File extension ECW
| File type | Enhanced Compressed Wavelet Image Format |
| Developer | ERDAS |
| Ads |
What is a ECW file?
Files with the .ECW extension contain compressed WAV wavelet images for use with geospatial data. The Enhanced Compression Wavelet (ECW) format was developed by Earth Resource Mapping and is currently being maintained by ERDAS.
Aerial and satellite images are commonly stored in the ECW format. Files support from 1 to 8-bit continuous image data on one layer, with up to 255 color layers.
Program(s) that can open the .ECW file
How to open ECW files
If you cannot open the ECW file on your computer - there may be several reasons. The first and most important reason (the most common) is the lack of a suitable software that supports ECW among those that are installed on your device.
A very simple way to solve this problem is to find and download the appropriate application. The first part of the task has already been done – the software supporting the ECW file can be found in the table. Now just download and install the appropriate application.
Possible problems with the ECW format files
The inability to open and operate the ECW file does not necessarily mean that you do not have an appropriate software installed on your computer. There may be other problems that also block our ability to operate the Enhanced Compressed Wavelet Image Format file. Below is a list of possible problems.
- Corruption of a ECW file which is being opened
- Incorrect links to the ECW file in registry entries.
- Accidental deletion of the description of the ECW from the Windows registry
- Incomplete installation of an application that supports the ECW format
- The ECW file which is being opened is infected with an undesirable malware.
- The computer does not have enough hardware resources to cope with the opening of the ECW file.
- Drivers of equipment used by the computer to open a ECW file are out of date.
If you are sure that all of these reasons do not exist in your case (or have already been eliminated), the ECW file should operate with your programs without any problem. If the problem with the ECW file has not been solved, it may be due to the fact that in this case there is also another rare problem with the ECW file. In this case, the only you can do is to ask for assistance of a professional staff.
This extension
can be converted to:
How to associate the file with an installed software?
If you want to associate a file with a new program (e.g. my-file.ECW) you have two ways to do it. The first and the easiest one is to right-click on the selected ECW file. From the drop-down menu select "Choose default program", then click "Browse" and find the desired program. The whole operation must be confirmed by clicking OK. The second and more difficult to do is associate the ECW file extension to the corresponding software in the Windows Registry.
Is there one way to open unknown files?
Many files contain only simple text data. It is possible that while opening unknown files (e.g. ECW) with a simple text editor like Windows Notepad will allow us to see some of the data encoded in the file. This method allows you to preview the contents of many files, but probably not in such a structure as a program dedicated to support them.