Windows 10 AVIF Support: Tutorial

Windows 11

The initial release of Windows 11 is scheduled for October 5, 2021. Currently, we do not know whether Windows 11 will support AVIF natively. Because Windows 10 offers support through a plugin, we anticipate it will be incorporated natively into the Operating System. We will keep this article updated.

Microsoft supports AVIF in Windows 10

AVIF got a significant boost when Microsoft decided to add support for it in the Windows 10 May 2019 Update. Windows 10 does not support the AVIF image format natively, but the software giant has incorporated this functionality into some of its core programs, notably the File Explorer and Paint program. As long as you have the correct AV1 video codec from the Microsoft Store installed on your computer, you can view AVIF images natively within Windows 10 apps like Paint and File Explorer.

With an extension

Without proper configuration, tools like Microsoft Paint throw a bug says the AVIF file is not a valid format and is not supported by the application. If you are looking for AVIF support for Windows 10, you can either wait until Microsoft implements it by default, or view the extension.AV1 extension has been around since Windows 10 version 1809, when support for the AV1 video format first appeared. Since version 1903, the extension can also process AVIF files.

Results

After installing the extension, File Explorer generates a thumbnail image for the AVIF image format. Additionally, MSPaint allows editing and saving these images. You may want to use a more advanced image editor than Paint to work on image files such as AVIF. For more details, see our article about GIMP.

Future

Gabe Fost, executive director of AOMedia, and principal group program manager at Microsoft once said: "Microsoft is committed to empowering the media and entertainment industry through transformative, royalty-free, open-source technology." Given Microsoft plays a huge role in developing new media codecs, we can expect more support in the future.

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