How to Open and Convert HEIC Photos on Windows 11 and 10

By NexGama Studio · Updated October 27, 2026 · 2 min read

Try it now: HEIC to JPG — free, no upload.Open tool

You copy photos from your iPhone to a Windows PC and they show up as .heic files that won’t open, won’t preview and get rejected by websites. HEIC is Apple’s space-saving photo format. Windows can display it with the right add-ons, but most people simply need ordinary JPG files. Here are the three options.

Option 1: Convert to JPG in your browser (fastest)

If you need files that open everywhere — for email, WhatsApp, Word documents or upload forms — convert them:

Open the HEIC to JPG converter.
Drag in one HEIC photo or select many at once.
Choose JPG (or PNG) and a quality of 85–90%.
Download the results — several photos come as one ZIP file.

The conversion runs on your own PC, so your personal photos are never uploaded. Nothing needs to be installed.

Option 2: Let Windows open HEIC files

To view HEIC photos in the Windows Photos app and see thumbnails in File Explorer, Windows needs two extensions from the Microsoft Store:

HEIF Image Extensions — lets Windows read the HEIC image container.
HEVC Video Extensions — the codec that many HEIC photos are compressed with. Depending on your PC, this may already be installed or may need to be bought for a small fee.

Search for each name in the Microsoft Store app, install it and restart the Photos app. This is useful for viewing, but the files are still HEIC — websites and other people may still be unable to open them.

Option 3: Stop your iPhone saving HEIC

On your iPhone, go to Settings → Camera → Formats and choose Most Compatible. New photos will be saved as JPG. Photos take a little more storage, but you won’t need to convert them again.

You can also set Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic, so the iPhone converts photos to JPG when you copy them with a cable.

After converting

Converted JPGs are often 2–3 times larger than the original HEIC. To email many at once, shrink them with the Image Compressor.
Need PNG or WebP instead? The Image Converter switches between formats in one click.
Live Photos are converted as a still image; the short video part is not included.

Which option should you choose?

You want to…	Best option
Send or upload the photos	Convert to JPG (option 1)
Just browse them on your PC	Install the extensions (option 2)
Never deal with HEIC again	Change the iPhone setting (option 3)

Tools used in this guide

HEIC to JPGTurn iPhone HEIC photos into JPGs that open anywhere. Image CompressorShrink JPG, PNG or WebP files, optionally to a target size in KB. Image ConverterSwitch between JPG, PNG and WebP in one click.