Microsoft’s RAW Viewer Available For Download
Apparently at some point Microsoft made its RAW image viewer for Windows that I mentioned months ago available to download. Get it. Thanks to Matt Walters for the tip.
A note on requirements: It requires Genuine Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and the .Net Framework 1.1 installed. The file info page leaves out Windows XP Media Center Edition as a supported OS, but it did install for me. Somebody send me a Canon or Nikon RAW file so I can verify it works.
UPDATE: Works (thanks, Matt). The viewer is a lot like the default Windows image viewer, with an extra option or two. You can make it your default viewer for all images, not just RAW. Getting image thubnails in folder views is even more convenient.