Microsoft’s latest Insider build hides an experimental version of File Explorer with a real photo gallery.
The Windows 11 File Explorer as we know it today could soon experience big changes. If we already knew that Microsoft was working on a major overhaul of this central element of Windows, we now know a little more about the new features that await us. Or rather one in particular.
In the latest Insider build of Windows 11, leaker Albacore discovered that Microsoft had hidden a new version of File Explorer within which is a Photo Gallery. Disabled by default, this allows you to browse your photo library by date and even has a dedicated search field.
Your photos will soon be perfectly organized in File Explorer
To stumble upon this new feature, Albacore first had to activate the new File Explorer based on Windows App SDK, before being able to activate the gallery. To access these two elements, disabled by default in Windows 11 Build 25300, the leaker simply modified a Registry value before using ViVeToola free and open source tool that he created himself and made available on Github.
The new gallery view is part of an upcoming general purpose XAML folder view control, suggesting that the main file browsing area will ditch DirectUI in the future. Besides the Gallery view there’s also a simple list view (intended for recent items in File Explorer Home). pic.twitter.com/SrXSencAX7
— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) February 19, 2023
This new version of File Explorer, which Microsoft has been working on for several weeks now, visually has very few differences with the current File Manager. The interface is thus almost identical with one exception. In this new File Explorer, a Gallery icon sits just below Home. By clicking on it, Windows displays your photo library, organized in the form of thumbnails ordered by date. To the right of the window, a timeline allows you to quickly navigate between the months and years of your shots. A system that is reminiscent of that of Google Photos.
At the top right of this photo gallery, the File Explorer search box seems to be dedicated entirely to finding images. Nevertheless, as it stands, this field of research is not very useful. It only allows you to search for images by name. However, it could be that Microsoft wants to exploit it by integrating a little artificial intelligence, by integrating, for example, face recognition. Microsoft could offer even better. The firm could be inspired by what Google has done with Lens, to search for content or objects in your photos using AI.
According to Tom’s Hardware, which was able to activate the feature on a machine, the photo gallery of this new File Explorer displays images stored in OneDrive by default. It is however possible to configure the functionality so that it displays the images stored in the local directories of the machine.
For the moment, no date is known for a possible availability of this function. This one, still at a very early stage of development, is still very unstable according to Albacore. It will therefore be necessary to be patient and surely wait several more months to see it arrive in a stable version on Windows 11.
Tom’s Hardware
