You’ll now not discover “OneDrive Pictures” within the Begin menu apps checklist or in Home windows Search outcomes, as Microsoft seems to be quietly hiding the app whereas it figures out a technique to make the expertise much less intrusive.
OneDrive Photos is the same app that was force-installed on PCs working Home windows 11 and 10, together with enterprise units the place it doesn’t even launch.
After the rollout, Microsoft referred to as it an accident and famous that it didn’t intend to launch the app so broadly.
“We’re incubating a brand new pictures expertise in OneDrive that went extra broadly than it ought to have in Home windows,” Microsoft’s Jeff Teper wrote in a put up on X. “We’re fixing that. Home windows Pictures will all the time provide the choice of native and cloud pictures and the selection to make use of OneDrive or not.”
Microsoft additionally argued that it’s listening to suggestions and can enhance how OneDrive shows pictures throughout desktop, internet, and cell.
In different phrases, Microsoft has no plans to surrender on this new consumer, although it overlaps with the present OneDrive and Pictures integrations on Home windows 11. As a substitute, the corporate now seems to be hiding the standalone app from Begin and Search whereas it really works on making the expertise much less intrusive, together with including a technique to take away it individually.
What is that this new OneDrive app?
For many who have been by no means provided the OneDrive Pictures app through the unintended rollout, it’s a brand new web-based (WebView2) consumer that lets you browse native pictures and people saved within the cloud.
This implies the app primarily masses OneDrive.com’s Gallery with entry to your native storage. In our assessments, we discovered OneDrive Pictures to be greater than first rate, as its RAM utilization usually stays beneath 1GB, which continues to be higher than Microsoft’s normal requirements, contemplating we’ve apps like Weather consistently using more than a gigabyte of memory.
OneDrive Pictures additionally does a fairly good job of being a gallery app. It mechanically finds pictures saved throughout your PC’s folders, and you’ve got the choice to manually exclude or embrace areas. On the identical time, you possibly can simply use it to entry pictures within the cloud and transfer or copy information backwards and forwards.
Nonetheless, OneDrive Pictures nonetheless feels pointless as a result of you possibly can already entry every little thing in OneDrive straight in File Explorer, or you possibly can merely use the Microsoft Pictures app.
When OneDrive Pictures was added to PCs, we observed it wasn’t simple to take away as a result of it was tied to the primary OneDrive sync consumer, which is pre-installed on Home windows PCs.
In case you clicked the Uninstall button within the search outcomes for “OneDrive Pictures,” you’d be redirected to the Home windows Settings app, the place you’d see the OneDrive sync consumer listed, not the Pictures expertise you truly wished to take away:
The issue is that if you happen to uninstall the OneDrive sync consumer simply since you don’t need the brand new Pictures app, you threat breaking OneDrive shortcuts in File Explorer and different locations, in addition to interrupting cloud sync.
For instance, if a file is synced to the cloud and isn’t current domestically, however you assume it’s, eradicating the sync consumer might depart you with out the native entry you anticipated.
Microsoft later admitted that it ought to have supplied an choice to take away OneDrive Pictures with out affecting the OneDrive sync consumer and stated it’ll be rolled out later this 12 months. However that didn’t calm the backlash, and Microsoft is now hiding the app whereas it really works on giving customers larger management over it.
OneDrive Pictures is now hidden from Home windows Search and Begin
In our assessments, OneDrive Pictures now not seems within the Begin menu’s apps checklist, and looking for “OneDrive Pictures” in Home windows Search doesn’t carry it up both.
For instance, the app confirmed up alongside the OneDrive sync consumer whenever you looked for Pictures earlier than as we speak’s replace. Now, if you happen to seek for it, you’ll solely see the sync consumer, which was already pre-installed on Home windows PCs until you eliminated it after organising Home windows.
However the OneDrive Pictures app continues to be quietly sitting inside your PC.
Our assessments verify that the app itself stays put in and might nonetheless be launched by way of different entry factors, comparable to by opening the OneDrive set up folder and double-clicking OneDrive.App.exe:
Which means Microsoft hasn’t truly eliminated it. It has merely stopped presenting OneDrive Pictures as one other standalone app in your PC.
That’s in all probability a greater strategy than placing one more Pictures app within the Begin menu, particularly when Home windows already ships with Microsoft Pictures and OneDrive is deeply built-in into File Explorer. However it additionally makes the entire rollout even stranger.
OneDrive Pictures now quietly lives in your PC and might learn your native pictures, nevertheless it gained’t present up in Search or the Begin menu. I assume that is a part of Microsoft’s effort to restrict the backlash whereas it really works on including a devoted uninstall choice.
“We’re including controls to take away the OneDrive Pictures expertise individually from the OneDrive app,” Microsoft beforehand famous in an replace to its admin portal.
“OneDrive is giving individuals extra management over their Home windows expertise by permitting them to uninstall the OneDrive Pictures expertise independently. Eradicating the Pictures expertise doesn’t uninstall the OneDrive app, interrupt file sync, or delete pictures and information. This supplies a transparent removing choice for individuals who want to handle their pictures with one other app,” the corporate defined.
It’s solely a matter of time earlier than OneDrive Pictures returns extra visibly, however when it does, you’ll at the very least have the choice to take away it simply.
