Viewing DNG and Canon raw thumbnails in Windows 7 Explorer

[David Anderson]

I have just upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and have lost the ability to view both DNG thumbnails and Canon raw file thumbnails in Windows Explorer. The DNG thumbnails used to be visible under Windows XP as a result of installing a registry patch but I have not yet found anything similar for Windows 7. The Canon raw files also used to be visible under Windows XP as a result of installing the 'Microsoft Raw Image Viewer' utility program but this does not seem to have a Windows 7 version.

Any suggestions?

David 

[Roelof]

This is a known issue on Win7.
However, there is an cheap solution. Install the fastpictureviewer codec for 15 dollar.
http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/

Roelof

[David Anderson]

Hi Roelof,
Thanks for the link. That is cheaper than another commercial codec I found a short time ago.

You say this is a known issue. Can you provide a link to any detailed discussion on this topic? Do you know if there a reason why MS has chosen not to release a Win 7 version of Microsoft Raw Image Viewer? 

David

[Roelof]

I don't know the reason why Microsoft decided this but i found it out myself when i upgraded to Win7 64bit last year.
Maybe you can find more information on the site of Microsoft.

Roelof

[Roger Spencelayh]

Hi Roelof,
Thanks for the link. That is cheaper than another commercial codec I found a short time ago.

You say this is a known issue. Can you provide a link to any detailed discussion on this topic? Do you know if there a reason why MS has chosen not to release a Win 7 version of Microsoft Raw Image Viewer? 

David

It's because neither Canon nor Adobe have released 64-bit codecs for their CR2 and DNG file formats. The reuslt is you can only view these files in 64-bit Windows in programs which natively support the formats. I would guess that Microsoft have decided not to write their own 64-bit support for these 2 formats, resulting in them not being viewable in their programs. I would think that as soon as Canon and Adobe get their acts together and write 64-bit versions of the codecs, the problem will be fixed.

As I understand it, a Codec has to be loaded into memory the same way as a driver does, so in order to work in a 64-bit OS the codec has to be 64-bit. But a 32-bit program will run in a 64-bit OS, so as long as the program has its own file support, there's no problem. Its when the program relies on an external means of supporting the format, i.e. a codec, that it all falls over in a 64-bit environment.

My guess is it will happen, its just a case of when.

--
Roger