Cameras, real ones and not the ones on your phone, save RAW photos. RAW is a format in itself though RAW files may not always have this extension. Some will use DNG, others will NEF, ORF, etc. The format often depends on which camera was used to capture a photo but RAW is the general name given to these uncompressed photos. By default, Windows 10 can generate a thumbnail preview for a large number of file formats but many RAW formats are not included in this list. Here’s how you can enable thumbnail previews for RAW images on Windows 10.
These thumbnail previews will appear in File Explorer. To enable them, install Microsoft’s free RAW Image Extension from the Microsoft Store.
Once installed, close all File Explorer windows that are open to a folder with a RAW file in it. Open a new File Explorer window and navigate to the folder with the RAW images. This time, the generic image thumbnail should be replaced with a proper preview of the image file.
This extension should also add the ability to read some of the metadata that is written to the RAW file though it may still miss some of it. It will not add any special editing abilities to any app.
Out of the box, Windows 10 does provide thumbnail previews for some RAW file formats but not for all of them. If your RAW files already show a proper thumbnail preview, then they’re in a supported format and you don’t need to install this extension. If you’re unable to view metadata for a file even though you get a thumbnail preview of it, this extension may or may not help.
This extension is a File Explorer extension so, if you need to remove it, you can do so from the Settings app. The extension is highly unlikely to slow your system down though in some cases, the preview might take a little time to generate if you’re copying/moving lots of files. Remember that RAW files are large.
If you’re still unable to get thumbnail previews for RAW images on Windows 10 after installing this extension, it is possible that your particular file type is much too niche. In that case, you should look for file managers or photo managers that the maker of your camera may have released and use it to browse your photos. Don’t change the file extension of your files to RAW or anything else. That may damage it.
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3 Ways to View RAW Images and Thumbnails on Windows 10
Many digital camera users find that they cannot preview RAW image files on Windows computer, which makes it inconvenient to browse or edit RAW files. Saving captures in JPEG + RAW format is a workaround, but it will increase the burden of memory card space. What’s the perfect solution for viewing RAW images on Windows 10? In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to view RAW thumbnails with camera codecs and open RAW pictures with RAW viewer on Windows 10.
Tip: In case you lose precious RAW pictures by accident, try a photo recovery software to get them back as soon as possible.
Way 1. View RAW Files with Microsoft Camera Codec Pack on Windows 10
You may have found that Windows 10 allows users to preview thumbnails of some RAW images, like ARW, DNG and CR2, and open these RAW pictures with Photos app. As a matter of fact, Windows 10 is built-in with Microsoft camera codec pack, which automatically recognizes those device-specific file formats and allows users to preview RAW files in Windows Explorer without third-party apps.
With thumbnail preview, it would be super convenient to find or edit RAW image files with professional editing tools. Nevertheless, since Microsoft has stopped updating the codec pack, there are still plenty of RAW formats that Windows 10 doesn’t support, like NEF and ORF.
Tip: If you want to view RAW files on Windows 7 or Windows 8, please download Microsoft camera codec pack manually.
Way 2. View RAW Images on Windows 10 with Codec for Specific Camera
If Windows 10 doesn’t support the RAW image format of your camera, then it will only show the default image icons instead of thumbnails of your images. In this case, you need to install a specific codec for the RAW format or camera model, which will work like Microsoft camera codec pack and display thumbnails of the specific RAW file type.
Normally, you should be able to find the codec on manufacturer’s website, but there are also several useful third-party codec websites. Here we’re going to show how to install Nikon NEF codec to Windows 10 from such a codec site.
- Step 1. Visit http://www.free-codecs.com
- Step 2. Input “NEF codec” in the top-right search box and hit Enter.
- Step 3. From the results, click link: NEF Codec 1.31 Free Download.
- Step 4. View the information page, then click Download button on the right section and another download button on the new page.
- Step 5. Click the downloaded .exe file to start installing camera codec with setup wizard.
- Step 6. You may need to reboot your computer to make the codec work.
Now, your Windows 10 computer should show thumbnails of NEF images. In the meantime, you should be able to open NEF photos with Photos app. Just search for more codecs if you have another kind of RAW pictures that Windows 10 doesn’t support. Camera model info might help you find codec quickly. Please include it into searching keywords.
Way 3. Open RAW Photos with RAW Image Viewer on Windows 10
If installing various of codecs hassles you, you can use RAW image viewer which usually support most RAW formats. For example, ACDSee is one of the most famous RAW image viewer software.
