Double-click a HEIC photo on Windows 10 and you know the feeling: instead of your picture, Windows shrugs and tells you it can't open the file. Apple made HEIC the iPhone's default photo format years ago, but Microsoft never shipped native HEIC support in Windows 10. So every batch of photos AirDropped from an iPhone — or copied off a family member's phone — lands on your PC as files you can't view, edit, or convert.
Why Windows 10 can't open HEIC
HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) stores better-looking photos at roughly half the file size of JPEG, a big win for phones with limited storage. The catch is codec support: Windows 10 simply doesn't include the HEIF codec out of the box. Windows 11 handles it a little better, but if you're still on Windows 10 — and hundreds of millions of PCs are — you're on your own.
The two workarounds everyone tries first
1. The HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store. This small paid add-on lets the Photos app display HEIC files. It works, but it only solves viewing: batch-converting a whole folder of photos to PNG is still a chore, and on a work or school PC you may not even have permission to install Store apps.
2. Upload-based online converters. These work on any computer, but consider the trade: you're sending personal photos — family pictures, document scans, client work — to a server run by strangers, just to change a file format. Many of these sites also cap file sizes, queue free users, or demand payment to remove watermarks.
A better option: convert locally, in the browser
Here's the approach most people haven't tried: a converter that runs entirely in your browser. Modern browsers can execute real image-processing code on your machine via WebAssembly, decoding HEIC and encoding PNG without any server involved. Nothing uploads, nothing installs — and it works identically on locked-down office PCs and hotel Wi-Fi, because your photos never travel anywhere.
Full disclosure: I'm the developer of FileOnTap, a free tool built exactly this way.
How to convert HEIC to PNG on Windows 10
The whole thing takes about thirty seconds:
- Open FileOnTap's HEIC to PNG converter in Edge or Chrome.
- Drag your HEIC files onto the page — one photo or a whole batch.
- Each file converts locally on your PC. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
- Download the resulting PNGs.
That's it. No account, no watermark, no installer asking for admin rights.
Batch conversion without the pain
This is where the local approach really shines. Drop fifty vacation photos onto the page and they all convert in one pass, each at full quality — no per-file queues, no "upgrade to convert more than 5 files" nag screens. Converting locally also means speed doesn't depend on your connection: a folder of HEICs converts just as fast on a slow connection as on fiber, because nothing is being uploaded.
Should you choose PNG or JPG?
PNG is lossless — every pixel of the original HEIC survives the conversion — which makes it the right choice for editing in tools like Photoshop or Paint.NET, and for images with text or sharp graphics. The trade-off is file size: PNGs are noticeably bigger than the HEICs they came from, so they're best for working copies and sharing rather than long-term archiving. One technical footnote: HEICs from newer iPhones can be 10-bit, while PNG is 8-bit per channel — more than enough for sharing and editing.
Whatever you do, keep your originals: convert a copy, and archive the HEIC files.
The bottom line
If you only need to peek at a single HEIC once, the Store codec or asking the sender to re-export as JPG might be quicker. But the moment you need real PNG files — for a website upload, an email attachment, or editing — converting locally in the browser beats both traditional workarounds: no install hassles, no privacy trade-off, no per-file fees.
File formats shouldn't decide where your photos are allowed to exist. With the right tool, that folder of iPhone HEICs becomes universally readable PNGs in seconds — without a single byte leaving your PC.
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