Want to erase a stranger from a holiday shot or blur a messy background without installing anything? Microsoft Photos, the built-in Windows viewer, now includes AI tools such as Generative erase and background blur, remove and replace, alongside quick crops and color fixes.
How can you browse photos and albums?
Photos opens pictures and videos from your PC and shows them in a gallery built from your picture folders. OneDrive and iCloud Photos can be added too, so phone pictures appear next to local files.
The 2026 redesign moved the OneDrive, Designer and Clipchamp buttons into an Open with menu, leaving a cleaner, faster viewer.
What can you adjust in a photo?
The editor crops, rotates and changes aspect ratio, and adjusts brightness, contrast, exposure and color, with filters for a quick look. Generative erase removes unwanted objects and fills the gap realistically, while the background tools blur, remove or swap what is behind your subject.
- Change brightness and contrast.
- On Copilot+ PCs, use Super Resolution to upscale an image up to eight times.
Can Microsoft Photos handle videos too?
Yes, it plays videos stored on the PC. Video editing is handed over to Microsoft Clipchamp, which replaced the old built-in Video Editor.
Pros
- Opens photos and videos stored on the PC
- Organizes pictures into folders and albums
- Generative erase and background blur, removal and replacement
- Adjusts brightness, contrast, and aspect ratio
Cons
- Super Resolution needs a Copilot+ PC
- Video editing requires Clipchamp
- No RAW development or layers
System requirements: Windows 10, Windows 11
Can Microsoft Photos remove objects from a picture?
Yes. Generative erase removes unwanted objects or people and fills the area so the edit blends in.
Can it show my iPhone photos?
Yes. Add iCloud Photos inside the app and your iPhone pictures appear in the gallery.
Does Microsoft Photos edit videos?
Not by itself. It plays videos and sends them to Clipchamp, the Windows video editor, for editing.
What is Super Resolution?
An AI upscaler that enlarges a photo up to 8x on Copilot+ PCs, running locally on the NPU.
