Microsoft wants to add an artificial eraser to the Photos app in Windows 10 and Windows 11 to remove unwanted objects from the photo.

Does a passerby just walk into the picture when you take a photo? This used to mean retaking the photo or accepting unintended background elements, but in the wonderful world of AI, that’s no longer a problem. Microsoft is testing one with its Windows Insiders Generative epochse feature that allows you to “erase” unwanted objects from your photos using AI.

Windows Photos already has one today Spot fix which allows you to remove “spots” from your photo. However, this feature is designed to subtly retouch your photos. The eraser function that Microsoft is now testing is much less subtle: you can use it to remove entire objects or people from a photo without it being obvious from the photo that it has been edited.

Magic eraser

Microsoft shows how this works in a blog. Open a photo in the Photos app and click Edit image. The button is located in the working ribbon retouching is replaced by Delete. Select the object you want to remove and adjust the brush size to the size and width of the object. To delete multiple objects in one go, switch Apply automatically to remove “masks”, where the word “mask” represents an area to be deleted.

Windows’ erasing feature is very similar to what Samsung and Google already offer in their gallery apps for their smartphones. We now have to wait until the feature is available to all users. Whether this will happen with the Windows 11 24H1 update remains to be seen. Microsoft confirms that this will also be available for Windows 10, but only on Arm64 devices.

AI everywhere

Microsoft is adding AI to Windows apps to its heart’s content, so it should come as no surprise that Photos is also getting a touch of AI. With Paint you can generate images yourself by integrating Dall-E 3. The AI ​​hype is also reaching applications where you would less expect it. It’s the biggest innovation for the Photos app since the overhaul Microsoft made in 2022.