Premium RAW image viewers may charge you for using advanced functions, but usually less expensive than Lightroom. Another drawback is that there is no thumbnail of the device-specific RAW images in Windows Explorer, which means quick preview is not available. Instead, users need to open the RAW viewer to check all RAW images in the same folder and manage them as you like. Overall, it is still a great choice if you don’t need another professional editor program.
Pros:
- Support a wide range of RAW formats as well as common images with one tool
- Provide advanced editing functions and management options
Cons:
- No thumbnail display in Windows Explorer
- May need payment
If you’re stick with the digital camera of one brand, it is a good choice to use the official image viewer and editor from the manufacturer, which usually supports RAW viewing, editing and even conversion to other formats.
Final Words
There are many more ways to view and open RAW images, but the above three methods should work in most cases in a Windows 10 computer. If you have more and better choices, don’t hesitate to share them with us in the comment so that more people will benefit from it.
How to View RAW Files on Windows 11/10/8/7 (Solutions & Recommendations)
Last Updated on March 29, 2023 by Peter Wood
Before viewing RAW files on Windows, it is important to know why you should shoot photos in RAW file format and what is special about the RAW file format. Besides the RAW file formats, there is a new HEIC file format for digital cameras and devices.
What is RAW in photography?
If you want to capture all image data recorded by the camera sensor, you can save it in the RAW file format. Each camera manufacturer provides a specific RAW file extension. For instance, you can get RAW files from Adobe DNG, Canon CR2 and CRW, Panasonic RW2, Fuji RAF, Sony ARW, and more.
Why should you shoot in RAW?
A RAW file is not compressed, altered, processed, or manipulated. Thus, you can get the best image quality and most customizable controls from the RAW format. Moreover, you can have better editing with the RAW file format.
Now you can get the detailed steps to open and view camera RAW files on Windows 11/10/8/7.
- Part 1: The Easy Method to View RAW Photos on Windows 11/10/8/7
- Part 2: The Default Method to View RAW Files on Windows 7/8/10/11
- Part 3: How to Fix RAW Images Not Opening on Windows 10/11
- Part 4: Top 3 RAW Viewers to Open RAW Image Files on Windows
Part 1: The Easy Method to View RAW Photos on Windows 11/10/8/7
WidsMob Viewer Pro is more than a versatile RAW image viewer for Windows. It enables you to browse most RAW file formats, HEIC/HEIF photos, AVIF, WebP, PDF, and video formats. There are different viewing modes, such as browsing the photos in the thumbnails, checking the EXIF information, playing RAW photos automatically in a slideshow, and managing all files in a full-screen mode. Besides, you can simply click any image to browse all the media files, including the PDFs within the same folder.
1. Support most of the RAW format, Sony, Nikon, Canon, HEIC, DNG, etc.
2. Hardware acceleration to view the RAW photos within 6x fast speed.
3. Basic RAW editing features to convert, apply effects and rename files.
4. Load one RAW image into the program to view all the photos of the SD.
Win Download Mac Download
Download and install WidsMob Viewer Pro, and launch the program on your Windows 10/11. If you need to view RAW from an SD card, insert it into your computer beforehand. Click any file within the SD card, you can view all RAW files, videos, and other files within the SD card on your Windows accordingly.
Thumbnail Mode
It enables you to browse different file formats, including RAW, HEIC, WebP, AVIF, MP4, PDF, and other file formats in thumbnails with the same folder. Just switch to another folder to check the supported file formats.
Besides the basic browsing features, you can select the desired file and press Ctrl + C to copy the photo. Select two images and click the Compare button to preview the differences between the two images. Moreover, you can also go to the slideshow mode to open RAW files within the same folder automatically.
Full Screen Mode
If you want to view the detail of your RAW files, you can double-click the file to get into full screen mode. It enables you to zoom in/out to view the details of the RAW files. Scroll down to the bottom, you can navigate to open RAW files on Windows in another folder.
Just click the I icon in the bottom right corner to check the metadata of the RAW files on your Windows. Click the Move to Trash button, you can delete the unwanted photos. It provides the feature to crop the desired part as well. Right click the image, you can explore more features, such as rotate, flip, show in explorer, etc.
Slideshow Mode
When you need to open RAW files within the same folder automatically, you can also click the Slideshow button within the Thumbnail mode. It will open the images, videos, and PDFs on a full screen, which will play them automatically. Moreover, you can use the arrow to switch to another one with the control bar.
It also provides the Index Sheet button to locate the desired photo within the same folder easily. There is a feature that enables you to open the RAW files with the Fit to Screen option. It is a convenient method to view the files with the original size.
EXIF Mode
As mentioned previously, the RAW viewer for Windows can keep all information of your photos. To view the photo information, click the View menu and choose the Information button on the top menu bar to display the metadata. Of course, you can also click the I icon in the full screen mode to check the information.
