How to Open WebP Images in Windows 11

Abraham Smith

PNG and JPG remain the dominant image formats on websites. However, the relatively new alternative image format WebP from Google is becoming more and more popular on the Internet. It is a high quality lossy compression format that reduces the file size of images. WebP files are estimated to be 34 percent smaller than JPGs on average.


WebP is not as universally supported as PNG and JPG formats. It’s harder to find software that will open WebP images saved from websites. Still, you can open WebP images in Windows 11 using the following methods.


How to open WebP images in Paint

Paint is a pre-installed Windows 11 app that natively supports WebP format. So it is easy to open files of this format in this app. To open WebP images in Paint:

  1. Paint is among the apps pinned to the Windows 11 Start menu by default. Click the Windows 11 Start Menu button and select the pinned Paint app.
  2. click file at the top left of the Paint window.
  3. Choose Open option in the menu.
  4. Select a WebP file to open.
  5. Press Open to display your selected WebP image in Paint.

How to rename WebP images and open them in Photos

The Photos app is the default image viewer in Windows 11, but it doesn’t support WebP format. However, you can still open a WebP image in this app by changing its filename to include a .jpg extension. The file will keep its original size even after editing the title. You can rename a WebP image and open it in Photos as follows:

  1. Access the Windows 11 File and Folder Manager app by clicking researcher taskbar button.
  2. Press the outlook Button in the Explorer command bar.
  3. Hover over it Demonstrate.
  4. click Filename Extensions if this option is not selected.
  5. Open a folder that contains WebP files.
  6. Right-click on a WebP image and select it Rename in the Explorer context menu.
  7. Delete the WebP extension at the end of the file. Add JPG (or PNG) to the end of the file’s tile as a replacement.
  8. If Photos is set as the default image viewer, double-clicking the renamed JPG image will open it in this app. Alternatively, you can right-click the renamed file to select it Show more options > Open with and photos.

How to open WebP files with Windows Photo Viewer

Google has released a WebP codec that allows users to open WebP images in software based on the Windows Imaging component when it is installed. Windows Photo Viewer is one such program, but that’s not enabled by default in Windows 11 and 10. However, you can enable Photo Viewer in Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system using Winaero Tweaker in the following steps:

  1. Open the webpage to download Winaero Tweaker.
  2. press the Download Winaero Tweaker Link to get a compressed ZIP archive for this software.
  3. Open the Winaero Tweaker ZIP archive by clicking on it Downloads tab in your browser. To press ctrl + J is the quick way to open this tab in Chrome, Opera and Edge.
  4. Then select Explorer’s extract everything option in the command bar.
  5. If the Show extracted files check box is not enabled, click this setting to select it.
  6. Choose extract to open an unzipped Winaero Tweaker folder.
  7. Double-click the setup file to install Winaero Tweaker.
  8. Go through the setup wizard’s installation options, which you can leave at the default settings.
  9. Let them Run Winaero Tweaker Check box selected and click on the of the wizard Finished Button.
  10. Scroll down and double click Get classic apps in the Winaero Tweaker.
  11. Choose Turn on Windows Photo Viewer to see this option.
  12. click Turn on Windows Photo Viewer to activate the app.

After activating Windows Photo Viewer, proceed to install the WebP codec pack. Here’s how to download and install the WebP codec in Windows 11:

  1. Open the WebP Codec for Windows web page.
  2. From there, click the WebpCodecSetup.exe link.
  3. Choose Next and the I accept the terms Checkboxes in WebP code setup window.
  4. click Next a second time to display the setup type options. Press the Typical Button.
  5. Then go ahead and click To install.
  6. To exit the wizard, select it Finished Possibility.

You can now open a WebP file with Windows Photo Viewer. To do this, right-click on a WebP image in File Explorer and select it Open with > Windows Photo Viewer.

Open WebP images with Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge

Chrome and Edge are two Chromium browsers that support WebP format. So you can open a WebP image in any of these web browsers. You can open WebP files in Edge or Chrome with this drag-and-drop method:

  1. Press the Win + E Keyboard shortcut to open Explorer app.
  2. Go to a directory (folder) containing a WebP file.
  3. Open either Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
  4. In Explorer, click and hold the left mouse button on a WebP file to drag it to a Chrome or Edge page tab.
  5. Release the mouse button when you see a +copy quick info. A separate tab will then open showing the WebP image.

You can also set Edge or Chrome as the default software to open WebP files via settings. Then a WebP image will automatically open in its default browser software when you double-click its file. Our guide to setting default file associations in Windows 10 has more details on configuring the default software in Windows.

How to open WebP images with ImageGlass

ImageGlass is a third-party image viewer app for Windows 11, 10, 8 and 7 that supports WebP format along with 80+ others. It includes various zoom and window modes and unique customization features that you won’t find in many alternatives. To open your WebP files in ImageGlass:

  1. Open the ImageGlass download page on this software’s website.
  2. press the ImageGlass Kobe Installer x64 (64-bit) option.
  3. Select this option to open the ImageGlass installer Downloads page in your browser.
  4. Then select the I accept the terms, Typicaland To install ImageGlass setup wizard options.
  5. Double-click the ImageGlass shortcut on your desktop.
  6. click English (or other preferred language) on the Choose a language Drop-down menu you see after launching ImageGlass for the first time.
  7. Choose a skin on the choose topic menu and click Next.
  8. Press the Yes Button if you want ImageGlass to be your default image viewer.
  9. click Finished to open ImageGlass.
  10. press the main menu button at the top right of the software window.
  11. Choose file > open file on the menu.
  12. Select the WebP you want to view and click on it Open.

View your WebP images in Windows 11 without converting them

So, never think of converting WebP images to PNG or JPG formats to open them in Windows 11. Instead, you can open and view WebP images with Paint, ImageGlass, Edge, Google Chrome, Windows Photo Viewer, or even Photos (though after renaming files). Open WebP files with any of these software packages you prefer.

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