Difference between "pictures" and "photos" ?

[Daisy]

I always clicked the "photos" tile to view my photos.  Then I noticed the photos were not in the usual "thumbnails" format with my title below each one or the IMG number.  They are larger and have no titles or "IMG," just larger photos, different sizes.   So I found "pictures" on the computer and made a tile for that because when I click on that I get the photos back in the preferable tile format.

Can someone explain to me what's going on with this?

[Corrine]

Pictures is the pictures folder on your PC.  When you open a folder, you can set the view of that folder as you can any other folder as extra large, large, medium or small icons as well as tiles, list, content or detail. 

Photos, on the other hand, is an "app" in Windows 10 just as calculator, mail, maps, etc. are apps.  If you open the Store app and search for Microsoft Photos, it will show up in the search results.  Clicking on it, you'll see "This product is installed".  With the Photos app, by opening Settings (accessed from the there dots in the upper right corner of Photos) you can provide additional paths for it to collect pictures from.  For example, if you upload pictures from a smart phone to OneDrive, providing that path will result in including those pictures in the Photos app as well.

[Daisy]

OH, thank you so much.  I've been really puzzled about it.  As always, appreciate your help.

Daisy

[Corrine]

You're very welcome, Daisy.