Microsoft may have redesigned its photos app the previous year to better match the aesthetics of Windows 11. Still, it’s testing a new rendition with a negligibly new look and a few other modifications.
Perhaps the most noticeable modification is a new gallery view, which offers a diverse way to browse your photos. Microsoft’s Dave Grochocki says in a blog post that the updated look is intended to simplify browsing, finding, managing, and consuming the images you have in your collection.
The new app will also suggest improvements to the “Memories” feature, though Grochocki’s blog post doesn’t detail exactly what’s different.
It revamped the app the previous year, but there are more changes—the new gallery vista in Microsoft’s redesigned Photos app for Windows 11.
The new app has one big downside: you won’t be able to employ the legacy app’s video editor. Instead, if you desire to trim videos, Grochocki recommends utilizing Clipchamp, the video editing app it started bundling into Windows 11 in March after acquiring the app last year. If you prefer how the legacy app works — including its video editor — the company still proposes it on the Microsoft Store as “Microsoft Photos Legacy.”
The redesigned Photos app will open to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel on Wednesday. According to Microsoft’s head of devices and Windows Panos Panay, it will roll out to everyone else in October. Perhaps it will come at the same time as some of the new Surface devices unveiled at Microsoft’s just-announced October 12th event?
While waiting for the new photos app, you might want to check out Microsoft’s big update to Windows 11, which added improvements to Snap Layouts and folders to the Start menu.
Windows 11 is the most delinquent major release of Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system, unleashed in October 2021. However, it is a free upgrade to its predecessor, Windows 10 (2015), available for any Windows 10 devices that fulfill the new Windows 11 system requirements.
Windows 11 features noteworthy changes to the Windows shell affected by the canceled Windows 10X. It includes a redesigned Start menu, substituting its “live tiles” with a distinct “Widgets” panel on the taskbar. In addition, it can create tiled sets of windows that can be minimized and restored from the toolbar as a group and new gaming technologies inherited from Xbox Series X and Series S, like DirectStorage and Auto HDR on compatible hardware.
The Chromium-based Microsoft Edge has replaced Internet Explorer (IE) as the default web browser like its predecessor, Windows 10, and Microsoft Teams is incorporated into the Windows shell. Microsoft also declared plans to permit more flexibility in software distributed via Microsoft Store and to support Android apps on Windows 11.
Mentioning security considerations, the system requirements for Windows 11 were raised over Windows 10. Microsoft only officially supports the operating system on devices using an eighth-generation Intel Core CPU or newer, AMD Ryzen CPU based on Zen+ microarchitecture or newer, or a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 ARM system-on-chip or newer. It has UEFI secure boot and Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 supported and enabled. While the OS can be installed on unsupported processors, Microsoft does not guarantee the availability of updates. In addition, windows 11 removed support for 32-bit x86 CPUs and devices which use BIOS firmware.
Windows 11 received a mixed reception at launch. Pre-release coverage of the operating system focused on its more stringent hardware requirements, with discussions over whether they were legitimately planned to improve the security of Windows or as a plot to upsell users to newer devices and over e-waste associated with the changes. However, upon release, it was praised for its improved visual design, window management, and a stronger focus on security. Still, it was criticized for various modifications to aspects of its user interface, which were seen as worse than its predecessor.