How to Edit Photos on Windows 10/11 Like a Pro

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How to Edit Photos on Windows 10/11 Like a Pro

Last Updated: 2025. 12. 08

Looking for the easiest ways to edit photos on Windows? You’re in the right place. Whether you’re touching up a portrait, enhancing travel shots, or preparing images for social media, there’s no shortage of powerful Windows photo editors out there.

To save you time, we’ve put together a simple guide covering two built-in Windows tools and three popular third-party editors—all designed to help you customize your photos with ease. Let’s jump in!

How to Edit Photos on Windows

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Two Built-in Windows Tools to Edit Pictures on Windows

Firstly, let’s take a closer look at the built-in Windows tools—Windows Photos and Paint—and see how you can use them to edit your images.

Photos: Edit Pictures with AI Features on Windows 10/11

The Windows Photos app was originally designed for viewing and basic edits, offering simple tools like crop, rotate, and filters to quickly polish your pictures. Now, with AI built into the latest version, it goes a step further—letting you blur backgrounds, remove unwanted objects, and apply automatic enhancements for a more creative touch.

Best of all, it’s completely free. Even the AI-powered features come at no cost, making it an excellent choice for anyone looking to edit images on Windows without installing extra software or paying for upgrades.

Photos: Edit Pictures with AI Features on Windows 10/11

How to Edit Pictures on Windows Using Photos App

Note: The Edit with Designer feature in latest version is available on Windows 11 to start and currently limited to users within specific countries. Before you begin, check whether an update is needed and if the AI features are available in your area for full edits.

Step 1

Open Photos app on your PC or use Search function to find it.

Step 2

Select the photo you want to edit and double-click it to activate the editor page.

Step 3

Tap Edit button located on the top left corner and you’ll see a lot of edit options.

Step 4

Freely to crop, filter and mark-up the image or erase unwanted objects and adjust backgrounds with the power of AI. Modify the graphic until it reaches the desired look.

Step 5

When you’re happy with the result, tap Save options to save the edited picture.

How to Edit Photos on Windows Using Microsoft Photos App

Drawbacks of Windows Photos App:

While Windows Photos app is an excellent built-in photo editor, it still comes with a few drawbacks:

Unable to add text in photo.

Not support multi-layer for more detailed image editing.

Limited editing functionalities to retouch photos for various purposes.

The Microsoft Designer integration(AI editing features) in the Windows 11 Photos app is currently available in the US, UK, Australia, Ireland, India, and New Zealand.

Paint: Edit Photos on Windows 11

The Paint app, a simple drawing and editing tool on Windows, now also includes AI features to spark creativity. It’s ideal for quick tasks like cropping, resizing, drawing, layering multiple images, and adding basic shapes or text.

However, access to its AI capabilities, such as background removal, text-to-image generation, and generative erase—requires a subscription for free users. Fortunately, Microsoft provides every user with 50 starter credits to try, with each AI action costing just one credit. Thanks to its simplicity and ease of use, Paint remains a helpful tool for beginners who want to edit images quickly and effortlessly.

Paint: Edit Photos on Windows 11

Edit Photos on Windows Using Windows Photos App

How to Edit Photos on Windows Using Paint

Step 1

Click on the Windows Start button, type Paint in the search box and press Enter to open.

Step 2

Add your image and use the toolbar to select tools like Brush to draw on canvas, Text to insert text to photo or fill a closed space with color. Or use AI-powered features to remove background, unwanted objects and more.

Step 3

Once you’re done, tap Save to download your edited picture as a PNG or JPG format.

Drawbacks of Windows Paint App:

Although Paint is a versatile tool for creating original artwork and making basic edits to images, it still has several limitations:

Limited basic editing functionalities to unleash creativity.

No sophisticated selection tools, making precise cutouts or object isolation difficult.

AI features requires credits or subscription, reducing accessibility for frequent use.

Three Third-party Photo Editors to Edit Pictures on Windows Effortlessly

Windows’ built-in tools are convenient, but they’re still quite limited. If you’re looking for more advanced editing capabilities or more powerful AI features to boost your workflow, here are three third-party photo editors worth exploring.

FlexClip: AI-powered Online Photo Editor for Windows

Want to experience a full AI-powered photo editing workflow? Try FlexClip! This comprehensive yet easy-to-use online photo editor makes editing as simple as typing and clicking.

Whether you want to restore old photos, upscale images for sharper quality, change styles, generate images from text, swap faces for fun, animate still photos, or perform more advanced edits like changing hairstyles and outfits, combining multiple images, or adding text with strong consistency, FlexClip has you covered. It gives you access to the latest trending AI generation models, and you don’t need any prior editing experience—AI handles all the work for you.

