Solved Opinion: Windows Photos App on Windows 11 is a piece of bloatware

SlicEnDicE said:

What on earth have they included into the 882MB of space it takes after installed?

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Damn! That's almost as much as my entire Affinity Photo Suite!!!

Edwin said:

Damn! That's almost as much as my entire Affinity Photo Suite!!!

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This is very suspicious, in my computer Photos is less than 25MB. Scan for malware ASAP!

spapakons said:

This is very suspicious, in my computer Photos is less than 25MB. Scan for malware ASAP!

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On a clean install of Windows, where I let the Store update to latest apps as usual? Nothing else installed yet.

It's not malware. One file is about 300MB and there are a few files that are over 100MB each. They all seem to be part of the AI features of the App. The biggest file is the model and the smaller are related to the code it can execute.

The upgrade Store apps, open Store, click Library and click Get Upgrades.

spapakons said:

The upgrade Store apps, open Store, click Library and click Get Upgrades.

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?

To upgrade Store apps, open Store, click Library and click Get Upgrades. Typo before my coffee, sorry.

Yes that's what I do, among many other tasks, every single time before I need the computer to be responsive a long time during certain tasks. Don't want any updates or other system optimizations to be running in the background during those times. While active hours work decently well...it's not 100% every time.

spapakons said:

To upgrade Store apps, open Store, click Library and click Get Upgrades.

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I don't have a Store..., I told you that!
I had them tear it down! My office is not zoned commercial, so, I complained to city council.
They didn't even get a building permit, didn't apply for a vendors permit, so, I had them tear it down!
Not turning my PC into an MS Flea Market!!!

It's not a simple Photos app anymore - even tho its functions/features are rather basic/limited. Thus, rather mediocre both as an image viewer and even more so as a photo editor. It's packed (or crowded - for users like me) - with features meant for specific users (backing up to OneDrive or accessing iCloud directly through Photos). Such as...

Features​

• View and organize all your photos and videos in a multi-source, lightning fast "All Photos" gallery.
• Back up your photos to OneDrive to keep them protected and accessible across all your devices, and manage your storage, directly from the Photos app.
• View, edit, and compare images in multi-view.
• Connect your iCloud Photos account and view in a dedicated iCloud Photos gallery, or in the All Photos gallery. (only on Windows 11)
• Import from your camera, mobile device, or external drive seamlessly.
• Relive memories and view photos and videos in a slideshow, complete with animations, transitions, and music (select from 24 original tracks). (only on Windows 11)

• Use AI editing tools powered by Microsoft Designer, such as Generative Erase or Background Blur, to create more vivid and powerful images.

What's new in this version​

Access to Key Photos Actions: Important actions such as "Start slideshow" and "Share" are now right on the main viewing screen instead of hidden inside the overflow menu.
• Dedicated section for Microsoft apps: We have grouped all the Microsoft apps shortcuts together so you can easily launch Windows Photos, Clipchamp or OneDrive.
• Photo metadata details and the dynamic zoom slider can now be found at the bottom of the screen.
• Device Import Options: We have introduced a new feature that lets you choose and manage when to begin transferring photos and videos from local devices at your convenience.
• Viewer Performance: This release also comes with our new WASDK multi-process performance lifts that improve viewer load time by 2.1 times.
• Edit with Designer: We have introduced an integration with Microsoft Designer so you can access AI image editing tools directly from the Photos app. Available on Windows 11 to start and currently limited to users within specific countries.

iCloud is a trademark of Apple Inc.

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Personally, i find most of this features useless (cause i simply don't use them) - and thus, it became an inconvenience (waste of space - since i have different image viewers as default Photo Viewer - like IrfanView and also use different image editors which are far more capable). Yet for others - it's probably just what they need (all in one place - so they don't have to bother with external apps).

This days, even a modern Web Browser increased in size up-to 10x. And now that A.I. is becoming the norm - the size of upcoming apps keeps getting bigger and bigger. A.I. generating tools ran locally (on PC's own storage) - have obscene requirements, such as: Amuse

A WHOLE GIGABYTE? NO WAY, what ever am i going to do about losing such an insanely large amount of space! Nothing because its not 2006 anymore. I have literally thousands of em available. 1 isn't an issue.

