WIC is a Windows feature for working with RAW images. IMatch can use WIC codecs included in Windows or provided by camera vendors to read and develop the majority of modern RAW formats.
...software vendors had to spend massive amounts of time and developer resources trying to reverse-engineer RAW formats in order to support them in their software. Camera vendors did not publish any information, most did not bother to provide any type of support for developers, or made it ridiculously complicated to apply for the developer toolkits. Some camera vendors even used encryption to make reverse-engineering and supporting their RAW illegal in some countries. Dark times, truly.
Then Microsoft came up with the idea of WIC. The idea is that applications can use standardized WIC interfaces to access image data and metadata. Camera vendors supply so-called WIC codecs which make their proprietary RAW formats available for the WIC system. This way, software vendors can access RAW images in a standard way, without the need to reverse-engineer or 'crack' the proprietary RAW formats. The camera vendors can implement powerful WIC codecs which make the best out of the RAW image data.
Unfortunately, camera vendors only initially followed this call, or never cared enough for their customers. At the time of writing (May 2025), no WIC codecs are available anymore from any major camera vendor. They left their paying customers hanging. Not a really customer-friendly approach.
To overcome this problem, Microsoft has made available a set of WIC codecs for popular cameras.
Unfortunately, Microsoft does not seem to maintain the WIC codecs included in Windows, since newer RAW formats or DNG variants are often not supported, or not supported for a long time.
See WIC Diagnosis for information about the built-in WIC diagnosis feature in IMatch. This feature allows you to see which codecs are installed and if these codecs properly process your RAW files. The diagnosis also tests your files with LibRaw, to show if and how LibRaw handles your files.
HEIC is a modern still image / video format mostly used on the Mac platform. In order to process HEIC files in IMatch you need to install a WIC codec. The standard WIC codecs included in Windows 10 don't support HEIC/HEIF by default.
Microsoft provides a free WIC codec for Windows which adds support for HEIC to the operating system. To find this WIC codec, search for HEIF Image Extensions on the Microsoft web site or use your favorite search engine. Make sure you install the original codec created by Microsoft.
Since 2021, IMatch's own render pipeline included support for LibRaw, which is an awesome open source library for processing RAW files. IMatch used LibRaw as a fallback when no WIC codec is installed for a specific RAW format, or the codec did not handle the variant. The user could also configure the photools.com RAW processing pipeline as the default, avoiding WIC codec usage altogether.
Since version 2025, IMatch by default uses the photools.com RAW processing with LibRaw.
This step was required because of the sad state of Windows WIC and the vanished support by all major camera vendors.
See Application Settings for more information and in case you prefer to use Windows WIC codecs instead of LibRaw.