Microsoft quickly turns off OCR in Windows 11’s Photos app

Microsoft Temporarily Turns off Ocr in Windows 11's Photos App

Microsoft quickly turns off OCR in Windows 11’s Photos app

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In past due October 2024, Microsoft introduced a large replace for the Photos app for Windows 11 with two new main options: Super Resolution and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). After a month of checking out, the corporate is hitting the brakes at the latter to deal with “some issues.”

Brandon LeBlanc from the Windows Insider Program workforce posted on his X that the function was once taken down. The unique announcement put up was once additionally up to date with a brief message:

UPDATE 11/21: OCR enhance within the Photos app has been quickly disabled to deal with some problems and will probably be re-enabled once more in a long run replace.

Interestingly, this isn’t the primary hiccup with this replace. Just a couple of days after the preliminary unlock, Microsoft showed that Super Resolution incorrectly seemed on PCs that are supposed to now not be like minded with the function. The upscaler is an unique function for Copilot+ PCs with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, however some insiders with conventional x86 processors gained it as smartly.

Unlike Super Resolution within the Photos app, Optical Character Recognition within the Photos app does now not require a processor with a devoted NPU—it really works on any Windows 11-compatible laptop with Intel, AMD, or Qualcomm processors. The function helps over 160 languages, permitting customers to duplicate handwritten or revealed textual content on pictures with a unmarried click on.

Despite the function rollback, one thing this is rarely a wonder making an allowance for the character of the Insider program, Windows 11 customers don’t seem to be left useless within the waters. If you wish to have to extract textual content from an image, there are nonetheless integrated equipment to try this. You can replica some textual content with out putting in third-party apps the usage of the Snipping Tool app: simply take a screenshot with the Win + Shift + S shortcut and press the “Text actions.” Alternatively, you’ll be able to use the Text Extractor module in PowerToys, which matches on Windows 10 and 11.

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roosho Senior Engineer (Technical Services)
I am Rakib Raihan RooSho, Jack of all IT Trades. You got it right. Good for nothing. I try a lot of things and fail more than that. That's how I learn. Whenever I succeed, I note that in my cookbook. Eventually, that became my blog. 
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