Still, Photos is not Photoshop and certainly one whole GB is too much even by today standards.

spapakons said:

Still, Photos is not Photoshop and certainly one whole GB is too much even by today standards.

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Just so miniscule to even remotely care about. What do i get if i go and remove it all etc? A gb im not even gonna notice? Literally a number on a screen exercise

ShamrockRig said:

Just so miniscule to even remotely care about. What do i get if i go and remove it all etc? A gb im not even gonna notice? Literally a number on a screen exercise

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That's not the point though.

Imagine you have about 20 tools you use daily. If all of those tools will grow proportionately to how much Photos has now grown in comparison to its features. 500 Terabyte would barely be enough to cover my disk space needs. Where Windows would by itself consume half of that if adding same growth to every component. I have one application or set of binaries that right now consume about 150-250GB in order to be useful for me. Other tools may use more and others less.

So yeah, simple apps like Photos growing about 40x all of a sudden, without giving any proper additional value, is a huge issue.

I don't use Copilot, I have a local Administrator account. Could be that? Disable or uninstall Copilot and see if that makes any difference.

SlicEnDicE said:

That's not the point though.

Imagine you have about 20 tools you use daily. If all of those tools will grow proportionately to how much Photos has now grown in comparison to its features. 500 Terabyte would barely be enough to cover my disk space needs. Where Windows would by itself consume half of that if adding same growth to every component. I have one application or set of binaries that right now consume about 150-250GB in order to be useful for me. Other tools may use more and others less.

So yeah, simple apps like Photos growing about 40x all of a sudden, without giving any proper additional value, is a huge issue.

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an app at 150 to 250 isnt unheard of, a lot of games are that, which is still an app. So yeah, I've got a full tb loaded with games, a 500 ssd thats loaded too. Give me a pc with only 500gb, im still not gonna go and save that 1 teeny weeny gb.
Do you clean every single touch a dirt off a car? Or dyou wash it like a normal person and dont worry about that .1 of stuff that took more time to sort than the rest did. Its nit picking, its being anal, its being pedantic. People lose sleep over literally f all nowadays. My audio program takes up about 400mb, is this extreme for audio? Can i save 100mb somewhere and make the world of difference? Honestly mountains outta molehills

You can't be seriously comparing a full fledged game with high fidelity graphics to a simple app that displays pics and has a few image manipulation filters that can barely do their job...

There's quite the difference.

It's not about saving a few MB here and a few there. It's all about apps that needlessly waste resources. Resources aren't limitless. And there exist a lot of computer enthusiasts out there who can barely afford a computer, and not to forget HDD upgrades...

The whole mentality that we should spew out tools as fast as we can without any consideration for how expensive it is to have installed or run is plain wrong. This mentality has completely gotten out of control.

It is simple, download Revo Uninstaller and get rid of Photos and any other Windows app you don't use to save space.

SlicEnDicE said:

You can't be seriously comparing a full fledged game with high fidelity graphics to a simple app that displays pics and has a few image manipulation filters that can barely do their job...

There's quite the difference.

It's not about saving a few MB here and a few there. It's all about apps that needlessly waste resources. Resources aren't limitless. And there exist a lot of computer enthusiasts out there who can barely afford a computer, and not to forget HDD upgrades...

The whole mentality that we should spew out tools as fast as we can without any consideration for how expensive it is to have installed or run is plain wrong. This mentality has completely gotten out of control.

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it was in comparison to you comparing a 150gb to 200gb app to an photo app? LOL. Dont do something then moan at someone else for it. I aint losing any fps or speed because of a 1gb photos app that doesn't even run. Do you go into the shop and complain that something is 4pence(or relevant currency) more expensive? That the jolly ranchers have 1 less sweetie than it used to? So pedantic

And if you have 150-200 gb of "tools" to do stuff like this....isnt that just stupid LOL. Honestly people think they are entirely right, cannot be wrong, will not be wrong, everything they do is right, everyone else is wrong. Because of.....1gb hahaha, internet people are quality man

Not everyone can afford a 480GB SSD or larger. Most still have 240GB or even 120GB SSD, if they have replaced their old mechanical disk. At these low capacities every MB counts and a image viewer like Photos app taking more than 100MB is not acceptable, even 100MB is too much for its features, mostly useless.