Microsoft Photos (for Windows)

What is Microsoft Photos? 

Microsoft Photos is the free, built-into-Windows program that you can use to view and manage your photos. Microsoft Photos is either pre-installed in Windows 10 and 11 or can be downloaded from the Windows Store.

Who is it for?

If you

• can't install another photo organising program (sometimes referred to, with the lofty term Digital Asset Manager).
• want a DAM for free
• prefer not to use third party software
• have grown used to Windows File Explorer and want a few more features
• want to use it because "it's there"
• don't shoot raw image files or have a camera that is supported by the free available raw codecs
• are not bothered by missing features
• do minimal editing to your photos

It is also inevitable to discover and try out what comes in the box with Microsoft Windows before thirsting for more or better tools.

What's What

The top menu is displayed in a way that explains how Microsoft Photos thinks.

The Collection Tab

Collection presents your photos in a timeline view, Microsoft Photos automatically looks at all the folders you have nominated, at the files and shows them in groups according to Month-Year. 

You can choose to View by Date Taken or Recently Added. Date Taken would be from the EXIF metadata (?)

The Collection is automatically populated by Microsoft Photos

Along the top of the Collection screen are tiles representing actions you can take.

• Recent photos
• Protect your memories - Back Up to OneDrive
• On This Day
• Happy Days - it appears to AI identify the "Smile"
• Most Popular Tag - it appears to AI identify recognised subjects
• On This Day - specific date
• You're the director - click on the tile to switch to Video Editor Mode
  
  

The Albums Tab

You can create a virtual album by nominating photos into an album that you name yourself. The photos are not moved from their original folders, this is virtual. This means that a photo can be displayed in more than one Album. Certain albums are automatically created and named for you.

Where is the Albums metadata stored? In an SQLite database in

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Photos_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\MediaDb.v1.sqlite

This database contains details of all your albums, as well as metadata from images (date taken, camera models, etc.) as well as information extracted using the AI engine (such as recognising faces, types of scenes, etc.).

The People Tab

Microsoft Photos uses face recognition to show candidates for you to name. You can click on the person to dive down to all relevant photos.

The Folders Tab

The Folders Tab is surprisingly not a Windows Explorer like tree of folders. It is a set of Tiles, (including Recent) which you can click on to dive into to show the photos. Photos in those Folders will be displayed in the Collections Tab timeline

The first Tile is Add a folder. When you click on this tile you will see the suggested folders to add to the Windows Library - Pictures. Windows Photos relies on this library concept to populate its Collections

To remove folders from the Folders Tab, Click on the thee dots symbol (elipsis) on the top right of the Photos window and look at the Sources section.

The Video Tab

The Video Tab takes you to the Video Editor and shows your Video Projects

Integrates with Paint 3D

Editing Features of Microsoft Photos

Microsoft Photos has rudimentary editing features.

• Rotate
• Flip
• Crop
• Auto Enhance
• Adjust Brightness (Light)
• Colour (Saturation)
• Clarity
• Apply a Vignette
• Remove Red Eye
• Spot Fix
• Apply fixed set of colour grading filters
• Draw
• Resize
• Add 3D effects
• Add animated text

This program can also

• Edit Metadata on
• Filename
• Description
• Data and Time Photo Taken
• Tags can't be edited manually. You can use Windows File Explorer to edit Tags. Additionally, Microsoft OneDrive uses AI to autotag photos
• Set Favourite
• Save As
• Print
• Copy
• Set As
• Desktop Background
• Lock Screen Background
• Share
• Slideshow
• launch other Photo apps with Open With
• launch Microsoft Store for more editing Apps

File Type Support

• jpeg
• tiff ?
• bmp ?
• raw (given that relevant raw codecs are installed
• HEIC / HEVC - there is a codeC available for a small price from the Microsoft Store

Why you might not want to use Microsoft Photos

• You feel that there are many features you want, missing.
• You don't have faith that Microsoft will continue this line of software in future versions of Windows.