Enable HEIC Image Preview in Windows

After reinstalling my system, I found that HEIC images captured by my iPhone could no longer be previewed in Windows File Explorer. Naturally, I searched the Microsoft Store for the necessary extension, only to find that the available option required payment. This puzzled me because I had never purchased such an extension before, yet my previous system handled HEIC previews perfectly fine.

After some research, I discovered that HEVC encoding requires licensing fees. The extension I used before was called HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer. The associated licensing fees had already been covered by the hardware manufacturer, so I didn’t need to pay extra to use it. On my previous system, this extension was free to use. However, for reasons unknown, Microsoft has hidden this free extension from the Store, leaving only the $0.99 paid version. Even if I accessed the free extension’s page via a direct link, Microsoft indicated it wouldn’t work on my device, and the install button was grayed out. Well, I wasn’t about to pay for something I had previously used for free. After some digging, I managed to find the offline installer for the free extension, successfully restoring its functionality on my computer.

Steps to Obtain the Free HEVC Extension

1. Visit Online link generator for Microsoft Store.
2. Change the dropdown menu on the left to ProductId.
3. Paste 9N4WGH0Z6VHQ into the text field.
4. Click the checkmark on the right to search.
5. You’ll see two results; download the one labeled Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtension_2.2.9.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.appxbundle.
6. Double-click the offline installer to open it, then click Install to complete the process.

Differences and Relationships Among HEIC, HEIF, and HEVC

The following content is partially summarized by ChatGPT:

Name	Definition	Primary Use	Relationship with the Other Two
HEIC	A file format implementation based on HEIF	Stores single images or animated images	A specific implementation of HEIF, typically using HEVC encoding
HEIF	A high-efficiency image file format	Stores and manages images and metadata	The foundation of HEIC, supports multiple codecs, including HEVC
HEVC	A high-efficiency video coding standard (H.265)	Compresses video or image data	Often used as the image compression algorithm for HEIF/HEIC

Summary:
HEIF is a file format, HEIC is a specific implementation of HEIF that typically uses HEVC as its image compression codec.

References:
Why are HEVC Video extensions sold separately? @reddit
Microsoft want me to pay up form HEVC extension. Should I ? @reddit
HEVC Advance Makes Some Software Royalty Free