How to open HEIC photos and camera RAW files on Windows

Windows opens HEIC photos once two Microsoft Store extensions are installed, HEIF Image Extensions and HEVC Video Extensions, and camera RAW files once the free Raw Image Extension is. Or have the iPhone save JPEG in the first place, or convert its photos as you copy them.

27 October 2026 · 4 min read

What a HEIC file is

HEIC is the High Efficiency Image File format with its picture compressed as HEVC, the same method as much modern video. iPhones have saved photos as HEIC by default since iOS 11, because a HEIC is often about half the size of a JPEG of the same quality. Windows can read it, but the decoder is not always installed.

Opening them in Windows

Install two extensions from the Microsoft Store:

HEIF Image Extensions, free, and already installed on many computers.
HEVC Video Extensions, which decodes the picture inside. It costs a small sum in most countries; some computers come with a free edition from their maker.

With both installed, Photos opens HEIC files, Explorer shows their thumbnails, and other programs that use Windows’ own decoders open them too.

Or stop the iPhone making them

Settings, Camera, Formats, Most Compatible makes the camera save JPEG from now on, at the cost of larger files.
Settings, Photos, Transfer to Mac or PC, Automatic keeps HEIC on the phone but converts photos to JPEG as they are copied to a computer over a cable.

Converting the ones you have

GIMP and a number of free viewers open HEIC and save JPEG, and Photos can save a copy in another format once the extensions are in. Online converters work too, but they mean uploading your photos to someone else’s server, which is worth thinking about for pictures of people or documents.

Camera RAW files

A RAW file holds what the camera’s sensor recorded before any processing, so it can be adjusted much further than a JPEG. Each maker has its own format: CR2 and CR3 for Canon, NEF for Nikon, ARW for Sony, ORF for Olympus and OM System, RW2 for Panasonic, RAF for Fujifilm, and DNG, an open format many phones and cameras use.

Raw Image Extension, free from the Microsoft Store, lets Photos and Explorer show most of them.
To edit them, darktable and RawTherapee are free and open source, Lightroom is the best known paid choice, and each camera maker offers free software of its own.
A quick look. Most RAW files carry a full-size JPEG preview made by the camera, which many viewers can show without any codec.

Our own product, disclosed

Where our own software comes into this

We make Rutba Office, a free desktop suite for Windows. Since version 2.21 its Pictures app shows HEIC, HEIF, JPEG XR and camera RAW photos (DNG, CR2, NEF, ARW, ORF, RW2 and RAF) through the codecs Windows already has, so the extensions above are what it needs too. Where an extension is missing it says which one, and a RAW photo with no codec shows the JPEG its camera put inside it. They open in Pictures only for now, not yet in the Image editor.