Where are the codecs stored for image files

Since Windows 7 support ended on January 14th I've upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.

I've got a lot of image files - JPEG, TIFF, Photoshop and Nikon raw files (file extension .NEF).

My camera shoots both JPEG and NEF at the same time - so there are two files for every shot. To keep things simple they're arranged side by side in File Explorer (or Windows Explorer on Windows 7).

My default programme for editing NEF files is Nikon Capture NX2, so this is the icon for a NEF file:



The problem is that Windows 10 appears to have installed a NEF codec, so it shows a thumbnail image instead of the NEF/NX2 icon. How can I stop it showing the thumbnail for NEF files but still show the thumbnail for JPEG files, like this:


(Above: the thumbnails are JPEGS)

Thanks in advance.

Check you have installed any codecs needed from Nikon and associate the .nef file type with a program which can open it

Install Autoruns , select the Codecs tab and see if that shows the location (Disable hide Microsoft entries)

Steve C said:

Install Autoruns , select the Codecs tab and see if that shows the location (Disable hide Microsoft entries)

Thanks Steve. I've just tried Autoruns but the Codecs tab only shows video codecs - it doesn't show the codecs used for stills image formats such as .NEF and .PSD.

Here's a screenshot of the Codecs tab in Win10 (with Microsoft entries hidden):



All of those Nikon entries are for video & audio that's been shot on a Nikon stills camera - they're not for stills photographs shot on a Nikon stills camera (.NEF).

For comparison, here's the Codecs tab in Win 7:



Again, all the Nikon entries are for Nikon video & audio - and not Nikon stills.

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By the way, I've used Win7 to write these posts. If I switch to Win10 I can't see any of the above images (even though it was me that posted them).