Use a Third Party Extension or App (free) The only problem is, it relies on the HEVC Video Extensions codec, which used to have a free version (that you may already have), but now can only be bought for $1. The HEIF Image Extensions codec for Windows is offered for free on the Windows Store. If you have Windows 10 or Windows 11, the solution may be simple: HEIC is based on the High-Efficiency Video Coding ( HEVC) format and stored in the High-Efficiency Image File (HEIF) container format. HEIC files, so you can't open photos transferred directly from your iPhone or iPad devices.

Out of the box, Windows does not support. The HEIC format has other advantages, such as color depth which goes up to 16-bit compared to JPEG's 8-bit, and a wider dynamic range of brightness. Just like Google developed the WebP format for the web, Apple shifted to a superior and more modern file format to store photos on its devices. Compared to the JPEG format, HEIC takes about half the storage space when saving images that preserve a similar quality. Apple switched to High-Efficiency Image Container (HEIC) files as the default format for storing photos across its mobile devices in 2017.

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