Introduction

Microsoft has today made their RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer PowerToy available for download. This utility provides 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.). The utility is split into a Windows XP shell extension which provides preview / edit / print commands for RAW files as well as a RAW viewer application. It weighs in as a 47 MB download!
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 utility consists of two primary components:
1. A Windows XP shell extension that provides thumbnail rendering, printing, and metadata display for RAW images in Windows Explorer. In addition, 'Preview', 'Edit', and 'Print' commands are added to the context menu when right-clicking on RAW images in Windows Explorer.
2. A RAW Viewer application that provides previews, printing and slideshows for RAW images and other image types. The RAW Viewer application looks and works much like the existing Windows Picture and Fax Viewer utility, with enhancements tailored to the digital photographer
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 color fidelity. Windows Image Color Management (ICM) is used to render images in the correct color 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.
A computer system with at least 256 Mb of RAM and a Pentium III or better CPU is required. For best performance, 512 Mb of RAM and a Pentium 4 or better CPU is recommended.
Version 1.1 of the Microsoft .NET Framework is required. This software will be automatically installed when running Setup if it is not already present on your system. Other versions of the .NET Framework may be safely installed on your system without affecting the use of this software.
Supported File Types and Camera Models
The software supports the following image types:

• Canon EOS RAW images (.crw, .cr2, .tif)
• Nikon Electronic Format images (.nef)
• Bitmap images (.bmp)
• JPEG images (.jpg, .jpe, .jpeg)
• Windows Metafile images (.wmf)
• Tagged Image File Format images (.tif, .tiff)
• Graphics Interchange Format images (.gif)
• Portable Network Graphics images (.png)

Supported camera models include the following:

• Canon EOS 1D
• Canon EOS 1Ds
• Canon EOS 1D Mark II
• Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II
• Canon EOS D30
• Canon EOS D60
• Canon EOS 10D
• Canon EOS 20D
• Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D)
• Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
• Canon Powershot G2
• Canon Powershot G3
• Canon Powershot G5
• Canon Powershot G6
• Canon Powershot Pro1
• Canon Powershot s30
• Canon Powershot s50
• Canon Powershot s70
• Nikon D1
• Nikon D1x
• Nikon D2H
• Nikon D2x
• Nikon D70
• Nikon D100
• Nikon Coolpix 8800
• Nikon Coolpix 5700