Video for Windows

Video for Windows ( VfW ) is a programming interface of Microsoft Windows that allows you to encode and decode video signals as well as read from capture devices. This is the standard interface for AVI.

Video for Windows was introduced in 1992 for Windows 3.1 and was originally a purchasable software for creating and cutting videos. The runtime version to play the videos is provided as a free add-on available and integrated by default in subsequent versions of Windows.

Many newer Media Player to use in place of VfW DirectShow interface for playing media files, because DirectShow decoding media signals automatically ( with the help of installed codecs, eg ffdshow ). This is especially advantageous if - no longer support the codecs (older) VfW interface - especially new ones. In general, Video for Windows is becoming more and more of DirectShow and - displaced by WDM drivers - on the part of the recording.