Often likened to a ‘digital negative,’ a RAW image is the native image format for a growing number of quality digital cameras. Because of the camera-specific nature of RAW files, they are not supported natively within Microsoft Windows. As a result, photographers shooting RAW have not been able to take advantage of the built-in features provided in Windows XP for viewing, organizing, and printing RAW photos--until now.
After installing the Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer Powertoy for Windows XP you will be able to view, organize, and print photos captured in RAW image formats from supported Canon and Nikon digital cameras.

This software offers the following benefits to digital photographers:
High image quality. This software uses the camera vendors' own processing libraries to provide the highest possible image fidelity for RAW images.
Superior color fidelity. Windows Image Color Management (ICM) is used to render images in the correct color space as determined by the photographer when the image was captured.
Familiar user experience. This software builds on the familiar Windows user experience and requires little or no learning curve.
Performance tuned for rapid previews. The software uses background processing and other techniques to ensure a good preview experience even for large images.
The software supports the following image types:

- Canon EOS RAW images (.crw, .cr2, .tif)
- Nikon Electronic Format images (.nef)
- Bitmap images (.bmp)
- JPEG images (.jpg, .jpe, .jpeg)
- Windows Metafile images (.wmf)
- Tagged Image File Format images (.tif, .tiff)
- Graphics Interchange Format images (.gif)
- Portable Network Graphics images (.png)

Supported camera models include the following:

- Canon EOS 1D
- Canon EOS 1Ds
- Canon EOS 1D Mark II
- Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II
- Canon EOS D30
- Canon EOS D60
- Canon EOS 10D
- Canon EOS 20D
- Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D)
- Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
- Canon Powershot G2
- Canon Powershot G3
- Canon Powershot G5
- Canon Powershot G6
- Canon Powershot Pro1
- Canon Powershot s30
- Canon Powershot s50
- Canon Powershot s70

- Nikon D1
- Nikon D1x
- Nikon D2H
- Nikon D2x
- Nikon D70
- Nikon D100
- Nikon Coolpix 8800
- Nikon Coolpix 5700

Note that other models of cameras may work, but have not been explicitly tested by Microsoft.
The RAW Image Viewer application requires version 1.1 of the Microsoft .NET Framework for operation. For this reason, there are two versions of the software download:
Lite version: A "lite" download package containing the PowerToy software only. This package is approximately 6Mb in size.
Full version: A complete download package containing the PowerToy software along with version 1.1 of the Microsoft .NET redistributable software. This is approximately 47Mb in size.