Thanks CoolCatBad for posting this in Back Page News on our forums.
The Windows Imaging Component supports discovery of new and proprietary (e.g., Raw) image formats. Any application that uses WIC can take advantage of new image formats as soon as their CODECs (encoder/decoders) are installed on the computer. WIC includes updated CODECs for JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, & BMP that are more secure than previously released CODECs for these formats, and also supports a new high-performance image format called Windows Media Photo. Additionally, WIC provides metadata readers and writers for common image metadata formats, and enables applications to preserve their own metadata inside image files so they don't need to create "sidecar files".
Download: Windows Imaging Component RC1 32 Bit | 1.2 MB (WGA check required) Download: Windows Imaging Component RC1 64 Bit | 1.8 MB (WGA check required)
