DICOM Viewer for Windows 10 and 11
No installer. No admin rights. Plug it in and the studies are there.
SoftDicom is a DICOM viewer for Windows 10 and 11 that runs from a portable USB-C SSD. There is no installer and no admin rights are required — and the same drive works just as well on macOS and Ubuntu.
Does it need installation or admin rights?
No, to both. SoftDicom runs from the external SSD itself: there is no installer to run, no driver to approve and no administrator account needed. Nothing is written to the host machine, no service is registered and no system files are modified.
On a managed hospital or clinic workstation that is usually the deciding constraint — the software you cannot install is the software you cannot use, however good it is.
No installer, no admin rights
There is no setup.exe to run and no driver to approve. The viewer runs from the drive, so you do not need administrator access on the machine — which is the usual blocker on a locked-down hospital workstation.
One drive, Windows and everything else
The same device runs on Windows 10/11, macOS 11+ and Ubuntu 20.04+. Move between a Windows reporting station and a Mac or Linux workstation without a second tool, a second licence or a second copy of the study.
A study database, not loose files
Studies live in a searchable database on the device rather than as DICOMDIR folders you open one at a time — closer to a personal PACS than to a file viewer.
Fully offline
No server, no VPN, no login. Images are read from local flash, so behaviour is identical on an air-gapped machine and a connected one.
Windows system requirements
Supported formats and modalities
The viewer opens CT, MRI, X-Ray, Ultrasound, Mammography, PET/CT, SPECT and Cath-Lab studies, under DICOM Part 3, 4, 6, 10 and 14 compliance. Compressed studies are supported using JPEG 2000, JPEG Lossless, RLE and JPEG Baseline.
Beyond native DICOM it also opens JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP and NIfTI files — the broader picture is on the medical image viewer page, and single-file handling on the DCM file viewer page.
Using the same drive on macOS and Linux
The drive does not need reformatting to move between platforms, and the study database is readable on all three. If you also read on a Mac, see the DICOM viewer for macOS; if you work on a Linux workstation, see the DICOM viewer for Linux and Ubuntu. The portability case in general is on the portable DICOM viewer page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a DICOM viewer for Windows that needs no installation?
SoftDicom is one. It is an external SSD that carries the viewer and your studies, so plugging it into a Windows 10 or 11 machine is the whole setup — no installer, no driver and no administrator rights. That matters most on managed hospital workstations where you cannot install software at all.
Does it work on both Windows 10 and Windows 11?
Yes. Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit, are the tested and supported configurations. The drive connects over USB 3.2 Gen 2 (USB-C) and a cable is included.
Do I need administrator rights to use it?
No. Nothing is installed to the host, no service is registered and no system files are modified, so the viewer runs as an ordinary user.
Can I use the same device on Windows and macOS?
Yes. The drive does not need reformatting when you move between Windows 10/11, macOS 11+ and Ubuntu 20.04+, and the study database is readable on all three. This is the main practical difference from Windows-only viewers.
Which formats and modalities does it open on Windows?
CT, MRI, X-Ray, Ultrasound, Mammography, PET/CT, SPECT and Cath-Lab studies, under DICOM Part 3, 4, 6, 10 and 14 compliance, including JPEG 2000, JPEG Lossless, RLE and JPEG Baseline compression.
Does it work without a network connection?
Yes. Studies are read directly from the SSD, so no network, PACS or internet connection is involved. Connected capabilities such as cloud backup and direct console transfer exist but are opt-in and inert until an administrator turns them on.
No install. No admin. Just plug it in.
One drive that works on Windows, macOS and Linux. Choose a capacity and it ships ready to use.