6. Add another layer for decorations, such as shapes, stars or drawings, using the shapes and brushes.
7. Add a layer for text, choose the Text tool, and type titles and labels.
8. Reorder layers to put things in front of or behind each other, and hide layers to compare versions.
9. Save as a PNG for sharing, or keep a copy with layers if your version of Paint offers a project format, so you can edit it later.

The main difference from Paint 3D is that decorations are flat rather than 3D. For a poster or a card, that rarely matters, and the layers make rearranging far easier than Paint 3D's 3D scene ever did. If you exported your old project as a PNG, open it as the first layer and build on top of it instead of starting over.

Paint 3D alternatives for every job

The best replacement depends on what you used Paint 3D for. This table maps each common use to a tool, with free options first.

Download any of these only from the developer's official site or the Microsoft Store, never from download portals. Paint.NET, GIMP, Krita and Blender all have official websites, and several are also available in the Microsoft Store, which is the simplest safe way to install them on Windows 11.

For most households, the answer is just the first three rows: Paint and Photos, which are already on the PC. The other tools are for people who want to go further than Paint 3D ever went.

Paint.NET, GIMP and Krita: which free editor?

For anyone who wants more than Paint, three free image editors are worth comparing, each with a different strength.

Paint.NET is a Windows-only editor that started as a student project to improve on Paint and grew into a capable, fast and simple tool. It has layers, effects, adjustments and a large collection of free plugins, and its interface feels familiar to anyone who has used Paint. For most people moving up from Paint 3D's 2D tools, it is the easiest step. It is free from its official site, with a paid version in the Microsoft Store that supports development.

GIMP is a free, open-source editor for Windows, Mac and Linux, often compared with professional photo editors. It can do almost anything with images, from retouching to complex compositions, but its interface takes longer to learn. It suits people who want serious photo editing without paying.

Krita is a free, open-source painting program built for digital artists, with natural brushes, pressure support for pens and tablets, and tools for comics and illustration. If you used Paint 3D for drawing and loved its watercolor and oil brushes, Krita is the natural successor, and it works well with touch screens and pens on 2-in-1 laptops.

All three are safe when downloaded from their official sites or the Microsoft Store. Ethan's daughter now uses Krita for drawing and Paint for quick school posters, and she has not missed Paint 3D since.

For real 3D: Tinkercad and Blender

If you enjoyed Paint 3D's 3D side, building scenes from shapes and spinning them around, two free tools are worth knowing, at very different levels.

Tinkercad is a free, browser-based 3D design tool from Autodesk, aimed at beginners and schools. You build models by dragging and combining shapes, much as in Paint 3D, then export them for 3D printing or other apps. It needs a free account and runs in Edge or Chrome without installation. For children and anyone who liked Paint 3D's simplicity, it is the closest modern equivalent, and many schools already use it.

Blender is a free, open-source 3D suite used by professionals for modeling, animation, rendering and more. It opens the GLB, FBX and 3MF files Paint 3D exports, and it can do everything Paint 3D did and far more. The catch is the learning curve: Blender is powerful and complex, and it takes some hours of tutorials to feel comfortable. It is ideal for a teenager who outgrew Paint 3D and wants to learn real 3D skills.

Between them sit other tools, including web-based editors and the 3D features of Microsoft 365 apps. PowerPoint, Word and Excel in Microsoft 365 can insert 3D models from files, which you can rotate and animate in presentations, a neat way to show off a model made in Tinkercad or Blender without any extra viewer.

3D printing without Paint 3D

Some families and schools used Paint 3D to design simple objects for 3D printers, since it could export 3MF files and send models to a printer. Today, Tinkercad is the easiest path for that: design in the browser, export as STL or OBJ, and open the file in your printer's slicer software, which prepares it for printing. Many printer makers include their own slicer, and free slicers work with most printers.

Old Paint 3D models exported as 3MF or GLB can be opened in Blender, checked and converted to STL if needed, then printed the same way. Paint 3D's models were often not designed with printing in mind, so check them for very thin parts or floating pieces, which slicers usually warn about. Tinkercad's own beginner lessons cover designing for printing and are a good starting point for children.

