Is it just me or does anybody else find it very inconvenient that Windows XP does not have RAW thumbnail support? I have been using the photo viewer that comes with Picasa to sort through my RAW files before I edit them, but that doesn’t let you view RAW files as thumbnails. So I did some googleing a while back and found a solution. Sorry I haven’t shared it sooner 
We are in Japan right now and only have Camilla’s computer with us, so I needed to set it up on her computer to edit some pictures.
RAW Thumbnails in Windows XP
Anyway, here is what you do:
Search for “Arcsoft Raw Thumbnail Viewer” and download and install it. (I downloaded it here) You have to “register” which means typing in an email address (it’s free software, so no big deal…use you’re spam email). Then you’re done!
It’s that easy. I wish I had done this years ago. It’s great. Maybe everybody else has had this working for years and I’m behind the times, but if not, I hope someone finds this useful!
UPDATE: WINDOWS 7
Our 4.5 year old laptop is barely hanging on, so we finally decided to upgrade! We got a sweet deal on a refurbished Dell laptop. It has Windows 7, which I haven’t used much yet, but I immediately noticed it doesn’t have RAW support either! I can’t believe Microsoft didn’t make that standard in Windows7. Anyway, I have a Canon camera, so this is a Canon fix, sorry if you have something else.
Go to Canon.com, find your camera. Click “Drivers & Software”, choose Windows 7, then download and install the software labeled “Canon RAW Codec 1.7.0″.
It’s as easy as that! I hope it works for you. I can’t believe how difficult it is to find information on this subject!