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File extensions? That's what we get from the IRS to give us more time to figure out why they have all our money and still want more. Right?
In computerese, a file name extension is an optional addition to the file name in a suffix of the form ".xxx" where "xxx" represents a limited number of alphanumeric characters depending on the operating system. Whuzzup.txt has a file extention of "txt" which tells us the file is a text file.
So, you are looking in Windows Explorer or My Computer and you don't see any file extensions. If you are in the Detail View (click View and then Details), you will at least see a file type telling you what kind of file you are looking at. Whuzzup with that? The file extensions are hidden!
I don't know about you, but I feel more comfortable when I can see a file extension even though the file type is shown. Something about seeing Blow Up My Hard Drive.txt and Blow Up My Hard Drive.exe gives me a warm fuzzy compared to seeing two Blow Up My Hard Drive files even though the icons are different and the file types of Text Document and Application are shown.
Show all files and file name extensions
In My Computer or Windows Explorer, click the folder you want to look at. On the View menu, click Folder Options. Click the View tab, and then click Show all files. If you want to see all file name extensions, click to clear the Hide file extensions for known file types check box. Be sure to click the Apply button when you are done making your choices.
What kind of file extensions are there?
Some of the more common file extensions are .txt (Text), .exe (Application), and .bmp (Graphics). To see what you have on your computer, open My Computer or Windows Explorer, on the View menu, click Folder Options then click the File Types tab.
For those who are extremely interested in the types and number of extensions used on all operating systems, here are a few links for more information:
What Is...every file format in the world
EXT Search - Search for file extensions
For more information on files, file extensions, folders, My Computer and Windows Explorer, click the Windows Start button and choose Help. Select the Index tab and type one of the above in as a keyword. It's that simple!
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last modified
Monday December 20 2004
© 2000 - 2002, David Seibold
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