Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer for Windows XP

The Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer is a free “PowerToy” for Microsoft Windows XP that provides the ability to view,  organize, and print photos captured in RAW image formats from supported digital cameras.

This is now available for free download at a hefty 47mb file so you may need a little time to download depending on your connection. It provides support for viewing of Canon (CRW & CR2) RAW and Nikon (NEF) RAW files as well as TIFF images and other standard image formats (BMP, GIF, PNG, JPEG etc.)

You use it in the same way you view thumbnails and images in XP, now you can thumbnail your RAW files which is a great bonus seeing pretty quickly what you have got and to do some initial culling or organising.

Often likened to a ‘digital negative,’ a RAW image is the native image format for a growing number of quality digital cameras. Because of the camera-specific nature of RAW files, they are not supported natively within Microsoft Windows. As a result, photographers shooting RAW have not been able to take advantage of the built-in features provided in Windows XP for viewing, organizing, and printing RAW photos--until now.

After installing the Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer Powertoy for Windows XP you will be able to view, organize, and print photos captured in RAW image formats from supported Canon and Nikon digital cameras.

This software offers the following benefits to digital photographers:

High image quality. This software uses the camera vendors' own processing libraries to provide the highest possible image fidelity for RAW images.
Superior colour fidelity. Windows Image Colour Management (ICM) is used to render images in the correct colour space as determined by the photographer when the image was captured.
Familiar user experience. This software builds on the familiar Windows user experience and requires little or no learning curve.
Performance tuned for rapid previews. The software uses background processing and other techniques to ensure a good preview experience even for large images.

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows XP Home Edition , Windows XP Professional N, Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Service Pack 2 or later is required. This program is not recommended for use on any other version of Windows. Download here