.wdp File Extension

What kind of file is a .wdp?

A .wdp file is usually a Microsoft HD Photo image, previously called Windows Media Photo. It uses the registered image/vnd.ms-photo MIME type. HD Photo supports lossy and mathematically lossless compression, transparency, high bit depths, and high-dynamic-range imagery.¹

HD Photo is the pre-standard predecessor of JPEG XR. The formats are closely related, but an older .wdp file is not guaranteed to contain the same bitstream as a standardized .jxr file. Microsoft's current Windows codec can decode both families.²

Check the first four bytes when a filename may be misleading. Microsoft documents 49 49 BC 00 for a pre-release HD Photo file and 49 49 BC 01 for version 1.0.¹

How do I open a .wdp on my computer?

Windows is the most dependable choice. Its Windows Imaging Component includes an HD Photo decoder and encoder, so WIC-enabled image applications can work with .wdp files.³

macOS and Linux do not provide comparable built-in support. ImageMagick can read and write JXR when built with its optional jxrlib delegate, but support depends on the installation and an older HD Photo bitstream may still fail.⁴ Current web browsers generally do not display this format directly.

Treat an unexpected .wdp as untrusted input. Use maintained software, avoid obsolete codec downloads, and convert a copy rather than overwriting the source.

Poly support for .wdp

Poly stores, syncs, shares, versions, and finds .wdp files by filename and basic file properties. It does not currently infer HD Photo from the suffix, decode the pixels, generate a thumbnail, extract image metadata, create a visual-search representation, or make the picture available to the Poly agent.

Download the original and open it in a compatible application when you need to inspect or convert the image.

History of .wdp

Microsoft developed Windows Media Photo for Windows Vista, then renamed it HD Photo in 2007. The .wdp suffix identifies that pre-standard format. Microsoft submitted the technology to the Joint Photographic Experts Group later in 2007, and the standardized successor became JPEG XR.⁵

The core JPEG XR specification was approved as ITU-T Recommendation T.832 in 2009.⁶ Microsoft now recommends JPEG XR for new files and says the Windows codec has produced JPEG XR-compatible output since Windows 8, while retaining the ability to decode older HD Photo files.²

Working with .wdp and alternatives

Choose the conversion target around what the source contains:

• PNG for a widely readable lossless copy with transparency.
• TIFF for high-bit-depth editing, color-managed interchange, or an archival derivative.
• JPEG for compact photographs when lossy 8-bit output and no alpha are acceptable.
• WebP or AVIF for modern web delivery.

A WDP image can contain HDR values, wide-gamut color, alpha, and more than 8 bits per channel. A careless conversion can clip highlights, shift colors, flatten transparency, reduce precision, or remove metadata. Keep the original .wdp, select the output color space and bit depth deliberately, and inspect the converted copy before relying on it.