Can I convert HEIC to JPG on Windows without installing anything?

Yes. Drop the .heic file onto hushvert and convert it to JPG (or PNG, WebP, or AVIF) directly in your browser. The HEIC decoder runs as WebAssembly on your own CPU, so the photo never uploads and you do not need Microsoft's HEIF Image Extensions or any plugin. You can confirm nothing uploaded by turning on airplane mode before converting. HEIC is never sent to a server here, by design.

Does this work on a locked-down work PC with no admin rights?

Yes. hushvert is a website that runs in a browser tab, not an installed program, so there is no .exe to download, no registry change, no UAC prompt, and no admin password required. It works in Edge, Chrome, or Firefox. An IT policy that blocks installing software does not block opening a web page, and because the conversion runs locally with no upload, your files stay on the machine.

How do I prove the file isn't being uploaded on my Windows machine?

Two ways. Airplane-mode test: load the converter, toggle airplane mode on from the Windows system tray (or unplug Ethernet), then convert; it still works because nothing needs to upload. Network-tab test: press F12 to open developer tools, go to the Network tab, and convert; you will see the engine load once and no request carrying your file bytes. The /privacy-proof page has a live airplane-mode demo, and a CI test fails the build on any change if a request could carry file bytes.

What can't I convert in the browser on Windows?

Office documents to PDF (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, and similar), PDF to Word, and very large video exceed what a browser tab can do, so those use a separate server lane that is clearly labeled 'this one leaves your device' before you start. Everything else (images, HEIC, audio, ZIP/TAR/TGZ archives, and PDF page operations like merge and PDF-to-image) runs client-side with no upload. Note there is no PDF compressor or PDF split tool yet.

Is it free, and is there a file size limit?

All client-side conversions are free and unlimited with no account. Per-file ceilings exist (for example about 200 MB for audio), and because the engine runs on your own CPU, large files are slower on older Windows machines. The first conversion in a session downloads the WebAssembly engine once, then caches it. The paid server lane is only for office docs and big video, with credits that never expire and no subscription.

Does Windows leave temp files behind after converting this way?

No server-side temp files are created because nothing uploads. The conversion happens inside the browser tab, and the only output is the converted file saved to your Downloads folder, which you control. There is no hidden server copy of your file to worry about, which is exactly the failure mode the FBI warned about with upload-based online converters in March 2025.

Convert files on Windows without uploading (no install, no admin)

Why Windows makes this harder than it should be

Two things conspire against Windows users who just need to change a file format. First, HEIC. Windows does not ship with a built-in HEIC viewer or converter; out of the box, double-clicking a .heic photo from an iPhone shows nothing useful until you add Microsoft's HEIF Image Extensions, and even then you get viewing, not a clean batch export to JPG. Second, locked-down PCs. On a work or school machine, the IT policy often blocks installing any .exe outright, and you do not have the admin password to override it. So the usual advice (install a desktop converter) is simply not an option, and people fall back to the first 'free online converter' a search returns.

That fallback is exactly the risky move. In March 2025 the FBI publicly warned that free online file-converter sites are a common vector for malware and data theft, because most of them upload your raw file to a server you cannot see. On a managed Windows machine, the file you are converting might be a contract, a payroll spreadsheet, or an internal deck, and uploading it to a stranger's server is the worst possible answer. hushvert is built for precisely this situation: it converts in the browser tab, so nothing installs and nothing uploads.

How it runs with no install and no admin rights

hushvert is a website, not a program. There is nothing to download to your Program Files, nothing to add to the registry, no installer to run past a UAC prompt, and therefore no admin password needed. It works in any modern browser already on the machine, including Edge, Chrome, and Firefox, which are the three that ship on or are pre-approved for most corporate Windows fleets.

When you drop a file in, your browser fetches a WebAssembly build of the conversion engine once, then runs it on your own CPU inside the sandboxed tab. The conversion happens locally and the result is written straight to your Downloads folder as a normal browser download. Because the work happens in the page rather than on a server, there is no upload step at all, and because it is a browser tab rather than an installed binary, even a strict allow-list policy that blocks executables does not block it. The first conversion of a session downloads the engine; after that it is cached, so repeat jobs are instant.

Convert HEIC on Windows to JPG or PNG, in the browser

This is the single most common Windows pain point, so it is worth being specific. Drop a .heic file from an iPhone onto hushvert and convert it to JPG, PNG, WebP, or AVIF entirely in your browser. A WebAssembly HEIC decoder runs on your machine, so the photo never uploads. You do not need to install the HEIF Image Extensions or any other plugin to get a usable JPG out the other side.

There is a deliberate design choice here worth knowing: hushvert never converts HEIC on a server, even though it does run a server lane for other tasks. HEIC uses HEVC, which carries patent licensing weight on the server side, so HEIC conversion is kept client-side on purpose. The practical upshot for you is that your photos are the one thing guaranteed to stay on your device. As a side effect of decoding to raw pixels, EXIF metadata such as GPS coordinates is stripped from the output rather than carried along. If you have a folder full of iPhone photos to clear off a Windows machine, this is the clean path. Start with HEIC to JPG for the universal choice, or HEIC to PNG if you want lossless output for editing.

Everything else you can convert client-side on Windows

HEIC is the headline, but the no-upload browser lane covers a lot more, and all of it is free and unlimited with no account.

