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Microsoft Photos (for Windows 10)

 & Michael Muchmore Contributor

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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With the addition of slick but simple video editing tools, the Microsoft Photos app becomes a respectable entry-level media-creation toolbox.

AI-Powered Search

The default Windows Photos app has a beautiful Fluent Design look, and can edit videos as well as photos. Starting with Fall Creators Update, you can use AI-powered search to find photos containing particular types of objects, and all photos of a person's face.

Collection

Photos' Collection presents all the photos on your PC whether, they're locally saved image files, screenshots, or OneDrive photo files, in date groups.

Edit Video

You can now join and trim video clips, and add filter effects and background music. What's more, the Video Remix feature will do all this automatically for you, once you select a few clips and/or photos. You can even add 3D overlays (leaves, bubbles, file, electricity, and more) and anchor them to objects in the video. You can also add arresting text titles, or create a slow motion video.

3D Effects

A new set of 3D effect overlays let you jazz up your videos and slideshows. You can choose from things ranging from butterflies to blizzards to explosions. It's infinitely easier than using After Effects. A really impressive plus is that you can Anchor any effect to have it follow any object in the video, and you can add multiple effects in the same video.

Creations

You can create albums and videos yourself or have the app create them for you automatically.

Photo Info

The information panel shows an image's EXIF data along with a map of where it was shot if the image includes geotagging info.

Menu Choices

Here are some of the right-click options. Note that you can set any photo as your background wallpaper or lock screen image.

Crop

Cropping works just as you'd want it to, with preset aspect ratios or free-form.

Retouch

The Retouch tool can fix a blemish, and red-eye correction is very automatic and well implemented.

Album Choices

After you create an album or when viewing one automatically created, you can swap photos in and out or turn it into a video.

Draw on Photos

You draw on both photos and videos.

Folders

You can have the app add all photos from specified folders on your PC as well as using the Import tool for easily transferring images from a card.

About Our Expert

Michael Muchmore

Michael Muchmore

Contributor

My Experience

I've been testing PC and mobile software for more than 20 years, focusing on photo and video editing, operating systems, and web browsers. Prior to my current role, I covered software and apps for ExtremeTech and headed up PCMag’s enterprise software team. I’ve attended trade shows for Microsoft, Google, and Apple and written about all of them and their products.

I still get a kick out of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine, the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft misstep and win, up to the latest Windows 11.

I’m an avid bird photographer and traveler—I’ve been to 40 countries, many with great birds! Because I’m also a classical music fan and former performer, I’ve reviewed streaming services that emphasize classical music.

Technology I Use

For everyday work, I use a good-old Dell tower with 16GB of RAM, a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 processor, and an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti GPU that runs on Windows 11. I pair it with a 4K Lenovo ThinkVision P27u-10 monitor and a Logitech MX Vertical mouse. For offsite work, I use a 2024 Microsoft Surface Laptop with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor. Camera-wise, I moved to mirrorless from a Canon EOS 80D with a Canon 70-300mm IS USM lens. I now have a Canon EOS R7 with a 100-400mm lens, but I miss my DSLR for several reasons.

In order of usage, the software I turn to most frequently is the Edge web browser, Slack, Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft 365, Firefox, Brave, and WhatsApp. I use the Windows Phone link app to see everything on my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra phone, which has excellent telephoto capability.

For fitness monitoring, I have a Fitbit Charge 6 and use an Anker Smart Scale P1. I’m also a streaming fan, so I subscribe to both Amazon Music Unlimited (especially for its Dolby Atmos content) and Qobuz (for its high-res sound quality and classical catalog). I recently added a Vizio 5.1 Soundbar SE, which sounds surprisingly good given its low price. To holler commands instead of using a remote control, I have the Amazon Fire TV Cube in the living room, which lets me verbally tell the TV what I want to watch. It hooks up to an LG B4 OLED TV. I have a Sonos One speaker in my kitchen that also ties in with Alexa, as does the Echo Dot 2 With Clock in my bedroom. For serious listening, I have B&W 601 speakers plugged into a Conrad-Johnson Sonographe amp and preamp, with a Cambridge Audio AXN10 streamer as source. For reading, I also have a Nook GlowLight 3.

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