Microsoft is adding LibRaw support to Windows

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Description

                    PLEASE NOTE – thanks for your interest in the Raw Image Extension (Beta). It is currently in development for a future version of Windows and requires Windows Insider build 18323 or later.

The Raw Image Extension adds native viewing support for images captured in raw file formats produced by many mid- to high-end digital cameras. By installing the package, you will be able to view thumbnails and metadata of supported raw file formats right in Windows File Explorer or view images in the Photos app. The current version of the extension supports a long list of cameras, however some Raw formats like .CR3, and .GPR are not currently supported at this time.

This package is made possible thanks to libraw open source project (http://www.libraw.org). Check out LibRaw 0.21 supported cameras | LibRaw for a list of supported cameras. Libraw library is licensed under COMMON DEVELOPMENT AND DISTRIBUTION LICENSE Version 1.0 (CDDL-1.0).

(Please forgive me if I should not be posting this here, but I figured as LibRaw is open source it was relevant news)

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I’d agree this is relevant & interesting news. We have quite a few windows users.

Thanks for sharing!

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Looks like Microsoft has been shedding a lot of its weight the past several years and depending on others. (Similar to how my country does things: outsource everything—take zero responsibility, or even better, blame the constituents or customers.) Don’t like the ads and spying either.

That said, yay for open source!?

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@afre - I really wish I wasn’t stuck on Windows due to application OS restriction, but oh well.

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Update:
It is now available as an extension if you have the May 2019 update to Win 10.

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On win7 I’m using the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack which is quite old now. But then, so are my cameras.

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I hope Microsoft will be contributing to LibRaw upstream from now on.

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Microsoft will contribute what is beneficial to itself, not the greater community per se.

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Historically, they have gone for “embrace and extend”, where they add Microsoft-unique extensions.

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I finally got this installed (had to wait for Windows update first) and it works fine for my .raf files. The question is, is there a way to link the jpg and raf together so they can be deleted at the same time directly from Windows? Right now I use Digikam, but I would like to be able to do it natively.

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It is for decoding raw files only, not managing them.

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Hmmm, I don’t know of an OS that has a mechanism for arbitrarily connecting file types in that manner. From the viewpoint of an OS developer, I’d be reticent to implement a capability that might be used in a manner that ends up inadvertently deleting files a particular user didn’t want deleted.

I think it’s far more appropriate and reliable for a specific application to manage that sort of relationship, that of rendition files that are a result of processing from a source file…

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