Images: convert between JPG, PNG, WebP, and AVIF in any direction, plus BMP and TIFF to JPG or PNG, SVG to PNG or JPG, JXL to and from JPG and PNG, and PNG or JPG to ICO. Common jobs like JPG to PNG and PNG to WebP have their own dedicated pages.

Audio: roughly 18 conversions across MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, M4A, AAC, AIFF, and WMA, plus extracting an MP3 audio track from MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, and AVI video. WAV to MP3 and FLAC to MP3 are the most common. Lossless-to-lossless conversions preserve samples exactly; converting to a lossy target like MP3 genuinely re-encodes, which is true of every MP3 encoder anywhere.

Archives: pack and unpack ZIP, TAR, and TGZ files in the browser, handy when Windows refuses to open a TAR or TGZ natively.

PDF page operations: merge several PDFs into one (merge-pdf), turn PDF pages into JPG or PNG images (pdf-to-jpg), extract the text from a PDF, and build a PDF from JPG, PNG, SVG, or text. To be precise about the edges: there is no one-click PDF compressor and no PDF split or reorder tool on hushvert today, so we will not pretend those exist.

Small video re-encoding also runs in the browser; very large video is the labeled server exception covered below.

Prove nothing uploaded, on the Windows machine in front of you

The whole point is that you do not have to trust a privacy promise; you can check it in under a minute on the exact PC you are using. There are two ways.

The airplane-mode test: load the converter, then disconnect Windows from the network. Click the Wi-Fi or network icon in the system tray and toggle airplane mode on, or unplug the Ethernet cable. Now convert a file. It still finishes, because there was never anything to upload. The /privacy-proof page has a built-in airplane-mode demo that walks through exactly this. Note: the demo lives on the privacy-proof page, not the homepage.

The Network tab test: press F12 in Edge, Chrome, or Firefox to open developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and convert a file. You will see the engine load once, and then no request carrying your file bytes. This is not just an assertion in marketing copy. A CI test runs on every single code change and fails the build if any network request could carry file bytes, so the no-upload guarantee cannot silently regress. The engine itself is open source under the MIT license, published as @hushvert/engine, so the behavior is auditable rather than merely claimed.

The honest exception: office docs and large video use the server lane

We will not overclaim. Two categories genuinely cannot run inside a browser tab today, and for those hushvert uses a separate lane that is clearly labeled 'this one leaves your device' before you start.

First, office documents to PDF: DOCX, DOC, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, ODT, ODS, ODP, RTF, and HTML, plus PDF to Word (pdf-to-docx). High-fidelity office rendering needs a real document engine that does not fit in the browser. Second, very large video that exceeds the browser's processing ceiling. These run on a server, and hushvert tells you so up front rather than hiding it.

The server lane is honest about retention too: inputs are deleted immediately after conversion and outputs within about an hour. It is free for the first 2 conversions per day anonymously, then a free email account raises that to 5 per day plus 150 MB per day, and beyond that you can pay with a $5 Week Pass or credits that never expire. There is no subscription. Crucially, none of the client-side conversions above (images, HEIC, audio, archives, PDF page operations) ever touch this lane or count against any quota; they are unlimited and free. HEIC specifically is never sent to the server under any circumstance.

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Common questions

Can I convert HEIC to JPG on Windows without installing anything?: Yes. Drop the .heic file onto hushvert and convert it to JPG (or PNG, WebP, or AVIF) directly in your browser. The HEIC decoder runs as WebAssembly on your own CPU, so the photo never uploads and you do not need Microsoft's HEIF Image Extensions or any plugin. You can confirm nothing uploaded by turning on airplane mode before converting. HEIC is never sent to a server here, by design.
Does this work on a locked-down work PC with no admin rights?: Yes. hushvert is a website that runs in a browser tab, not an installed program, so there is no .exe to download, no registry change, no UAC prompt, and no admin password required. It works in Edge, Chrome, or Firefox. An IT policy that blocks installing software does not block opening a web page, and because the conversion runs locally with no upload, your files stay on the machine.
How do I prove the file isn't being uploaded on my Windows machine?: Two ways. Airplane-mode test: load the converter, toggle airplane mode on from the Windows system tray (or unplug Ethernet), then convert; it still works because nothing needs to upload. Network-tab test: press F12 to open developer tools, go to the Network tab, and convert; you will see the engine load once and no request carrying your file bytes. The /privacy-proof page has a live airplane-mode demo, and a CI test fails the build on any change if a request could carry file bytes.
What can't I convert in the browser on Windows?: Office documents to PDF (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, and similar), PDF to Word, and very large video exceed what a browser tab can do, so those use a separate server lane that is clearly labeled 'this one leaves your device' before you start. Everything else (images, HEIC, audio, ZIP/TAR/TGZ archives, and PDF page operations like merge and PDF-to-image) runs client-side with no upload. Note there is no PDF compressor or PDF split tool yet.
Is it free, and is there a file size limit?: All client-side conversions are free and unlimited with no account. Per-file ceilings exist (for example about 200 MB for audio), and because the engine runs on your own CPU, large files are slower on older Windows machines. The first conversion in a session downloads the WebAssembly engine once, then caches it. The paid server lane is only for office docs and big video, with credits that never expire and no subscription.
Does Windows leave temp files behind after converting this way?: No server-side temp files are created because nothing uploads. The conversion happens inside the browser tab, and the only output is the converted file saved to your Downloads folder, which you control. There is no hidden server copy of your file to worry about, which is exactly the failure mode the FBI warned about with upload-based online converters in March 2025.

Convert files on Windows without uploading, installing, or admin rights