The OneNote team claims that this is possible thanks to “advances in Windows and Office,” and that the resulting client will offer the “simplicity of a single OneNote app” combined with “the interface and features you’re already familiar with.” That assumption was correct: Microsoft now says that it will “unify” the two OneNote apps on Windows, by which it really means that it is dropping OneNote for Windows 10 and moving forward with OneNote desktop.

The assumption at the time was that OneNote for Windows 10 would eventually be deprecated and that Microsoft would move forward with a single OneNote client on Windows, and that that client would be the desktop version, which I’ll now call OneNote desktop. Then, in late 2019, Microsoft reversed course, and said that it would continue adding new features to both clients. But the other information in that quote hints that the revamping of OneNote will go a bit further than just lipstick on a pig.īack in 2018, Microsoft announced that it would no longer update its then-final OneNote desktop client (for Windows), called OneNote 2016 and that it would instead move forward with OneNote for Windows 10 as its only OneNote client on Windows. The “visual refresh” bit in the quote above links to Microsoft’s late June announcement about the Windows 11-inspired visual refresh it is providing to the core Office apps. “These updates include a visual refresh, the latest Microsoft pen and ink advancements, a new navigational UI layout option that can flex for customer preferences, and more.”

“We’re excited to share that OneNote on Windows will get a series of updates over the next 12 months,” the OneNote team revealed last week.

Now, the software giant says that it will revamp OneNote desktop to adopt the Windows 11 look and feel and will kill OneNote for Windows 10. Microsoft had previously revealed that it would move forward with the desktop version of OneNote and OneNote for Windows 10.

Microsoft onenote for windows 10