The WebP Codec for Windows is a codec built with the libwebp library. It implements the interface defined by the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) to provide WebP support for Microsoft® Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems.
The Windows Imaging Component provides a consistent API for image processing so applications that support the WIC get support for image formats such as WebP when the codec is installed.
This codec allows applications using WIC to access WebP files. On Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, this includes the possibility of viewing WebP files in Windows Photo Viewer and their thumbnails in Windows Explorer.
Currently, the WebP codec only includes the decoder. It will support both encoding and decoding in a future release. It will also add metadata support.