The Windows Feature You SHOULDN'T Ignore - File Extensions Explained
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2019-05-06
·
908 words · ~4 min read
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having the right tool for the job is important but how do you know exactly
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what the right tool is i mean it might be hard to figure out how exactly they
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make those cakes with the hole in the middle if you've never seen a bundt pan but your
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computer knows exactly what program it should use to open say a photo or video
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or a document basically every time that's thanks to today's unsung hero of
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tech the file extension not to be confused with browser extensions which
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you can learn about here file extensions are those two three or four letters you
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see after the file name when you're poking around your hard drive so doc
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mp3 and exe for example those are all
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file extensions see your operating system doesn't just analyze the internal
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code of a file and and try to figure out what it is that would be an inefficient
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and inexact process instead whichever program created the file will slap an
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extension onto the end to tell the os exactly what kind of data is inside for
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example if you've ever saved a document in word you've probably seen that drop
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down menu that lets you pick exactly what format you want the file to be
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saved in after you make your choice word will attach the appropriate extension so
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that Windows will know to use word if you've saved it as a standard word
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document notepad if it's plain text or adobe reader if it's a pdf when you open
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the file the os will check the extension against a list of file type associations
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you can bring up this list easily enough right here in Windows actually where you
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can see and modify which program is assigned to which extension now Windows
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will have a lot of default file type associations pre-loaded when the os is
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first installed for example it'll automatically know to use the built-in
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photo viewer app to load up a jpeg instead of trying to open it with like a
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music player or something but when you install new programs they'll usually ask
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if they should be the default program for opening certain file extensions
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especially with popular media applications like vlc which will present
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you with a long list of extensions that you can pick and choose from and
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extensions aren't just useful for getting your files to load up quickly
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they also help you the user see exactly what they are at a glance in the file
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explorer as Windows will assign little icons to your files solely based on what
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the extension is there are also times when it's useful to change a file
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extension especially if you've downloaded a file from the internet that
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you really want to get into it's possible that the creator of the file
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stuck the wrong extension on it or the file just doesn't have one at all so
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slapping a txt for example on the end of a mysterious file can at least get
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notepad to open it letting you have a peek inside to see or change an
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extension just disable this option in Windows 10. unchecking this box will
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cause file extensions to appear everywhere it's not a bad idea if you
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download a file you're not sure about in fact file extension trickery has led to
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some bad malware epidemics notably the
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love letter virus of the early 2000s the bad guy sent out an email with an
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attachment that appeared to have a txt extension fooling the user into thinking
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it was just a harmless plain text file but showing the extension in Windows
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explorer revealed it was actually a vbs file in other words a script that
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contained malicious code so be sure to pay attention to file extensions
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whenever you download anything and be especially wary if it's an unidentified
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exe or vbs as they have code that will
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run when you open them so be sure you know where they're coming from so tip of
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the hat to file extensions they can warn us about dodgy files and help our pcs
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run more quickly and because of that they are today's
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