# Disable RAW support in Windows 10?



## Skyscraperfan (Jun 14, 2021)

In former Windows version like Windows 8.1 I was able to get rid of the RAW support by just deleting one update, but in Windows 10 ist seems to be built in and I can't get rid of it. As I shoot RAW+JPEG, it is very annoying to see every thumbnail twice. Once with the .JPG file extension and once with .CR2. It seems Windows 10 does not give us any option of what file types should get previews. That should not be too hard to implement. Why can't I simple uninstall a Codec? Is there an option around it? Could I overwrite the Codec for example with something that does not work? That trick works quite well with the driver that messed up the whole desktop when I closed my notebook. I was able to overwrite it and now windows no longer move to a second display when I close my notebook.

At least my version of Windows 10 does not understand .CR3 files yet. So the RAW files of my potential next camera might not have that problem.


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## SteveC (Jun 14, 2021)

If you haven't already done so set windows to show file extensions, that way you can at least tell JPG from CR2 or CR3 if you _can't_ solve this issue. It's not as good, obviously as spotting the generic "cartoon" thumbnail, but it's at least something.


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## U-Type (Jun 14, 2021)

I've had a similar issue but not exactly the same issue you have here. My windows 10 seems to think it can read the CR3 files but it can't, which causes an immense amount of lag whenever I open a folder containing CR3 files (explorer will start blank and then icons will start appearing one by one every half second till it's run through all the files in the folder then finally refresh and become responsive again)

I've adapted in different ways for each issue:

1. Whenever I want to only see the JPGs from RAW+JPGs, I can choose to only see the JPG files in the folder with the file type filter. I have "Classic Shell" installed so I can see the Sort headers even in thumbnail view. The option is called "Show Sort Headers in All Views" in the configuration window.

If you don't wanna install Classic Shell then perhaps you can just right click the empty space and group or sort by file type?





2. To prevent my Win10 from trying to display thumbnails of CR3 files, I edited the registry so it no longer thinks that CR3 files are images so it stops trying to generate thumbnails out of it. Of course this method is a lot more risky so do it at your own risk.

- Go into regedit
- search for .CR3
- For the classes root cr3, make the perceived type from "image" to something like "notimage" (actual name doesn't matter as long as it's not "image" or some word that it recognizes.
- Search for other instances of .CR3, and delete them from the keys


My original source/inspiration for this reg edit came from here:





Disabling Windows 10 RAW thumbnail preview.: PC Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review


Expert news, reviews and videos of the latest digital cameras, lenses, accessories, and phones. Get answers to your questions in our photography forums.




www.dpreview.com






I've also uninstalled the raw image extension or whatever it's called from the modern win10 settings/add remove apps window.


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