Microsoft is known for developing user-friendly, and innovative software solutions for a long time. One of the best they have to offer is the iconic Windows, which is an operating system as we all know. Windows comes up plenty of useful inbuilt features, which continue to grow as an update is rolled out for Windows.
One such feature is the Photos app, which is a part of Microsoft Store rolled out from Windows 8. This article demonstrates how to use Photos app to it’s optimum, it’s key components and how to share pictures through various applications with just a few clicks.
This guide assumes the reader has a Microsoft account, and they have already logged in to it. If you haven’t logged in yet, you can easily do so via Settings | Accounts.
Managing Photos
Managing photos with Photos app is easier than managing with third-party photos applications because the app itself is simple, and well organized. Upon launching the app, the first window displays three sections, namely Collection, Albums and Folders.
- Collection shows up all the images regardless of the album or location they are stored at.
- Albums brings up all the available photo albums.
- Folders shows up all folders that have been added in settings to be scanned.
Adding Photos
Adding photos to Photos app is a very simple task. However, they can’t be added straight because the app is designed to automatically fetch all photos that are stored in selected folders. The following steps show how to add photos to Photos app.
- Locate the three horizontal dotted-line button and click it to open Menu, and then select Settings.
- In the Sources section, click Add a folder and select the folder which has to be scanned for photos.
Synchronize Photos Between Different Machines
Synchronizing photos between different machines is not hard as it used to be courtesy OneDrive integrating with the Photos app. OneDrive by default contains three folders namely Attachments, Documents and Pictures. The Pictures folder is where all photos are stored. Since the Photos app, by default uses OneDrive’s Pictures folder in its settings, a new photo shows up in the Photos app as soon as it is added to OneDrive. Use the following steps to configure it if it’s not already there.
- Navigate to the Settings window.
- Add the Pictures folder of OneDrive as one of the sources to be scanned.
View Cloud Only Pictures
Cloud only content is not downloaded to the client side; hence by default, it doesn’t appear in the Photos app. However, by applying some changes they can be made to appear on the client side easily.
- Navigate to the Settings window.
- Move the slider to the right to turn on Show my cloud-only content from OneDrive, and select Pictures folders only in the drop-down menu to prevent other content from cluttering the view pane.
Selecting the right settings
Organizing Photos
Photos can be organized in multiple ways. The default method is creating albums to organize them, while the other less convenient way is creating folders through File Explorer, and assigning photos to those folders. This means that the Photos app follows this route as well.
- In the Photos app, navigate to the Albums section.
- Click the Create a new album button.
- Select the photos you want to add by adding a tick in the checkbox on each photo, then click Add to finish creating the album.
Adding up multiple photos to the album - Click the text which reads New Album to rename the album.
- The albums can also be uploaded to both OneDrive and Sway through the Photos App.
Sharing the album on OneDrive / Sway
Sharing Photos
Sharing Photos can be done in multiple ways. Individual photos can be shared with a host of Microsoft Store apps, and Albums can be shared through either OneDrive or Microsoft Sway.
- Click on any photo, and select Share.
- Upon selecting Share, a menu will be opened on the right side of the screen on where various apps appear. Select one of the apps to share the selected photo.
- To share an album, right-click on an album, and select Share album.
- At the moment, the Photos app allows sharing albums through Sway and OneDrive only, so select between these two mediums and you will see the album open up on the respective website.
- In OneDrive, the album can be shared via the Share option.
- Adjust the permission settings related to the album and then copy the link so that you can to share the album with whoever you want.
- In Sway, the albums can be shared in the same way. Click the Share button, and copy the link to easily share with people you want.
Sharing the albums in Sway
Raza Ali Kazmi works as an editor and technology content writer at Sorcim Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. He loves to pen down articles on a wide array of technology related topics and has also been diligently testing software solutions on Windows & Mac platforms. If you have any question about the content, you can message me or the company's support team.