Photos app can sometimes show blurry images under certain circumstances. Here’s how to fix blurry images in the Photos app on Windows 10.
The Photos app is the default image viewer on Windows 10. Out of the box, the Photos app supports a wide range of image formats. If need, you can add raw image support to the Photos app. Add to that, the user interface is pretty good, all the while being snappy and responsive. For a vast majority of Windows users, the Photos app works as intended. However, that is not the case for everyone. That is what happened to me. Recently, out of the blue, I’ve started seeing blurry images in the Photos app on Windows 10.
Since I take many screenshots every day, I quickly found the issue, which is very inconvenient. This is especially evident in images that contain a lot of letters. I’ve taken a screenshot of the Photos app displaying an image containing a lot of text to give you an idea. On the left side is the screenshot of the Photos app, and the right side is the actual image. As you can see from the image comparison, the left image is blurry and hard to read. Click on the image to enlarge it.
After doing a bit of research, I found that this happens due to corrupted files or cache. File corruption happens under certain circumstances, like system crashes or power failure. The good thing is, it is easy to fix blurry images in the Photos app on Windows 10. Let me show you how.
Fix Blurry Images in Photos App
You can quickly fix blurry images in the Photos app by resetting it. This is just like the resetting Microsoft Store app. When you reset a Microsoft store app, Windows will invalidate the cache, discard all the settings, reinstall the app, and reset all the app settings. Since this is essentially a clean install with no corrupt files or cache, it should fix the blurry images in the Photos app.
- Press Win + I to open the Settings app.
- Go to “Apps -> Apps and Features“.
- Find “Microsoft Photos” on the right panel and click on it.
- Click on the “Advanced options” link.
- Scroll down and click on the “Reset” button under the Reset section
- You will see a warning prompt, click “Reset” again.
- Windows will now reset the photos app.
- After resetting, you will see a checkmark right next to the Reset button.
That is all. From now on you will not see blurry images in the Photos app. If you see blurry images again, follow the above procedure.
A Good Alternative to Photos App
If the Photos app is constantly misbehaving, I recommend you to use IrfanView. IrfanView is an excellent open-source and free image viewer for Windows that supports almost all the image formats, including raw images, all the while being faster and responsive. Download IrfanView (32-bit) or IrfanView (64-bit) from Microsoft Store. You can also download the regular win32 app from here.
Hope that helps.
Here are some other fixes for problems you might have with Windows 10.
Hi, the reset fix is not working for me. I notice that the Windows Photos app shows blurry images (on my system) when the size falls below a certain pixel ratio. For instance, 200 x 400 px is sharp, but 200 x 150 px is blurry. 300 x 60 px is blurry too. Exptremely annoying, because I create small web banners and this way I cannot check quality and compare quickly in the Photos app. I’ll try Irfanview. Thanks for the tip!
If you looking for quick previews, I also recommend you try the QuickLook app available in MS Store. It is a pretty lightweight application and works perfectly for quick previews.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/quicklook/9nv4bs3l1h4s
I will try this and hope it works. Many thanks for your help. Very Kind of you.
Take care and stay safe. Kind regards.
Brian
Did the trick! noticed that images turned fuzzy after 1/4 of a second after opening the image in Microsoft Photo. just took me 10 sec to find and 10 sec to wait 😛 (i had to find apps in the seartch bar to)