Microsoft 公佈 Windows 11 品質改進及重新設計的 Photos 應用程式

Microsoft revealed today a redesigned version of its Photos app for Windows 11 that brings a new Gallery interface, a redesigned Viewer experience, and a more capable photo editor. The new app will start rolling out to select Windows Insiders later today before expanding to all Windows 11 users later this year.

“Our focus is simple: help you rediscover and organize your collection, give you more capable tools for your favorite shots, and make the everyday experience faster,” explained Giorgio Sardo, Vice President, Microsoft Store and Windows Apps. This starts with the new Gallery view, which offers better scrolling performance and natural language search. Opening a photo from File Explorer will also launch the faster Viewer experience, which also offers a cleaner layout.

The unified Gallery view still brings together local photos and other pictures stored on OneDrive and iCloud, which can be browsed online or offline. By signing in to OneDrive, the new Photos app will also display the same albums and memories that are visible in the OneDrive photo experience on the web and mobile. The app also introduces new filters to make it easier to find specific people or locations in photos, and natural language search is available as an alternative.

Microsoft emphasized that the Viewer and Editor features in its Photos app are now “native,” which means that they’ve been rebuilt with Microsoft’s WinUI 3 framework. This will lead to better performance (up to 25% faster launch for the Editor, and 15% faster Viewer launch performance) and new capabilities.

The new native Editor now lets users edit and save HEIC and WebP images in their original format. Moreover, editing HDR photos taken from an iPhone will no longer degrade their color and contrast.

Microsoft also mentioned the addition of an improved AI model for removing objects in pictures when using the app’s Repair tool. Relight, another AI-powered tool that gives users control over their photos’ lighting, will be made available on all Windows 11 devices.

“We’re continuing to invest in the fundamentals that make Photos feel fast, dependable, and easy to use. Performance, reliability, and usability matter in every part of the experience, whether you open a single picture or spend time exploring your collection,” Sardo said today. “Our goal is not simply to add more capabilities, but to make the time you spend with your photos better.”

This new Photos app will be rolling out to select Insiders later today, but Microsoft published a separate blog post highlighting recent performance and quality improvements on Windows 11. “The result is a Windows experience that’s up to 20% more responsive, with improvements you can feel as soon as you boot into your PC and extending to Start, File Explorer, Search, Snipping Tool, Microsoft 365, Edge and more,” the company said.

Overall, Microsoft has optimized Windows 11 to make the OS run better on PCs with just 8GB of memory. The company also improved the reliability of Bluetooth headphones and Windows Hello authentication, and it continues to work with its hardware partners to improve the quality of their drivers.

After rebuilding the Start Menu and taskbar from the ground up, Microsoft recently brought back the ability to change the taskbar position, which has been a top-requested feature. The company also improved Windows Update to give users more control over when updates install.

Microsoft continues its work to make it easier to access the content from Android phones on Windows 11. With supported Android phones, mobile apps can be opened in resizable windows on the desktop. More apps are also allowing users to resume what they started on their phone on their PC.

Lastly, Windows Insiders can currently test an improved Windows Search experience with inline actions to perform common tasks faster. This will be coming to all Windows 11 users later this year alongside the new Photos app.