It enables you to check the File name, file size, file creation, maker, camera model, exposure time, F number, ISO, Flash, Focal length, and other information. The new version will enable you to resize the related tags and information soon.
Edit RAW Images on Windows
To remove unwanted areas on a RAW image, select the file and click the Edit menu. After that, you can select the Crop button to get the cropping tool to remove the unwanted part. It provides the Copy button to copy the selected file. Moreover, it also enables you to rotate and flip photos easily.
Convert RAW Images on Windows
When you need to convert a RAW image to another file format on Windows, you can simply click the File menu and choose the Save As button. It enables you to convert RAW images to JPEG, PNG, and BMP.
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Part 2: The Default Method to View RAW Files on Windows 7/8/10/11
Most image viewers display embedded JPEG only with the JPEG-based histogram. You may fail to view RAW images with color space mismatch, gamma mismatch, RAW data mosaicked, interpretation, and many other problems. Windows does not natively support all RAW file formats. However, you can download a RAW image extension for Windows that will enable Windows to display thumbnails and open RAW image files in Windows Photo Viewer and other applications. Here’s how to download and install the RAW image extension:
Section 1: Download RAW Image Extension
Microsoft released the RAW image file extension for previewing thumbnails and metadata of RAW files on Windows 10 several months ago. To view RAW files on Windows 8 and Windows 7, you can also refer to the following download links.
RAW Image Extension for Windows 10 free download
URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/raw-image-extension/9nctdw2w1bh8?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
System requirement: Windows 10 May 2019 Update version
RAW Image Extension for Windows 8 free download
URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34871
System Requirement: Windows 8 with x64-based system
RAW Image Extension for Windows 7 free download
URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26829
System Requirement: Windows 7, Windows Vista Service Pack 2
After that, you can click the Get button or the Install button to download and install the extension. Once the extension is installed, you should be able to view RAW image files in Windows Photo Viewer and other applications that support the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) architecture.
Note: Not all RAW image file formats are supported by the RAW image extension, so you may still need to use specialized software to open some RAW files. Additionally, the RAW image extension is only compatible with Windows 10 or later versions of Windows.
Section 2: How to Open and View RAW Files on Windows
By installing the Microsoft camera code pack, you can open and preview RAW files on Windows directly. Considering most people have upgraded to Windows 10 already, this article will show you how to view RAW files on Windows 10. You can get similar steps to open RAW files on Windows 8/7 as well.
Step 1: Visit the Microsoft RAW Image Extension page.
Step 2: Click Get to download free codecs for Windows 10 RAW viewing.
Step 3: Double-click on the codec pack file to install it into your computer.
Step 4: Double-click on a RAW file. You can view RAW image files without third-party software.
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Part 3: How to Fix RAW Images Not Opening on Windows 10/11
The Windows 10 RAW image extension in Microsoft Store is with 3.0 only. There are 34% of users who have previewing RAW images and thumbnails problems on Windows 10. You can see all kinds of failures of the Microsoft RAW image extension.
For instance, there will be a purple hue while opening RAW on Windows 10. Many RAW image cameras are not fully compatible, including Canon EOS 77D, Nikon D850, etc.
What can you do to fix the RAW image extension not working? Here’re some tips.
- Update to the latest version of Windows 10, which is version 1903.
- Download and install the RAW codec software from the camera manufacturer’s website.
- Use Windows Photo Viewer to open and view RAW files on Windows.
- View camera RAW files with third-party RAW viewer software.
You may still fail to open some RAW files on Windows after installing the Microsoft Windows RAW image extension, such as NEF, ORF as Microsoft has stopped updating the codec pack. To view all RAW files on Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP, you need to install free RAW codecs from other sites or install RAW viewer software on Windows.
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Part 4: Top 3 RAW Viewers to Open RAW Image Files on Windows
If you want to try something new, you can get the best way to preview RAW files from the following recommendations. You can get many RAW images previewing, editing, and organizing tools.
Top 1: FastRawViewer
FastRawViewer is what you see is what you get image viewer. You can open and render RAW files on Windows. The RAW image viewing software can cull RAW images. You can see the original RAW photos instead of previewing the JPEG.
Top 2: Faststone Image Viewer
Faststone image Viewer allows users to open not only graphic images but also camera RAW files. You can use FastStone Image Viewer to get RAW image viewing, management, comparison, and customization. The RAW image viewer freeware was updated on March 10th, 2020. So you can view RAW image files on Windows 10/8.x/7/Vista/XP freely.
