You have a photo on a Windows PC, you need the subject without its background, and you do not own Photoshop. Windows already ships two apps that can do it, Paint and Photos, as Microsoft documents them below, and a browser tool covers the cases they do not.

The short answer

On Windows 11, open the image in Paint, select the remove background button in the toolbar, then save as PNG to keep transparency. The Photos app can also remove a background or replace it with a solid color. On older setups, or when you want the same tool and model on every computer, use Backgrounds Remover in your browser.

Option 1: Paint on Windows 11

Background removal began rolling out in Paint to Windows Insiders in September 2023. The Windows Insider announcement of background removal in Paint names Paint for Windows 11 version 11.2306.30.0 or higher and describes two ways to use it:

  1. Open the photo in Paint.
  2. Select the remove background button in the toolbar to cut out the subject from the whole image.
  3. Or, to work on one part of the picture, draw a rectangle with the selection tool first, then remove the background inside that area.

The removed area needs to stay see-through when you save. A later update, described in the Paint layers and transparency post (version 11.2308.18.0 or higher), shows transparent areas as a checkerboard and lets Paint open and save transparent PNGs. So choose Save as and pick PNG. A JPEG has no transparency and fills the gap with a solid color.

If your Paint has no such button, update Windows first: Microsoft’s Paint page lists Background Removal among the tools in the latest Windows 11 update. On a Copilot+ PC, the Click to Do help page also lists a Remove background with Paint action that hands the image to Paint.

Microsoft’s Paint pages do not say whether the cutout is computed on your PC or elsewhere, so we do not make a claim either way.

Option 2: The Photos app

Photos does more than blur. Microsoft’s guide to editing photos and videos in Windows describes a Background panel with three choices:

  • Blur softens the background, with an intensity slider.
  • Remove deletes the background when you select Apply.
  • Replace swaps the background for a color from a palette or typed RGB values.

Photos selects the background automatically. If it grabs too much or too little, turn on the Background brush tool and use Add mask or Remove mask to correct it. This manual touch-up is something a browser tool without a brush cannot match. The same Microsoft page says the separation runs locally and your data never leaves your device.

Which Windows? The Windows Insider post on background remove and replace introduced these tools on Windows 11 in Photos version 2023.11110.8002.0 or higher. A February 2024 Insider post announced that the Photos AI editing features were coming to Windows 10 and Arm64 devices, starting with Photos version 2024.11020.21001.0. Rollouts reach Insiders first, so the button may not appear on every PC yet. Microsoft’s help page does not state the saved file format, so check that the saved file keeps transparency before you rely on it.

When a browser tool fits better

The built-in apps are free and already installed, so start there if they work for you. A browser tool is the better fit in a few specific situations:

  • Your PC lacks the feature. An unmanaged Windows 10 machine, a work laptop where app updates are locked, or a shared computer may not have the new Paint or Photos.
  • You want one workflow everywhere. The same page runs the same AI model on Windows, a Mac, Linux, or a Chromebook, which helps a team that mixes systems. On the engine builds we test, the cutouts agree within the tolerances listed on how we test the cutouts; real Windows machines and Safari have not been tested yet (step 1 below). On Apple devices, the guide for Mac and iPhone covers the built-in options first.
  • You want three backgrounds from one cutout. You can switch between transparent, white, and any color without running the removal again.
  • You need to know where the photo goes. Microsoft documents on-device separation for Photos but not for Paint. Backgrounds Remover decodes and processes the image on your device and never uploads it. How on-device background removal works explains each step.

Remove a background in your browser

  1. Open the background remover in an up-to-date desktop browser. Our automated browser test runs in Chromium (the open-source core of Chrome and Edge) on every change, and it also passed in Firefox and WebKit on Linux when we ran it by hand on September 27, 2026; other current browsers with WebAssembly should work, and real Windows machines have not been tested or timed.
  2. Drop the photo on the page, choose it, or paste it with Ctrl+V. JPEG, PNG, and WebP work, and usually AVIF, GIF, and BMP too.
  3. The first time, the browser downloads the AI model (about 176 MB) and caches it, so later photos in the same visit, and later visits while the browser keeps it, skip that download.
  4. Wait for the cutout. The engine runs in WebAssembly and uses your graphics card through WebGPU (the browser’s interface to it) when the browser makes one available; otherwise it runs on your processor, with one thread per logical core when the browser allows threads.
  5. Pick Transparent, White, or Color. Switching is instant because the new background is composed on your device. For White or Color, you can also choose PNG or the smaller JPG.
  6. Under Size, keep Original or pick Square, 1080 x 1080, or 2048 x 2048.
  7. Select Download PNG, or Download JPG if you chose it.

In our tests on September 17, 2026, a studio portrait kept clean hair edges, with a little background left next to a large dark object at the edge of the frame. A flat logo on white came out clean, including the gaps enclosed inside the mark. For people, see headshot and profile photo backgrounds; for logos, see making a logo background transparent.

Limits to know

  • One subject works best. The AI model keeps the most prominent subject. Fine hair, fur, glass, smoke, and groups can come out imperfect.
  • Thin, faint lines can vanish. In our test on a signature, the bold stroke cut cleanly, but a thin, light underline mostly disappeared.
  • No brush or free crop. If the edge needs a manual fix, the Photos brush or a free editor is the better tool. This walkthrough shows how to fix halos and rough edges.
  • Solid backgrounds only. You get transparent, white, or one picked color, with no photo or gradient backgrounds.
  • Up to 20 images per batch. Choose or drop several photos at once to process them together and save them as one ZIP; a larger folder takes more than one batch.
  • Large images are scaled. Anything above 16 megapixels is scaled down to 16 megapixels first.
  • The first run needs the download. Plan for the 176 MB model download on a slow or metered connection; it comes again only if the browser has cleared it.

Which one should you use?

If Paint on your PC has the button and you only need a transparent PNG, use Paint. If the automatic edge needs hand correction, use Photos with its brush. If neither app has the feature, or you want the same tool on every computer with a transparent, white, or colored background, remove a background in your browser.