How to enable display of windows file extensions. How to show file extensions in Windows. Using system tools
File extension is a system parameter that determines the ownership of the program, the properties and contents of the file. Displayed after the name separated by a dot in the form “.xxx”. For example: text.doc. “.doc” - in this case, is the extension indicating that this is a Word application document from the Microsoft Office package. It is not displayed by default in modern Windows operating systems. Therefore, many people have a question - how to enable the display of file extensions. Let's take a closer look at it.
How to enable display of file extensions on your computer
The developers hid it, of course, for a good purpose - so that an inexperienced user would not accidentally change it or delete it completely - how would they later find out what kind of file it was. But hackers and malware creators took advantage of this. The user receives an attachment by mail with the name “test.doc.exe” - the “.exe” extension is hidden by the system. The user, fully confident that this is a Word document (even the icon is the same), launches it and infects his computer with a virus.
Enable display of extensions through Windows Explorer
- Go to “Control Panel”; to do this, for example, in the address bar of any button, type: control panel and press “Enter”.
In the Windows operating system, with default settings, extensions for registered file types are hidden. Therefore, there is often a need to find out what extension a file has.
Windows does not display registered file types; the user only sees the file name. These are most of the file types in the operating system.
In order to get information about what extension a given file has in Windows, you need to right-click on the file. In the context menu you need to select “Properties”. In the “Properties” window that opens, in the “General” tab, the user will see the file type.
The icons of some files in Windows can be similar to each other, so enabling the display of file types makes sense for two reasons: for convenience and for security purposes.
Many antivirus programs recommend displaying file extensions for greater security, since viruses can use icons of harmless files. The user sees a familiar file type, runs it, and this file has a completely different extension.
For example, files with the extension “.torrent” and “torrent.exe” are often found on the Internet. Externally, the icons are very similar. Therefore, after launching such a file, an inexperienced user risks downloading onto his computer something completely different from what he intended to download (movie, game, program, etc.). If file extensions were displayed on the system, it would be immediately obvious that a file with the “.exe” extension is masquerading as another file type.
You can enable the display of file extensions in the operating system using several methods: the first method is universal for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, the second method works separately in Windows 7 and separately in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8.
How to show the extension of registered file types in Windows
Let's see how we can enable the display of file extensions in the Windows operating system in a universal way. All actions are the same in Windows 7 or Windows 8. In Windows 10, the procedure is no different, there is only a different name for the settings option.
Go to Control Panel (small icons view), select Folder Options. In Windows 10, in the “Control Panel” the setting is called “Explorer Options”, otherwise everything is the same.
In the Folder Options window, open the View tab. Uncheck the box next to “Hide extensions for known file types.” Then click on the "OK" button.
After this, file extensions of all types will be visible in the operating system Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10.
How to show file extensions in Windows 7
Another way in Windows 7 is to enter Folder Options from the Explorer window. Open Explorer, click on “Organize”, select “Folder and Search Options” from the context menu.
How to show file extensions in Windows 10 and Windows 8
In Windows 10 and Windows 8 operating systems, you can quickly access folder view settings from the Explorer window. In Explorer, go to the “View” tab, click on the “Options” button, and then on “Change folder and search options.”
In the Folder Options window, uncheck the box next to Hide extensions for known file types. To confirm the setting change, click on the “OK” button.
Now all files in Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 will have a visible file extension.
Conclusions of the article
The default settings in Windows hide extensions for registered file types. The user can enable the display of file extensions in the Windows operating system in several ways.
And what is it for? These questions need to be answered, as well as talk about changing the extension and in what cases the user may need it.
What is a file extension?
First, let's give an example of an analogy. Let's say you have a lot of different opaque jars of spices and seasonings at home. All the information is written on the jars - the name of the seasoning or spice, the brand, the manufacturer, the date of manufacture, etc. Now imagine that the name of the contents was removed from all jars. What will happen? You won't be able to use them because you don't know what is where.
The file extension is something like the name of the content. It is most often indicated by three characters (there are also extensions with four and even five characters) and is written at the end of the file name after a period. For example, you created a document in the Notepad application and saved it under the name Zametka. When saving a file, the application will automatically add an extension at the end, and the file name will be displayed as Zametka.txt. It should also be noted that the programs themselves have their own extension (exe, com, msi and others). For example, the same Notepad looks like Notepad.exe.
