Earlier this year, I wrote about the where, why and how of Nikon Raw (NEF) Codecs for Vista and Windows 7.

In the intervening months, my fellow photographers have introduced me to a shiny new alternative called the Fast Picture Viewer codec, which is free, works on 32- and 64-bit Windows, and has since become my go-to codec on both Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

With this codec installed, you get Raw image support in places like Windows File Explorer, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Windows 7 Media Center. And it’s surprisingly fast.

Here’s a link back to my updated earlier article, which explains the codec story in more detail.

Or you can just go download the Fast Picture Viewer codec.

Microsoft tech Bonus: It was created by a BizSpark startup.

The goal: a directory of Raw (NEF) Image files and their metadata in Windows Explorer. This is 64-bit Windows 7.