u/shane_steven

Looking for Windows users to help test my first AI image upscaler app (Lifetime access for testers)

Looking for Windows users to help test my first AI image upscaler app (Lifetime access for testers)

Hello everyone

This is Steven, an indie developer of Imglarger and Imgupscaler. After spending years building the web-based image enhancement tools, I have now released my first native Windows application: Upscal - Image Upscaler.

Instead of just announcing it, I'd like to get real feedback from the users who use Windows every day.

The app focuses on practical offline image upscaling and enhancement rather than cloud processing. No data or images will be uploaded, and privacy-first.

Brief features below:

  • AI image upscaling for photos, artwork, wallpapers, and scans
  • Batch processing with drag-and-drop
  • Queue management for multiple images
  • Custom output folders
  • Native Windows experience through the Microsoft Store

It runs on Windows x64 and works best with a dedicated NVIDIA or AMD GPU, although it can also run on a CPU (just more slowly).

For anyone interested in the technical side, here is what I used to build with:

  • Native WinUI 3 and modern C++
  • GPU acceleration using Vulkan for AI inference
  • A batch image processing pipeline optimized for batch requirements.

I'd like feedback on these things

  • Installation process
  • UI/UX
  • Processing speed
  • GPU compatibility
  • Output quality
  • The code redemption process

Please leave comments or DM me for the redemption code. I will respond ASAP.

Website: https://upscal.app

Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nq2g8s2gm58?hl=en-US&gl=US

apps.microsoft.com
u/shane_steven — 6 days ago

Running a free AI tool is way harder than I expected

A couple years ago I got frustrated with how annoying most background remover tools had become.

Every site seemed to:

  • require signup
  • limit downloads
  • watermark exports
  • or make you upload images one-by-one

I only needed something simple for bulk image cleanup, so I built a small internal tool for myself.

The goal was intentionally boring:

  • drag images in
  • remove backgrounds in batch
  • download results
  • no signup
  • no credits
  • no weird limitations

Over time I kept improving the models and infrastructure, and it somehow turned into a real product people use daily.

What surprised me most is that it grew almost entirely organically.

I never really ran paid ads seriously — mostly word of mouth and people randomly sharing it.

This is the traffic growth since 2023

Currently around ~600k users.

Honestly, maintaining a free AI tool is pretty brutal sometimes:
GPU costs, scraping traffic, abuse bots, storage, bandwidth spikes…

But it’s still one of the most rewarding projects I’ve worked on.

If anyone here is also building AI tools or bootstrapped products, I’d genuinely love to hear how you’re handling infrastructure costs lately and find new ideas.

Project:
bgeraser.com

u/shane_steven — 1 month ago