How to Open HEIC Files on Windows 10 and 11

Someone sent you photos from an iPhone. Windows shows you a folder full of files ending in .heic, with blank thumbnails, and double-clicking one gets you an error or an empty Photos window.

This is one of the most common frustrations in moving files between Apple and Microsoft devices, and it has four practical solutions. Which one you should pick depends on how many files you’re dealing with and whether you need them permanently.

Why Windows struggles with these files

HEIC photos use HEVC compression, also known as H.265. HEVC is covered by a large pool of patents, and shipping a decoder means paying licence fees. Apple absorbs that cost because it controls the whole device. Microsoft chose instead to separate the decoder out of Windows and distribute it through the Store, where the licensing can be handled per-install.

The result is that Windows can display HEIC photos perfectly well once the right components are installed — it just doesn’t include them by default on most machines.

Option 1: Install the Microsoft extensions

This is the proper fix if you want Windows to treat HEIC like any other image format.

You need two pieces:

1. HEIF Image Extensions — free from the Microsoft Store. This teaches Windows about the container format.
2. HEVC Video Extensions — this handles the actual decompression. Microsoft charges a small fee (typically around a dollar). Some PCs from manufacturers who have already licensed HEVC get a device-specific version preinstalled at no charge.

Search the Microsoft Store for each by name and install them. After installing, thumbnails start appearing in File Explorer and Photos opens HEIC files normally. No restart is usually required, though it doesn’t hurt.

Pick this if you regularly receive HEIC photos and want them to behave like normal images on your machine.

Skip it if you’re on a work computer where you can’t install Store apps, which is extremely common in corporate environments.

Option 2: Convert the files

If you only need these particular photos — or you need them as JPGs anyway because you’re uploading them somewhere — converting is faster than fixing Windows.

Conversion is also the only option that solves the downstream problem. Installing the extensions lets your PC display a HEIC file, but it does nothing for the government upload form, the print shop, or the colleague running software from 2015 who still can’t open what you forward them. Converting to JPG fixes it everywhere at once.

You can convert with our HEIC to JPG converter directly in your browser. Drop in as many files as you like, and the conversion happens on your own machine — nothing is uploaded to a server, there’s no sign-up, and there’s no cap on how many files you process at once.

That last point matters more than it sounds. Most free online converters limit you to a handful of files per hour precisely because each conversion costs them server time. Since this one runs on your computer, it costs nothing to run and there’s nothing to ration.

Pick this if you need the photos in a universal format anyway, you’re on a locked-down machine, or you have a batch to get through.

Option 3: Use software that already reads HEIC

Several applications bundle their own HEIC support and sidestep Windows entirely:

• Adobe Lightroom and recent Photoshop handle HEIC natively.
• IrfanView with its plug-in pack opens them.
• XnView MP supports the format.
• Google Photos, Dropbox and OneDrive will display HEIC in their web interfaces, since the conversion happens on their servers.

Pick this if you already use one of these tools as part of your workflow.

Be aware that the cloud services option means your photos are uploaded to a third party — fine for snapshots, worth thinking about for documents and anything personal.

Option 4: Stop the problem at the source

If the photos are coming from your own iPhone, you can prevent HEIC files ever reaching your PC.

On the iPhone, open Settings → Camera → Formats and select Most Compatible. New photos will be saved as JPEG. Existing photos stay as they are.

Alternatively, leave the camera format alone and change only how photos transfer: Settings → Photos, scroll down to “Transfer to Mac or PC” and choose Automatic. The phone converts to JPEG on the way out, so your iPhone keeps the storage benefit while your PC gets files it understands.

Pick this if the photos are yours and the friction is recurring. It doesn’t help with files other people send you.

Which should you actually choose?

If this happens to you often and you own the PC, install the extensions — a dollar to make the problem disappear permanently is good value.

If this is a one-off batch, if you need JPGs for something else anyway, or if you’re on a machine where you can’t install software, convert the files.

If the photos are coming from your own phone and you’re tired of this, change the iPhone setting and stop generating the problem.

A note on where you convert

Whatever route you take, give a moment’s thought to what’s in the photos.

Uploading holiday pictures to a random converter site is a low-stakes decision. Uploading a scanned passport for a visa application, a photograph of a medical document, or damage photos for an insurance claim is a different matter — you’re handing personal material to a company you know nothing about, with retention policies you haven’t read.

Browser-based conversion avoids the question entirely, because the file never leaves your computer. You can confirm it: open your browser’s developer tools before converting, watch the Network tab, and you’ll see no file data go out. Or simply turn off your wifi and convert anyway — it still works, because everything needed is already running locally.

After converting: expect bigger files

One thing that catches people out: your JPGs will typically be larger than the HEIC files they came from, often noticeably so. Nothing has gone wrong. HEIC’s whole advantage is efficient compression, so the same image needs more room once it’s a JPEG.

If size matters, reduce the quality setting during conversion. Dropping from maximum to around 80% usually cuts the file size substantially with no difference most people can see at normal viewing sizes.