Windows Imaging Component

All those who develop applications for a living or as a hobby typically try to integrate as many useful functions to their product as possible, relying on the components that best suit their needs. For instance, they can use Windows Imaging Component when they want their project to support a wider range of file formats.
In order to be able to embed this component, a compatible codec needs to have been installed on the host machine, to ensure that the current app can correctly display and edit JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF or BMP, depending on the developer’s choices.
In addition, Windows Imaging Component can also be used to enhance the metadata-related functions of an application, adding features related to reading and writing EXIF data to user-defined images. Due to this feature, people can view details regarding the camera that was used to take the shot and even the geographical coordinates of the location where the picture was taken.
Moreover, applications that integrate Windows Imaging Component can allow users to store metadata inside the actual image files, thus stripping them of the so-called "sidecar files" and making them easier to be copied or moved to other locations.
Regarding the supported operating systems, Windows Imaging Component is compatible with most editions of Windows 2003 and Windows XP, including Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition or XP SP2.
Despite its rather limited OS compatibility, Windows Imaging Component can still come in handy to developers who want to make sure their apps can handle common and raw image formats, and who cannot afford purchasing a specialized library for this purpose.