Windows 10 2004: Does Update KB4565503 remove apps?

[Geman]Brief question to  people with Windows 10 May 2020 Update. Do you still have applications like Notepad, Wordpad and the classic MS Paint? It looks like Microsoft will remove these applications via update.

I am aware of this comment in the blog, where a blog reader pointed to a potential issue with Windows 10.

a few days late on this but installing the KB4565503 update for v2004 seemed to have removed apps like Notepad, Wordpad & classic MS Paint for some users as noted here …

The commentator referred to this article at Softpedia, which refers to this source and gives some details. Although the update provides a number of patches to close vulnerabilities, the package is not without side effects. It appears that KB4565503 is occurring to a small group of users. If you install the update KB4565503 on July 14, 2020 or later, you might lose some standard Windows 10 applications like Notepad, Wordpad and the classic MS Paint.

Missing Notepad on Windows 10 2004?

Hi all. I've recently discovered that I no longer have access to Notepad on my Surface Pro 6 running the latest stable release for Windows 10 2004. I've tried searching for other people running into this issue, but I can't find any answers. I have discovered that Microsoft was considering removing it, but that never went through. Unfortunately, Notepad is completely gone on my PC. I can't search for it and I can't create a new file in the right click context menu. Has anyone else experienced this issue? I'd love to be able to get Notepad back if I can. It was a very handy tool for me.

On reddit.com you can find the above entry, but it has nothing to do with the July Patchday 2020. The user notices that the notepad has disappeared. But the reddit.com postings here and here deal with the same thing, and Paint has disappeared as well. On Microsoft Answers you can find this post with the same tenor.

When trying to call Notepad, you get the above error message. However, there is an answer here that indicates that Notepad has not been removed. But with a Clean Install Notepad has disappeared.

Cumulative Update KB4565503

Cumulative Windows 10-Update KB4565503 was released on 14 July 2020 by Microsoft for Windows 10 version 2004 and Windows Server version 2004. The KB article lists many fixes, but does not include information regarding remote apps. So the above articles are first hints for me that something is going on.

Microsoft has announced the change in January 2020

Microsoft has declared Notepad, Microsoft Paint and Wordpad as optional features in Windows 10 May 2020 Update. There used to be an approach to anchor Notepad as a UWP app in the store, but that approach has died (see Windows 10: Notepad app died, driver update too). Some more information can be found in this article by deskmodder about the Windows 10 Build 20H1 (the current version 2004).

Microsoft has declared Notepad, Microsoft Paint and Wordpad as optional features in Windows 10 May 2020 Update. There used to be an approach to anchor Notepad as a UWP app in the store, but that approach has died (see Windows 10 20H1: KB4533028 for Insider – Notepad store app died, driver update experiment ends). Some more information can be found in this article by deskmodder about the Windows 10 Build 20H1 (the current version 2004).

With the Windows 10 version 2004, Microsoft has marked apps like notepad.exe as optional. These can be installed and uninstalled. To get notepad or other apps back, go to the Windows 10 settings page under Apps & Features. On the right side there is a hyperlink to manage optional features (see here and here). Via Add-Feature or similar, you can access the list of apps on the following page. The missing applications should appear there and can be reinstalled.

What sucks is that according to the article here, the detours you have to take to reactivate Notepad and Co. differ from Windows 10 build to build. The Microsoft developers are tinkering at the most impossible corners to keep the stuff running. But the fat bugs, which are reported again and again, stay in Windows for months. People have lost imho scaling, which is important.