For projects that only need to look 3D on screen rather than be printed, such as a slide or a poster, a screenshot of a Tinkercad model or a Blender render pasted into Paint gives the 3D look without any 3D file handling at all.

3D Viewer is gone too: how to open 3D files now

3D Viewer was the app that opened 3D files, such as GLB, FBX, OBJ, STL and 3MF, with a double-click on Windows 10. It was deprecated in February 2026 and removed from the Microsoft Store on July 1, 2026. If it is installed, it keeps working; if not, you need another way to open 3D files.

The options are the same tools as above. Blender opens almost every 3D format and is the most complete choice. Web-based 3D viewers open files in the browser without installing anything, though you should be careful about uploading private or work files to unknown sites. For 3D printing files, such as STL and 3MF, your printer's slicer software is the natural viewer. And Microsoft 365 users can insert many 3D formats into PowerPoint to view and rotate them.

After 3D Viewer is removed, Windows may ask which app to use the first time you open a 3D file; choose your new tool and select Always. Our guide to default apps shows how to change file type associations later.

Mixed Reality Portal, the app for Windows Mixed Reality headsets, is also gone from Windows 11 version 24H2 onward, with the platform removed. If you have one of those headsets, it no longer works with current Windows 11, which is another part of the same story as Paint 3D.

Paint 3D videos, GIFs and stickers: the replacements

Paint 3D could also export short videos and GIFs of a 3D scene turning, and it had a library of stickers. Those features have different replacements.

For short videos, Clipchamp, Microsoft's video editor included with Windows 11, combines images, text and animations into video, and can export animated titles and slideshows. For a rotating 3D model, Blender can render an animation, and Tinkercad can show models from every angle for screenshots. For animated GIFs, several free tools convert short videos to GIFs, and Windows' Snipping Tool can record the screen as video.

Stickers are easier: emoji, which you open with Windows + . (period), and images pasted onto layers in Paint cover most uses. Our guide to screenshots and screen recording covers the Snipping Tool, which is handy for capturing parts of a 3D model or a web-based tool for a project.

Paint 3D not working: what you can still try

If Paint 3D is installed but will not open, crashes, or shows errors, a few repairs are worth trying, keeping in mind that no new versions are coming.

First, try Repair. Open Settings, Apps, Installed apps, find Paint 3D, select the three dots, then Advanced options, and select Repair. This fixes the app's files without touching your projects. If that fails, Reset on the same page returns the app to a fresh state, but it can delete the app's data, which may include projects saved only inside Paint 3D, so export anything important first if you can still open it.

Second, make sure Windows is up to date, and restart. Third, if Paint 3D fails only with certain files, such as large images, it may be running out of memory or hitting a bug that will never be fixed; open those files in Paint instead.

Do not uninstall Paint 3D to try reinstalling it, since the Store will not give it back. If none of this helps, it is time to move on to the replacements, which in most cases do the job better.

Edit with Paint 3D in the right-click menu

When Paint 3D is installed, File Explorer adds Edit with Paint 3D to the right-click menu of image files, in the full menu on Windows 11, under Show more options. If you have uninstalled Paint 3D but the entry remains, or it does nothing when selected, the app's registration may be left over. Restarting File Explorer or the PC usually removes it after an uninstall.

If you want images to open in Paint or Photos instead, right-click an image, choose Open with, Choose another app, pick the app and select Always. Classic Paint also appears in the right-click menu as Edit with Paint on Windows 11, which is the natural replacement for the Paint 3D entry.

Should you uninstall Paint 3D?

If you do not use it, yes. It takes up some space, receives no updates, and is unlikely to be needed again. Uninstall it from Settings, Apps, Installed apps, selecting the three dots next to Paint 3D and then Uninstall. Our guide to uninstalling programs covers apps that refuse to go.

If it does not appear in Settings, you can remove it with PowerShell. Paint 3D's package name is Microsoft.MSPaint, which is different from classic Paint's Microsoft.Paint, so be careful to remove the right one. In PowerShell, run Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft.MSPaint* | Remove-AppxPackage to remove Paint 3D for your account. Classic Paint is not affected.

If you still use Paint 3D, or someone in the family does, keep it, export projects regularly, and treat it as a tool on borrowed time. Once you are comfortable with its replacement, uninstall it. Remember that this is a one-way door: once removed, it cannot be reinstalled from Microsoft.

