How to open a WIM file in Windows 10 [Best Tools]
5 min. read
Updated on
Share this article
Improve this guide
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial team. Read more
Key notes
- WIM files can be opened directly in Internet Explorer but this involves doing some other modifications to it that can take some time
- In this article, we have compiled a list of useful programs that support WIM format and can open them in Windows 10.
- We've included both universal file openers, as well as dedicated tools made for WIM files.
- Some of the tools on this list are even available for free, so go ahead and browse.
If you’re wondering what a WIM file is and how to open WIM files on Windows 10 computers, this post will show you how to open this file format.
WIM is an acronym for Windows Imaging format file; this is an imaging format that allows for a single disk image to be used on multiple computer platforms.
WIM is usually used to manage files like updates, drivers, and system component files without having to reboot the operating system image. WIM files may consist of multiple disk images that are mounted within windows so as to make them bootable.
How can I open WIM files in Windows 10?
If you want to open .wim files in Windows 10 and you cannot do it, there are always third-party tools that can do it for you.
We recommend File Viewer Plus, a universal file viewer for Windows that can open and display over 400+ different file types. It will let you open .wim files and also some edit options that are not available in many other file viewers.
In some rare cases, if FileViewer cannot display the native view of the file, you can use the Text and Hex views to inspect the file contents.
These views let you see inside the file, providing valuable information, especially for unknown file types. You can even search for content stored in the file.
In addition, this resourceful tool will provide reliable support for browsing, editing, or converting multiple files. Thus you will not only open dozens of file types but also manage them accordingly.
This user-proofed program is also capable of showing multiple thumbnail formats, preview file contents, or browsing the entire PC directory for files or folders.
With all being said, File Viewer Plus makes finding million of files easier and offer genuine help regarding file viewing on your Windows PC.
File Viewer Plus
Open hundreds of file formats with this fantastic tool, including WIM files. Get the best deal now!
7Zip is a popular open-source utility program, which is primarily used to open WIM files in Windows 10. The program can be used to modify the size of a file to allow for quick file transfer depending on your preference.
This program has a clean and simple user interface that highlights all the tools in the main menu. Also, it supports over a hundred different file formats and popular formats such as WIM, RAR, GZIP, BZIP2, ISO, CAB, RPM, and NTFS.
In addition, 7 Zip also supports WIM files with the powerful utility allowing users to mount, modify and convert WIM files to other formats.
Meanwhile, 7Zip is free to download and comes as a lightweight application with powerful features which make it a desired utility program to have on your Windows 10 computer.
It’s worth mentioning that such software has a compression ratio of 2-10% higher than WinZip or PKZip for ZIP formats.
Therefore, you have complete control over all your file types and also high encryption for your ZIP file formats.
⇒ Get 7Zip
PeaZip
PeaZip is a free utility software that allows you to compress, encrypt and extract utility files archive. This tool offers good features as you can create duplicate files, split and join different files and it comes with a simple file manager.
In addition, PeaZip supports many of the popular file formats available such as ZIP, Tar, WIM, GZIP, RAR, and PEA formats. You can extract WIM files and modify information and compress these files for later use. The program is also known for its strong encryption and provides excellent security measures with a secure password manager.
PeaZip is a good utility tool to open WIM files in Windows 10; hence, it is a must-have tool on your Windows 10 computer.
ExtractNow is a lightweight utility program used to extract, compress and encrypt files. Extract Now allows for multiple file extraction simultaneously and is popular for this feature.
The program supports a wide range of file formats such as ZIP, RAR, WIM, and TAR. WIM format can easily be extracted and modified, with ExtractNow and the program allows for multiple extractions of WIM files.
In addition, ExtractNow has a simple user interface with all tools arranged neatly in the software menu.
Furthermore, ExtractNow is a simple powerful program that can open WIM files and perform other general file extraction functions.
You can as well search through folders recursively for archives and control what happens after extraction of the files. Hence, you get the full perspective over your files.
Plus, it includes much more helpful features like a passwords list for archives, monitoring directories for archives, excluding specific files from being extracted, and so on.
In conclusion, the programs we mentioned above can open WIM files in Windows 10 without any doubt. Most of them are easy-to-use, user-friendly, and quite intuitive, so you will be able to run a .wim file easily in a few moments.
However, while some of the programs are free, the others are not but they give good value for money.
Not everything comes at a cost. You can seamlessly convert install.wim file to install.esd for free!
Hence, you can use any of the software we mentioned above and if you know others, feel free to comment section below.
User forum
0 messages