The year is 2026, and I’m still amazed when I find a new entry in my Start menu’s All apps list for an app I don’t remember installing. This time, it’s Microsoft again, and the product is OneDrive Photos, which appears to be yet another photo editor and viewer for Windows 11 that nobody asked for.
While searching for Microsoft Photos, a new app called “OneDrive Photos” showed up in my results out of nowhere, and it appears to have arrived either via a Windows Update or an update for the OneDrive sync client on Windows.
For those unaware, Windows already comes with OneDrive pre-installed, and it syncs your personal files to the cloud.
Right now, you can manage OneDrive files directly in File Explorer and control sync from the system tray on the taskbar. It looks like the nagging during Windows setup to use OneDrive, along with the backup feature being turned on by default, wasn’t enough, as Windows is now adding “OneDrive Photos.”
If Windows has already installed OneDrive Photos on your PC, you can find its entry in the Start menu or Windows Search, whether you’ve signed in to a Microsoft account or not.
In my case, I have the OneDrive sync app installed because it was bundled with Windows, but I haven’t signed in with a Microsoft or work account. I don’t use it. Yet the OneDrive Photos app still appeared.
Testing the new OneDrive Photos app for Windows 11
In our tests, Windows Latest noticed that the new “OneDrive Photos” app is part of the existing OneDrive installation and runs through “C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\OneDrive.App.exe.” I also noticed that it’s based on WebView2, so it’s not a native app.
OneDrive Photos doesn’t need a Microsoft account to work, as it can also detect your local files. At one point, I started to wonder whether it’ll eventually replace the Microsoft Photos app because OneDrive Photos immediately started acting like a second Photos app on my PC.
It already had access to the drives where I had images saved, and the experience isn’t exactly terrible. Although OneDrive Photos is a web app and appears to load OneDrive.com’s new design, it’s actually quite decent in terms of performance.
As you can see in the above screenshot, OneDrive Photos has a beautiful interface, and it tries to mimic Windows 11’s acrylic effect on the web. On the left side of the app, you have dedicated sections for Moments, Gallery, People, Albums, Favorites, and This PC. These are the same sections you’d find on the OneDrive web app, with ‘This PC’ being an exception.
When you open Gallery and are not signed in to your Microsoft account, you are automatically shown your local images. You also have the choice to switch layouts, but currently, there are only two layouts: River and Square. You can also choose between Roomy or Compact density and adjust the thumbnail size.
When you open an image, you can edit, share, favorite, copy, delete, print, open it in File Explorer, or set it as your lock screen or desktop background. Again, all of that might sound a bit similar to the Microsoft Photos app because image editing in the Microsoft Photos app is based on OneDrive.
Once you sign in, the app becomes a full OneDrive gallery, and you have access to AI-powered cloud search.
For example, you can search for anything vague, and OneDrive’s AI will find the most appropriate image or file. In the case of photos, it can OCR the content and locate the best one.
There’s also a People section, which goes a step further by grouping similar faces in your photos. Microsoft asks for permission before turning it on and explicitly warns that the facial data could be considered biometric data in some regions.
The company says only you can see the grouped faces, but wants you to believe the data isn’t shared with third parties, and you can delete it by disabling the feature.
Overall, OneDrive Photos appears to be more of a full photo viewer than a simple extension of the OneDrive sync client. Unfortunately, you can’t just remove OneDrive Photos and use only OneDrive sync, as the former is tied to the latter’s installation.
If you want to block the OneDrive sync client from installing OneDrive Photos, you will need to remove OneDrive entirely from Settings > Installed apps.