FlexClip: AI-powered Online Photo Editor for Windows

How to Edit Photos on Windows Using FlexClip:

Step 1

Open FlexClip through your browser and you’ll see a verity of AI photo tools under its AI page. Select the right option to edit photos as needed. Here we set AI photo editor as an example.

Step 2

Upload your image and describe what you want to change in this image in the Prompt box. Select the generation model( the top-notch Google-Nano-Banana also included) and click Generate button to let AI handle the rest.

Step 3

In seconds, your AI-generated image will be ready to download and share.

How to Edit Photos on Windows Using FlexClip

Drawbacks of FlexClip Photo Editor:

FlexClip makes it easy to edit photos on Windows, but there are some limitations you might want to know:

It’s web-based, which means you can’t download it for offline use.

AI features operate on a credit system, but many offer free trials, and each credit costs as little as $0.015.

Photoshop: Professional-level Photo Editor for Windows

Photoshop is a professional, high-end image processing tool for Windows, offering an industry-leading set of features tailored to advanced creative needs. With Photoshop, you can perform precise photo retouching, execute complex cutouts, edit RAW files, batch-process images, and even generate AI-powered content.

Whether you’re making simple touch-ups or pushing your designs to a more sophisticated level, Photoshop delivers top-tier performance to support your workflow. For photographers, designers, illustrators, and other creative professionals, Photoshop remains one of the best solutions for meeting all photo-editing standards on Windows.

Photoshop: Professional-level Photo Editor for Windows

How to Edit Photos on Windows Using Photoshop:

Step 1

Begin by downloading Photoshop to your PC and importing your photo into Photoshop.

Step 2

Duplicate the layer first to preserve your original image before editing. You can then make basic adjustments like cropping or straightening, or apply more advanced edits such as background removal, generative fill, and blemish removal. Customize your edits based on your specific needs.

Step 3

Once you’re happy with the result, save your edited image in the desired file format.

Drawbacks of Photoshop:

High subscription cost of monthly $22.99( annual, billed monthly).

Photoshop’s professional interface and wide range of tools can be overwhelming for new users.

Large and resource-heavy, taking up significant storage and potentially slowing down older or low-spec devices.

GIMP: Open-source Photo Editor for Windows

GIMP is a free, open-source photo editor for Windows that offers many Photoshop-like features for editing and retouching images. Its feature-rich interface lets you handle everything from basic tasks—such as cropping, resizing, and rotating—to advanced work like color correction, retouching, and layer-based editing.

For creative projects, GIMP also allows you to add and stylize text, create smooth gradients, and apply a wide range of filters for sharpening, blurring, or crafting unique visual effects. If you’re looking for a free editor that still delivers professional-level capabilities, GIMP is an excellent choice.

GIMP: Open-source Photo Editor for Windows

How to Edit Photos on Windows Using GIMP

Step 1

Directly select photo from your computer or drag and drop the image file directly into GIMP window.

Step 2

Here you can make basic edits like cropping, resizing, or applying filters, as well as advanced adjustments such as fine-tuning colors and tones to achieve the right look for your photo.

Step 3

Use the Heal tool to remove unwanted objects, or select the Ellipse Select tool to fix red-eye and sharpen your image.

Step 4

To share your edited image, go to File > Export and choose a format like JPEG or PNG.

Drawbacks of GIMP Photo Editor:

GIMP delivers a powerful photo-editing experience on Windows, but it also comes with a few drawbacks:

Step learning curving for beginners to learn and use it effectively.

Outdated interface makes it hard to use.

Lack of trending AI features, Layer styles and Adjustment layers.

FAQs About Editing Photos on Windows

1.What built-in tools can I use to edit photos on Windows?

Windows offers two native tools for quick edits: Windows Photos and Paint. Both allow basic adjustments like cropping, resizing, annotating, and applying simple filters.

2.How do I blur part of a photo on Windows?

Built-in photo editor doesn’t support selective blur. You’ll need third-party applications like FlexClip, GMIP and Photoshop to blur part of your photo on Windows.

3.Can I remove unwanted objects from a photo?

Yes. Both built-in editing apps and recommended third-party tools can help you easily remove unwanted objects from photo with the help of AI.

4.What formats can Windows tool export?

Paint supports PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, and TIFF. Windows Photos typically exports to JPG or PNG, depending on the file. Advanced formats require professional editors.

Bella /

Full of vitality, curiosity and hope, Bella is an energetic copywriter at FlexClip. She mainly concentrates on video creation and troublesome issues related to video editing, providing users with practical solutions and tricks. Personally, Bella loves novels, sci-fi movies, cooking and travel. And, she believes that all her life is the best arrangement from God.