AV1 Video Extension 2.0.24.0

Windows does not ship with an AV1 decoder, and this is the Microsoft package that adds one.

It works at the system level, so the apps that use Windows' own media pipeline gain AV1 playback without any configuration.

Download AV1 Video Extension 2.0.24.0 - 5.21 MB, free, and hosted here as the offline package for machines where the Microsoft Store is not an option.

What It Adds

AV1 decoding, into Windows Media Foundation. That is the pipeline behind the Photos app, Media Player, File Explorer previews and most Windows Store apps that play video.

It also enables AVIF still images, since AVIF is the image format built on AV1. Once the extension is present, Explorer shows AVIF thumbnails and Photos opens the files.

On a recent GPU the decoding runs in hardware. Intel 11th generation and newer, NVIDIA RTX 30 series and newer, and AMD RX 6000 series and newer all have AV1 decode blocks, and the extension uses them automatically.

Which Apps It Fixes, and Which It Does Not

This is the part that trips people up, and it is worth being precise about.

• Photos, Media Player, Films and TV - fixed by this extension.
• File Explorer thumbnails and preview - fixed, for both AV1 video and AVIF images.
• Other Store apps and anything built on Media Foundation - fixed.

What it does not touch:

• MPC-HC, MPC-BE and other DirectShow players. They use a different pipeline and need LAV Filters, which carry the dav1d AV1 decoder, or the K-Lite Codec Pack that bundles them.
• VLC and MPC-BE. Both already decode AV1 themselves, so the extension changes nothing for them.
• Browsers. Chrome, Edge and Firefox ship their own AV1 decoders, which is why YouTube can serve you AV1 whether or not this is installed.
• Encoding. This is a decoder. It will not help you create AV1 files.

Installing It Without the Microsoft Store

Normally you would get this from the Store. That fails on Windows LTSC and N editions, on managed work machines, and on any system where the Store itself is broken or has been removed, which is why the offline package exists.

The file we host is the real Microsoft package, Microsoft.AV1VideoExtension_2.0.24.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.AppxBundle, and Windows can install it directly.

1. Download the AppxBundle from the link on this page and note where it saved.
2. Open PowerShell. The standard user account is enough; you do not need to run it as administrator.
3. Run Add-AppxPackage -Path "C:\Users\you\Downloads\Microsoft.AV1VideoExtension_2.0.24.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.AppxBundle" with the path adjusted to match your own download.
4. Confirm it took with Get-AppxPackage -Name Microsoft.AV1VideoExtension, which prints the installed version.
5. Restart the app you were trying to play the file in. A full reboot is not usually needed.

If you would rather use the package manager, winget search "AV1 Video Extension" will return the Store entry and its id, which you can then pass to winget install.

The same approach applies to the HEVC extensions, and our PowerShell install guide walks through the failure modes in more detail.

Check That Hardware Decoding Is Working

Installing the extension is not the same as getting hardware decoding. On older GPUs, AV1 falls back to the processor, which is fine at 1080p and hard work at 4K.

Play an AV1 file, open Task Manager, then Performance, then your GPU, and look at the Video Decode graph. Activity there with a relatively idle CPU means the GPU is doing the work.

If the CPU is pinned and Video Decode is flat, your hardware has no AV1 decode block. The AV1 decoding guide covers what to do about that, player by player.

If It Still Does Not Work

Windows N edition, or media features missing. The extension needs the Media Foundation layer to exist before it can plug into it. Install Media Foundation codecs first, then this.

The newest build misbehaves. We keep version 2.0.7.0 on the download page alongside 2.0.24.0, so you can roll back without hunting for an old package elsewhere.

The file is not actually AV1. Plenty of "AV1 will not play" reports turn out to be HEVC or VP9, and our Codec Finder will tell you which it is.

In that case the fix is the HEVC Video Extension or the VP9 Video Extension instead.

Only images are broken. AVIF comes from this extension, but HEIC and HEIF come from HEIF Image Extensions, which is a separate package people often confuse with this one.

AVIF Images on Windows

AVIF is AV1 compression applied to still images, and it produces noticeably smaller files than JPEG at the same quality. Windows has no AVIF support of its own, so this extension is what turns it on.

You can test your setup on a set of AVIF sample files before deciding whether anything is broken.

Our AVIF viewing guide covers the rest, including what to do when thumbnails appear but Photos still refuses to open a file.

Versions, and Why Yours May Differ

The Store updates this package silently in the background, so the version on your machine may not match the one on this page. That is normal and usually harmless.

Get-AppxPackage -Name Microsoft.AV1VideoExtension tells you what you actually have. If the number is far behind and the Store is not fixing it, installing the offline package over the top updates it.

Do not treat any specific version as the success criterion. The thing to check is whether your AV1 files play and whether the GPU is decoding them.

AV1 Beyond This Extension

This page is about the Windows package. If you want the wider picture of the format itself, our AV1 codec page covers where AV1 is used, how it compares with other codecs, and the tools for encoding it.

For the codec comparison specifically, AV1 vs H.265 is the short answer, and YouTube AV1 playback explains how to confirm which codec a stream is actually using.

The full video codecs section has the rest, including the other Windows extensions.

Quick questions

Download AV1 Video Extension 2.0.24.0 and see how it handles your files, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.