Microsoft has confirmed that it accidentally distributed its new AI-based OneDrive Photos app more widely than intended on Windows 11.

The company told Windows Latest that the app, which is still in beta, was rolled out to Windows PCs beyond the systems it was meant to target. The issue is particularly relevant for enterprise computers, where OneDrive Photos is not designed to work.

Microsoft says it is working on a fix. The company also plans to give users a way to remove OneDrive Photos without uninstalling the main OneDrive application.

OneDrive Photos first appeared on Windows Insider systems earlier in 2026. However, the app began appearing on some consumer Windows 11 PCs from August 1 and later reached a much wider group of systems with the OneDrive sync client installed.

Microsoft has now acknowledged that the rollout was not intentional.

“We are incubating a new photos experience in OneDrive that went more broadly than it should have in Windows,” Microsoft told Windows Latest . The company added that it is fixing the issue and said the existing Windows Photos app will continue to provide users with the choice between local and cloud photos and whether to use OneDrive.

Microsoft also confirmed that OneDrive Photos currently cannot be removed separately. Users have to uninstall OneDrive entirely to remove the Photos app.

The company says this will change in a future update, which will add controls allowing OneDrive Photos to be removed without affecting the main OneDrive application.

OneDrive Photos combines photos stored locally on a Windows PC with images stored in OneDrive.

The app can access photos across personal folders on the computer. It can also access photos outside the usual Pictures folder by default.

The application loads the OneDrive.com Gallery and uses Microsoft’s Edge-based WebView2 technology. This means the app essentially delivers the OneDrive web experience through a Windows application.

The app generally uses less than 1GB of memory on a system with 32GB of RAM. However, memory usage could increase to between 1GB and 2GB when browsing large numbers of images and moving between them.

OneDrive Photos also includes several features available through OneDrive’s web experience. Users can create albums, mark images as favourites and prevent OneDrive from scanning specific locations on their PCs.

The app also includes Moments, which groups older photographs and displays them to users.

The OneDrive Photos rollout appears to be linked to the existing OneDrive Sync client.

Windows 11 includes several OneDrive-related features. One is Windows Backup, which can sync personal folders, settings, and account information such as Wi-Fi credentials to OneDrive.

The other is the OneDrive Sync client, which can run in the background even when a user is not actively syncing files.

The OneDrive Sync client can download and install OneDrive Photos in the background. This did not depend on whether the user had signed in to a Microsoft account.

The new application is installed at:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\OneDrive.App.exe

The main OneDrive Sync application is located at:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\OneDrive.exe

When Windows Latest first identified the application on a production Windows 11 PC, OneDrive Photos was also appearing ahead of Microsoft’s existing Photos application in Windows Search results.

OneDrive Photos is designed for personal Microsoft accounts. It was therefore not expected to appear on Windows 11 Enterprise systems or computers where updates and services are managed through Microsoft Intune.

However, the application appeared on thousands of PCs, including enterprise systems.

The rollout created problems for IT administrators because OneDrive Photos is tied to the OneDrive Sync client rather than being provided as a separate MSI or standalone installer.

As a result, administrators cannot simply uninstall OneDrive Photos without also removing the main OneDrive application.

One IT administrator said that their organization manages hundreds of PCs through Intune and that the new OneDrive Photos entry appeared in the Start menu across those systems.

Microsoft has since said it is working on a fix that will remove the app from PCs where it is not supported.

The company said OneDrive Photos will automatically disappear from enterprise PCs managed through Intune. Microsoft does not currently plan to automatically remove the app from consumer PCs.

For now, users cannot uninstall OneDrive Photos separately from the main OneDrive application.

The available option is to remove OneDrive entirely. This can be done through Windows Settings:

However, removing OneDrive also removes the main sync client and can affect its File Explorer integration and shortcuts.

Microsoft says a future update will provide a separate removal option for OneDrive Photos.

“We’re adding controls to remove the OneDrive Photos experience separately from the OneDrive app,” Microsoft said.

For now, users who want to keep OneDrive’s main syncing features may need to leave OneDrive Photos installed until that update becomes available.

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