WIC is a Windows feature for working with RAW images. IMatch uses WIC codecs 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, not all camera vendors followed this call, or cared enough for their customers. Up till today, no WIC codecs are available from some camera vendors. It is considered wise to consider this fact when purchasing a new camera.
To overcome this problem, Microsoft has made available a set of WIC codecs for popular cameras. And companies like FastPictureViewer offer excellent and fast codecs for a wide range of camera models.
This know-how article on the photools.com web site lists download addresses for WIC codecs and contains additional information about WIC usage.
After installing matching WIC codecs for your camera model, you not only are able to process them in IMatch, but also in all other applications which support WIC. This includes Windows itself, especially Windows Explorer which renders thumbnails and previews for RAW files using the installed WIC codecs.
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 they properly process your RAW 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.
IMatch displays a warning when it ingests image files for which a WIC codec is required. And sometimes an installed (older) version of a WIC codec is unable to process newer RAW files. In both cases, IMatch may be unable to produce a thumbnail image or a proper cache image.
By installing a WIC codec (or updating the installed codec to the latest version) you allow IMatch to process these files. All you then need to do is to refresh the files (if no thumbnail was produced) or re-create the cache files (if no cache files were produced). This is easy to do and runs in the background. Just select the files (or entire folders) and press Shift+Ctrl+F5 to open the Advanced Rescan dialog box.
See the Cache help topic for details.
As an alternative to processing RAW files via WIC codecs, IMatch offers RAW processing based on LibRaw. See Application Settings for more information.