Microsoft Acknowledges Vista RAW Image Support Issues

Customer feedback is getting through to Microsoft, and the Redmond Company has acknowledged the existence of issues related to the RAW image support in Windows Vista. With Windows Vista, Microsoft has added support for image file formats that are proprietary to their camera make and model. The problem with raw image support in Vista is related to the fact that editing the properties of a photo in the operating system will render the proprietary metadata unrecognizable.

To avoid losing the RAW metadata, Microsoft advises users to steer clear of the Photo Acquisition Wizard when downloading photos from the camera to the hard drive and Windows Photo Gallery or Windows Explorer for editing properties including: Title, Subject, Rating, Tags and Comments.

"For RAW image support in Windows Vista, Microsoft is working with major camera manufacturers to help provide RAW image codecs for their respective formats so that you can view them in Windows Photo Gallery. As a matter a fact, several of those major camera manufacturers have already provided codecs for their RAW imaging formats: Nikon (.NEF files), Sony (.SRF and .SR2 files) and Olympus (.ORF files)," revealed Nick White, Microsoft Program Manager.

At the time of this article, Microsoft was warning users of the version 1.0 of the Nikon RAW Codec for Windows Vista about compatibility issues. Tagging RAW images in Windows Vista can render them unreadable by other applications such as Adobe Photoshop. The Redmond Company informed that it is working with Nikon on delivering a resolve.

"Windows Photo Gallery has a "check for updates" feature that will kick in when any of the above file formats are discovered. Photo Gallery will prompt you for a update that will enable the use of these RAW Image formats from these manufacturers. More codecs are expected to come online and will be available via Photo Gallery's update feature, just as these are today. With respect to the Nikon files, there are apparently compatibility issues that both Microsoft and Nikon are actively investigating, with Nikon hoping to issue a updated codec in the near future," White added.