Software & Apps Windows How to Open HEIC Files in Windows Open this newer format easily by Jennifer Allen Writer Jennifer Allen has been writing about technology since 2010. Her work has appeared in Mashable, TechRadar, and many more publications. our editorial process Twitter LinkedIn Jennifer Allen Updated on April 16, 2020 Matthew Leete / Getty Images Windows The Ultimate Laptop Buying Guide Tweet Share Email Modern iOS devices save images in the HEIC/HEIF format. The format is common to Apple, but Windows 10 opens this format natively. This guide includes details on opening HEIC files on Windows. The instructions work for Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7. MacOS opens such files without any extra tweaking. What Are HEIC Files? The HEIC format was adopted by Apple in 2017 as a replacement for the JPEG format. More efficient in terms of size and quality, the HEIC file extension is also known as a HEIF file. It's been used in the past for Apple's iPhone Portrait Mode, enabling much higher quality images than a regular JPEG, among other advantages. It's a big new step for the world of image file extensions and a great way of cutting down on file sizes. A few key steps are all that lies between you and being able to open such files on Windows 7, 8, and 10. If you send image files from your iOS device, such as through email or Dropbox, your iOS device should automatically convert the file to JPG, meaning you don't have to worry about HEIC/HEIF compatibility issues. How to Open a HEIC File in Windows 10 An update in April 2018 added native support for HEIC files in Windows 10. Assuming your PC is up to date, you don't actually have to do much to open a HEIC file. Here's what's involved. Find the file on your PC. Double-click the file. Through this method, it's not possible to see a preview of the image like with some other files. It should now open in a Photo Preview window just like any other image file. File won't open? Download the HEIF Image Extensions add-on from the Microsoft Store. How to Open a HEIC File in Windows 7 and 8 Opening a HEIC/HEIF file is a little trickier on Windows 7 and 8 since there's no direct support for the file extension. The best solution is to download a tool called CopyTrans HEIC for Windows. It's a plugin that opens HEIC files just as easily as any other files, with no further interaction required once you've installed the tool. You can also use CopyTrans HEIC for Windows on a Windows 10 PC. It shows thumbnail previews of your images and offers easy conversion tools too. Visit https://www.copytrans.net/copytransheic. Select Download, then install the software. Double-click a HEIC file to open it.