Family Photo Hero// your family’s photos, finally in order
Plug in your drive. Answer a few questions.
Look back on the life you built.
Family Photo Hero recognizes the faces in years of family photos on your PC, asks you who they are with a tap, then adds People, Years and Places folders to your drive. Nothing is moved or uploaded.
Coming soon to the Microsoft Store
Free · Windows 10 and 11
// how it works
Plug in. Answer. Look back.
Plug in your drive
Choose the drive or folders with your photos: your PC, an external hard drive, a USB stick or a memory card. It asks for your OK before it looks for faces.
Answer a few questions
It groups the faces it finds and asks “Who is this?” Tap a button such as Me, My daughter or Dad, or type a name. One answer files a whole group of their photos.
Look back
Look over the folders it will add, then choose “Create these folders”. Open People, and everyone you named has a folder with their face on it.
// what you get
Folders you already know how to open.
Everything goes into one Family Photo Hero folder in the place you choose. They’re ordinary folders: open them in File Explorer, no app needed.
- Aunt Jo
- Dad
- Emma
- Grandad
- Leo
- Mom
- Nana
- Together
- PeopleA folder for each person you name, with their face as the folder icon. Together holds photos of just the people you choose, such as you and your partner.
- Years and PlacesYour photos by the year they were taken and the town they were taken in.
- AlbumsFolders you made yourself, such as a wedding or a holiday, keep their names.
- Screenshots & receiptsScreenshots, receipts, documents and pictures saved from the internet, kept out of the family album.
- DuplicatesExact copies, listed in one place so you can see them. Nothing is deleted.
- Family VideosYour videos in their own folder, by year and place.
Group photos, Food, Needs review and Undated folders too.
Your photos stay put. Organizing never moves, renames or changes them. On a Windows-formatted (NTFS) drive, a photo can be in People, Years and Places at once without using any extra space.
// your photos, your computer
Your photos stay put. Nothing leaves this computer.
- No account. No upload.Faces are recognized on your PC. Your photos, the faces in them and the names you give are never sent to us or to anyone else.
- It asks first.It asks for your OK before it looks for faces. What it learns is encrypted and locked to your Windows account.
- You see it before it happens.It writes nothing until you’ve seen exactly what it will add and said yes.
- Deleting is your call.Organizing never moves, renames, changes or deletes your photos. Clean up removes old copies only when you say so, and they wait 30 days first.
// questions
Good questions.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Family Photo Hero is free, with no ads and no account.
Will it move or change my photos?
No. Organizing never moves, renames, changes or deletes your photos. It adds new folders, and only after you’ve seen exactly what it will add and said yes. If you later want space back, Clean up deletes old copies that are already in Family Photo Hero, but only when you say so.
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. Family Photo Hero has no internet connection of its own. Faces are recognized on your computer, and nothing is sent to us or to anyone else.
What do I need?
A PC with Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) or Windows 11, 64-bit, and your photos on it or on a drive plugged into it: an external hard drive, a USB stick or a memory card. Photos still on a phone need to be copied to the PC or a drive first.
Will the new folders fill up my drive?
Not if they go on the same Windows-formatted (NTFS) drive as your photos: there, one photo can be in People, Years and Places at once without using extra space. When photos have to be copied, it shows you how much space that takes first. On drives formatted exFAT or FAT32 it can use Windows shortcuts instead.
Does it work with iPhone photos and videos?
Yes. To recognize the faces in iPhone photos (HEIC), Windows needs Microsoft’s HEVC Video Extensions: Family Photo Hero tells you if they’re missing, and until then sorts those photos by date and place. Videos are sorted by year and place, not by person.
I’m not good with computers. Can I still use it?
Yes. It asks simple questions you answer with a tap, shows you everything before it adds anything, and the folders it makes open in File Explorer like any other folder.
// help
Stuck? Write to us.
Tell us what you see on the screen and what you expected, and we’ll write back. Please don’t send your photos.
One of the Hero Suite: one hero per gap.