The reports broke the hearts of a generation of easily impressed PC users – but the pain turned out to be premature. Microsoft later clarified that, while Paint would be removed from Windows 10 as a default feature, fans would continue to be able to download it for free from the Windows Store.
Not so much a death sentence, then, as being forced into semi-retirement – a traumatic enough fate for a program found on the vast majority of the world's desktop and laptop computers for the last 32 years.
Without further ado, here is how the UK's advertising creatives marked the news.
Christian Cervantes and George Lavender, Mother
Dennis Engel and Nicholas Kugge, Saatchi & Saatchi
James Lucking and Will Wright, J Walter Thompson