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Microsoft is dialing up the productivity on Windows Photos with AI-powered OCR and Super Resolution tools, now available to Windows Insiders since October 22. By November, users on both Windows 10 and Windows 11 can expect these AI-driven updates, which will provide text extraction and image upscaling capabilities to streamline workflows and improve accessibility.
The OCR feature in the Photos app lets users pull text from images in over 160 languages, making it simple to copy and paste info right into documents or emails. It’s especially helpful for people with visual impairments.
Microsft understands the importance of easily accessing and managing the information captured in your photos, said Alyssa Dunn, Senior Product Manager for Microsoft Photos. She emphasized that OCR in the Photos app will improve productivity and make managing information in images easier.
OCR should also be beneficial for productivity in the workplace and educational settings. Students and professionals often run into information in printed formats—like handouts, notes, or photos of slides. With OCR, they can quickly grab text from these sources, cutting down on time and making their workflow much smoother.
Super Resolution, on the other hand, uses AI to upscale and enhance images up to eight times. This is valuable for anyone needing high-quality, detailed images for presentations or close-up viewing. This feature will initially roll out in Copilot+ compatible PCs powered by Snapdragon CPUs only due to its strict Neural Processing Unit (NPU) requirements to support such intensive AI tasks. However, Microsoft plans to bring it down the road to Intel Core 200 and AMD Ryzen AI 300 CPUs.
Alongside these major updates, Microsoft has made several smaller improvements to the Photos app, including single-click support in the Gallery and better zoom synchronization.
As of now, this update is only available for those on the Insider preview, so most users won’t get their hands on these new features until sometime next month. Once it’s fully released, users will need version 2024.11100.17007.0 of the Photos app, which will be available through the Microsoft Store for everyone, even on devices still using Windows 10.
As Windows 10 approaches its end-of-life support in 2025, Microsoft’s decision to make these updates compatible with both Windows 10 and 11 reinforces its commitment to legacy users while encouraging upgrades to newer devices.