What happened to Remix 3D

Remix 3D was Microsoft's online community for sharing 3D models, built into Paint 3D's 3D library and into 3D Viewer. People uploaded creations, downloaded others' models, and remixed them in Paint 3D. Microsoft closed Remix 3D on January 10, 2020, after asking users to download their uploaded models beforehand.

Models that were not downloaded before the closure are gone; there is no archive to recover them from. If you had models there and saved copies, they are ordinary 3D files that open in Blender and other tools. Communities for sharing 3D models still exist, including large libraries of free models for 3D printing and design, but they are run by other companies, and their terms and licenses vary, so check how you may use a model before including it in a project.

Paint 3D for kids and schools: what to use now

Paint 3D was popular in classrooms because it was free, friendly and already installed. For schools and parents, the same qualities now point to a few tools. For image projects, Windows 11's Paint is free, installed and simple, and its layers and background removal make it more capable than Paint 3D was for posters and collages. For 3D, Tinkercad is designed for education, runs in a browser, and works well on school laptops.

For digital art, Krita is free and powerful, with natural brushes that replace Paint 3D's textured ones. And for children curious about real 3D, Blender is free and has a large community of beginner tutorials, though it suits older students better.

Teachers with old lesson plans that use Paint 3D can usually adapt them: Magic Select steps become Paint's Remove background, sticker steps become layers with images, and 3D shape steps become Tinkercad. Ethan's daughter's teacher switched her class to Paint and Tinkercad that term, and the class pet poster has a 3D-printed sequel planned.

Why Microsoft retired Paint 3D

Paint 3D belonged to a specific moment: around 2017, Microsoft expected 3D creation and mixed reality headsets to become everyday computing, and it built Paint 3D, 3D Viewer, Remix 3D and Windows Mixed Reality around that idea. Consumer interest did not follow at the scale expected, and one by one those pieces have been retired, with Paint 3D in 2024, 3D Viewer in 2026, and Windows Mixed Reality removed from Windows 11.

Meanwhile, classic Paint turned out to be the app people actually wanted, and Microsoft invested in it instead, adding the most-used Paint 3D capabilities and new ones. Seen that way, Paint 3D was not so much lost as folded back into the original. The practical lesson is simple: when Microsoft deprecates an app, it usually means it is time to learn the replacement, and the deprecation list is worth a glance once a year if you rely on built-in apps. The Maps app, retired in 2025, followed the same path; our guide to maps after the Maps app retirement covers that one.

Windows 10 users: what applies to you

Many Windows 10 PCs still have Paint 3D, because it came preinstalled on that version for years. Everything on this page applies: the app keeps working, gets no updates, and cannot be reinstalled if removed. Windows 10's own Paint is the older version, without layers or Remove background, which arrived only in the Windows 11 Paint app. On Windows 10, the Photos app and free editors such as Paint.NET are the practical replacements for Magic Select and layered projects.

If you plan to move from Windows 10 to Windows 11, export your Paint 3D projects first. An in-place upgrade usually keeps installed apps, including Paint 3D, but a clean installation or a new PC will not, and there is no way to get the app back afterward. Exporting takes a few minutes per project and removes the risk entirely.

Frequently asked questions

Paint 3D is gone from the Store and will not return, but almost nothing it did is lost. If it is installed, it still works; export your projects and keep it until you have moved on. For 2D work, Windows 11's Paint, with layers, transparency and Remove background, is the replacement already on your PC; for 3D, Tinkercad and Blender go further than Paint 3D ever did; and 3D Viewer's files open in the same tools. Skip unofficial downloads. Ethan's daughter's poster was finished in Paint the same evening, and the class pet never looked better.

Revision note. Written October 3, 2026, turning our 2016 guide to downloading Paint 3D into a complete guide to its retirement for Windows 11 and 10. It covers the timeline, whether installed copies work, why to avoid download sites, saving projects, Paint and Photos as replacements, removing backgrounds, alternatives for every job, Tinkercad and Blender, 3D Viewer's July 2026 removal, repairs, uninstalling, Remix 3D and classroom use. May every cut-out come out clean on the first click.