New camera pictures not downloading to computer?

I got a Nikon D3100 with a AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm lens and a gift and really don't know a lot about it. I took some pictures and when I went to download the images to my computer it said the file format was not supported when I tried to open the pictures. I only have Windows Live Photo Gallery for the camera images and was wondering if i need to update this program somehow or is there a different (preferably free) program that can support the pictures from this camera. Any help is appreciated, I don't have any experience with fancy cameras like this!

You might have taken your pictures in RAW, if that is the case you will need to find a program that supports RAW, I bet your camera came with the software.

Call the Manufacture or visit their support site. I'm sure its an easy fix. Here is their site https://support.nikonusa.com/...pp/contact

How did you take the pictures off of the camera?

did you use a memory card reader or did you use a USB cable to the camera?

there might be an issue if you used the memory card in a memory card reader as some readers will have a problem reading from SDHC or SDXC cards.

are the pictures in Jpeg or RAW (for Nikon it's in NEF file format)

if you have NEF format, windows photo gallery may not be able to read these kinds of files, they are read by Adobe Photoshop. I would suggest changing the file format that you take the pictures in on the camera to Jpeg (which will be a compressed format, take up less space) or use a free NEF reader,

GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/....gimp.org/

this is a free photo editing software that should read the NEF file format.

If they are.nef files, install View NX from the CD that should have come with the camera. You can open them there and save as.jpg files.
Go into your camera Shooting Menu and change image quality from NEF (RAW) to JPEG fine. Set Image size to Large.

As contributor snowwillow20 says you might have taken your pictures in RAW and your photo program on the computer does not support Raw. It would be better to find a program that does support RAW as this imports All the infor recorded by the camera. After simple corrections like cropping, etc, you can save in Tiff or Jpg, which ever your processor accepts.

The pictures should open in Windows with no problems. If you are using a USB cord to connect then try using a Card Reader instead. They are quite cheap to buy from any store and a lot easier to use.
Plug your memory card in one end and the other into the computer USB slot.
Windows should then recognise your card.

There's a free program.
It is on the CD that was bundled with your camera.

Set your camera to shoot/save as JPEG files (JPG) not RAW.

Here's the only method recommended by both photo and computer experts to copy files from the camera to the computer.

http://keerok-photography.blogspot.com/2011/09/detailed-instructions-on-how-to.html