The BMP (bit mapped) format is used internally in the Microsoft Windows operating system to handle graphics images. These files are typically not compressed resulting in large files.

The main advantage of BMP files is their wide acceptance, simplicity, and use in Windows programs. However, they may pose problems for users of other operating systems. Commonly, BMP files are used for Microsoft's Paint program. Since most BMP files are uncompressed, and BMP's RLE compression has serious limits[citation needed], the large size of BMP files makes them unsuitable for file transfer. However, Bit Map images are suitable for background images and wallpapers. This is especially true for screen shots. In addition, images from scanners are usually stored in BMP files.