Loading...

January 12, 2023 1,547 views

Open HEIC pictures in Windows

Adding HEIF support to your computer with Copytrans HEIF for Windows

Until Microsoft decides to add support for HEIF/HEIC pictures to Windows, you have to rely on 3rd party solution so you can view High Efficiency Image File Format on your Windows computer. CopyTrans HEIC for Windows is one of such free and easy solutions that add HEIF/HEIC support directly to your Windows Explorer and Photo Viewer.

Related extensions:

.heif - High Efficiency Image File Format .heic - High Efficiency Image Format

TIP: How to add support for HEIC/HEIF files to Windows with Copytrans

HEIFHEIF Icon / HEIC photos are a thing on MacOS and iOS platforms for some time now, introduced with the High Sierra update, but users that do not own or work with Apple's devices might have never heard about High Efficiency Image File Format.

It's a next-gen photo format that features many improvements and the authors claim that twice as much information can be stored in HEIF image compared to JPEG one of the same size and even in better quality.

Unfortunately, until Microsoft decides to fully embrace this format (some first snowflakes are in May 2018 Insider builds) you have to use third party solutions or plugins to view .heif or .heic files on your Windows machines.

If you are one of the users that never heard about HEIF or one of your friends send you .heif pictures and you cannot open it, you might be interested in one small utility that will allow you to view HEIF format directly in Windows Explorer or even convert it to JPEG.

View HEIC photos easily with CopyTrans HEIC for Windows

CopyTrans HEIC for Windows is free plugin for Windows that essentially adds support for HEIF format. Just download, install and use, pretty straightforward. And how does it work? Let's check it out.

No support for .heic files in Windows

Windows does not recognize .heic files, but shows thumbnails of .jpg files just fine

 

Support for HEIC added to Windows Explorer

CopyTrans HEIC for Windows has been installed and you can now see the thumbnails of .heic files

CopyTrans HEIC for Windows add HEIC support also to the default Windows Photo Viewer so you can view these pictures like any other photos stored on your computer.

 

HEIC picture opened in Windows Photo Viewer

HEIC picture opened in Windows Photo Viewer

And if that's not enough for you, you can simply convert HEIC to JPEG directly from the content menu by right-clicking on your .heic file and selecting the new convert option that has been added by CopyTrans HEIC for Windows.

Easy way to perform heic to jpeg conversion
heic to jpg conversion with simple right click in Windows Explorer

Windows 11

Latest Windows 11 support HEIF/HEIC files by default and you no longer need to add this manually.