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Top 3: XnView
You can view and edit camera RAW images on Windows with XnView free image viewer. XnView offers both desktop and mobile versions. Thus, you can get the uncompressed image data of CR2 and RAW files captured by digital cameras on your phone or computer. If you use it for private, educational, and non-profit use only, XnView can be your RAW image viewer freeware.
Conclusion
When you need to view different RAW files on Windows 11/10/8/7, here is the ultimate guide you can follow. No matter which camera RAW format you want to view, you can get the perfect solution. There is no fixed way to open .raw files on your Windows computer. WidsMob Viewer Pro is the ultimate toolkit to browse photos in different file formats, including videos, photos, and PDFs.
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You may be interested
- Top 10 Best RAW Image Viewer to View RAW Files on Windows/Mac/Online (2022 Update)
- Top 7 Raw Converters to View And Convert RAW Files from DSLR Cameras
- Raw Photo Editor – 15 Best Photo Editors for Canon/Nikon DSLR Cameras on Different Platforms
Windows 10 has no built-in feature to allow you to preview RAW files you took with your digital camera. Well, you can actually preview a CR2 file (the RAW file format of Canon) with Photos. But, other RAW formats are not supported. You won’t be able to use Photos to preview NEF or ARW files.
If you already get the May 2019 Update of Windows 10 (version 1903), you can install Raw Image Extension, which will add native viewing support for the major RAW file formats used by various camera brands. If you don’t get one yet, you can use another alternative called Image Raw. Both Raw Image Extension and Image Raw use the same library to support RAW file formats. The library is LibRaw, which is an open source project.
Image Raw has a large number of RAW file format supports. You can use it to preview RAW file formats of camera brads like Nikon (NEF), Sony (ARW), Fuji (RAF), and even raw formats of Adobe, DNG.
How to use Image Raw to preview a RAW file on Windows 10
Image Raw is pretty straightforward to use. You can use it just like when you are previewing a JPEG file using Photos. When previewing a RAW file, Image Raw also shows up the EXIF data of the photo on the app window bar.
You can get Image Raw file on Microsoft Store. Click the Get button to install it on your Windows 10 machine.
Once installed, Image Raw will integrate with your Windows 10 system. It adds a new item on the context menu on File Explorer. You can simply right-click a RAW file you want to preview and select Open with -> Image Raw.
Or, if you want to preview multiple RAW files, you can add a folder that holds the RAW files you want to preview instead. This way, you don’t need to back and forth from File Explorer to Image Raw.
To add a folder, click the three-line button on the top-left corner of the Image Raw window and click Open Folder on the bottom-left.
Once the folder is added, re-click the three-line button on the top-left corner to switch from one RAW file to another.
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Microsoft released a new extension to support raw images in File Explorer. Here’s how to preview and open raw photos on Windows 10 & 11.
Most cameras and smartphones use raw image format to have minimal processing to the photos taken using that device. The raw image format is very different from your regular image formats like JPG and PNG. One of the best things about raw image format is that it preserves all the data in a photo, allowing you to manipulate the picture however you want.
By default, the Windows File Explorer natively supports preview for several different image file types. However, up until now, there is no support for raw image formats. This means you cannot preview raw images or open raw image files using the Photos app.
If you are a photographer or someone who works a lot with the raw image file types, it can be pretty inconvenient not to see a preview in the file explorer or open it without installing some third-party software.
That changes with the addition of Raw Image Extension for File Explorer. By installing the raw image extension from Microsoft Store, you can preview Raw Images in the File Explorer and open raw images using the Photos app.
To preview and open raw images on Windows 10 and Windows 11, you need to install the Raw Image Extension from Microsoft Store. The extension is completely free. That being said, to use the Raw Image extension, you need to be on Windows 10 version 1903 or Windows 11.
If you are running Windows 10, confirm your Windows 10 version number before proceeding. Once you’ve confirmed, follow the below steps to preview and open raw images natively on File Explorer.
- Click here to go to the official Microsoft raw image extension page.
- Click on the “Get” button.
- Microsoft store will open automatically. If your browser prompts, select the “Open Microsoft Store” option.
- Click on the “Get” and then “Install” button.
- The above action will install the Raw Image Extension.
That is it. You don’t have to do anything else. After installing the extension, File Explorer will support raw images and automatically shows the photos preview just like any other image. By double-clicking on the raw image file, you can open it in the Photos app.
That is it. It is that simple to preview or open raw images in Windows File Explorer.
If you like this article, you might want to check out the best Windows store app list and how to pin any settings app page to start menu and how to disable Cortana on Windows 10 to protect your privacy.