How to view Camera RAW Thumbnails in Windows

Enable Sony .ARW and other Thumbnails in 60 seconds

I’ve recently discovered a way to display thumbnails for Sony camera photo raw files (.ARW) on the File Explorer in Windows 11, this should work on Windows 10 and lower as well. This should work on all other raw files from Canon, Nikon, Fuji, and so on as well. Without further ado, just download the Microsoft Raw Image Extension through the Windows Store. Previously there was an official Sony driver, but that one has been discontinued. So the Windows option is the only one we’ve got for now. If you also want to learn about adding support for viewing 10-bit Slog3 and other picture profiles / log profiles straight in the Windows 11 File Explorer, check out this post.

This should add support for all Sony cameras, some of them are the 7 series cameras like the Sony a7iii, Sony a7iv, Sony a7siii, A7C, the Cybershot series Sony DSC-RX100, RX10 and RX1, as well as 6000 series like the Sony a6100, Sony a6400, a6600 and a6700.

Happy Creating,
Jonas