paint.net 4.3.3 alpha build 7988

This build has a bunch of bug fixes and small improvements, and the app has been migrated to .NET 6 which has a lot of performance improvements that Paint.NET benefits from.

NOTE for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and 32-bit/x86 users: Paint.NET v4.3.x will be the last release(s) that work on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or on any 32-bit/x86 version of Windows. It has become significantly more difficult and time consuming to support these lately, not very many people are using them, and I can no longer justify the cost and frustration of keeping support for these afloat. Starting with Paint.NET v4.4, only Windows 10 and 11+ will be supported, and only on 64-bit (x64 and ARM64). Once Paint.NET v4.3.3 is released, I will start working on v4.4 and will only release v4.3.x updates on an as-needed basis and only until v4.4 is completed.

Get the update

To get this update, make sure you have "Also check for pre-release (beta) versions" enabled in Settings, and then click on the Check Now button. (Unfortunately alpha/beta releases are not currently available for the Microsoft Store version of the app).

You can download the online/web installer at the forum.

Offline installers, portable ZIPs, and MSIs for deployment can be found over at the GitHub releases page.

Changes since v4.3.2:

• New: The app has been migrated to .NET 6, which has resulted in improved rendering and startup performance
• Improved: The download size is now much smaller for ARM64 by about 33%
• Improved various UI elements for Dark Theme, e.g. scrollbars and drop-down lists (Windows 10 v1809+ only)
• Fixed the way various UI controls look on Windows 11, e.g. buttons and dropdown lists
• Fixed the View -> Zoom to Window command when using the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+B), which was resetting instead of toggling the zoom level
• Fixed a rendering bug in the Dents and Polar Inversion effects, which was reported over at https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/118746-paintnet-update-changed-the-way-the-dents-distortion-filter-works-causing-unwanted-artifactsglitches-was-this-an-intended-change/
• Fixed a memory leak with the selection renderer, which would cause gigabytes of GPU memory usage and crashes
• Fixed some GDI object leaks, which would eventually result in a crash
• Fixed a crash while drawing a selection, right clicking on the History window without releasing the left mouse button, and then clicking to redo a history entry
• Fixed an issue that was preventing new plugins from loading their native DLL dependencies as specified in their .deps.json file
• Fixed the app itself crashing after an effect crash is trapped and when you choose to restart the app
• Fixed a text rendering bug in some parts of the UI, as reported by @midora over at https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/118866-paintnet-43-footnote-of-indirectui-control-in-filetype-shows-artifacts-after-scrolling/
• Fixed the "untitled:" file name argument prefix, which was preventing Window Clippings from being able to send screenshots
• Changed: The /createMsi command for the installer has been removed. Instead, you can now download the MSIs directly from the GitHub releases page.
• Fixed a few issues when using the MSI directly. The execution context was fixed, and it will no longer delete the desktop shortcut or Start Menu shortcut if executing the MSI for a second time.
• Fixed some registry keys that were not being deleted during uninstall 
• Improved performance during the "extracting" stage of the installer by migrating away from NSIS. This has also helped improve compression, although other changes have resulted in a net increase in the download size (but with improved performance for the app).
• Updated the bundled AvifFileType plugin to v1.1.16.0 (thanks @null54!)

Enjoy!