If the file does not have an extension, then Windows will not be able to determine the program that opens it, so it will open a window for you to select programs yourself.
What to do to show file extensions in Windows 7
The operating system by default hides extensions for all files that are unknown to it. We need to change the display function. Let's look at the whole process in Windows 7. The system will show file extensions after just a few clicks:
Such simple manipulations are enough to show file extensions in Windows 7.
Why do you need to enable extensions?
Let's assume that you have found and downloaded an audio recording - a file called New_Year_music.mp3. Naturally, the music file must be opened by a player, say AIMP. But after that it didn’t start, and nothing seemed to happen at all. And then it turns out that viruses appeared on the computer.
The fact is that in fact the name of the downloaded file is New_Year_music.mp3.exe. That is, the system hid the familiar EXE extension, and you, being mistaken, launched the virus. This could have been avoided if Windows 7 showed the extensions of all files.
As we wrote above, by default Windows 7 will not show file extensions if it knows which programs to open them with. Now imagine that you need to upload a file to some site and you need to specify the full path to it. If the extension is hidden, you will not succeed.
How to change file extensions in Windows 7 and why you might need it
Changing the file extension is very easy. To do this, you need to right-click the file and select the “Rename” line in the context menu that appears.
Why might you need to change the file extension? Let's say a user needs to disguise the file “My_passwords.txt” so that no one can run it. If you just change the name - Windows, it will still be opened in Notepad. But if you rename it, for example, like this: System.asd, then no one will be able to open it accidentally.
There is another option: some Internet resources do not allow you to download certain types of files. You can bypass this limitation by simply changing the extension.
How to enable showing file extensions in Windows 7, what is a file extension and what is it for? These questions need to be answered, as well as talk about changing the extension and in what cases the user may need it.
What is a file extension?
First, let's give an example of an analogy. Let's say you have a lot of different opaque jars of spices and seasonings at home. All the information is written on the jars - the name of the seasoning or spice, the brand, the manufacturer, the date of manufacture, etc. Now imagine that the name of the contents was removed from all jars. What will happen? You won't be able to use them because you don't know what is where.
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The file extension is something like the name of the content. It is most often indicated by three characters (there are also extensions with four and even five characters) and is written at the end of the file name after a period. For example, you created a document in the Notepad application and saved it under the name Zametka. When saving a file, the application will automatically add an extension at the end, and the file name will be displayed as Zametka.txt. It should also be noted that the programs themselves have their own extension (exe, com, msi and others). For example, the same Notepad looks like Notepad.exe.
If the file does not have an extension, then Windows will not be able to determine the program that opens it, so it will open a window for you to select programs yourself.
What to do to show file extensions in Windows 7
The operating system by default hides extensions for all files that are unknown to it. We need to change the display function. Let's look at the whole process in Windows 7. The system will show file extensions after just a few clicks:
Such simple manipulations are enough to show file extensions in Windows 7.
Why do you need to enable extensions?
Let's assume that you have found and downloaded an audio recording - a file called New_Year_music.mp3. Naturally, the music file must be opened by a player, say AIMP. But after that it didn’t start, and nothing seemed to happen at all. And then it turns out that viruses appeared on the computer.
The fact is that in fact the name of the downloaded file is New_Year_music.mp3.exe. That is, the system hid the familiar EXE extension, and you, being mistaken, launched the virus. This could have been avoided if Windows 7 showed the extensions of all files.
As we wrote above, by default Windows 7 will not show file extensions if it knows which programs to open them with. Now imagine that you need to upload a file to some site and you need to specify the full path to it. If the extension is hidden, you will not succeed.
How to change file extensions in Windows 7 and why you might need it
Changing the file extension is very easy. To do this, you need to right-click the file and select the “Rename” line in the context menu that appears.
Why might you need to change the file extension? Let's say a user needs to disguise the file “My_passwords.txt” so that no one can run it. If you just change the name - Windows, it will still be opened in Notepad. But if you rename it, for example, like this: System.asd, then no one will be able to open it accidentally.
There is another option: some Internet resources do not allow you to download certain types of files. You can bypass this limitation by simply changing the extension.
The file name extension indicates the format of the data stored in it. By default, Windows 7 does not show this information, limiting itself to a short description in Explorer, but sometimes it becomes necessary to change the extension manually.
What is a filename extension?
The first part of the file name (before the dot) is a proper name, selected by the user independently and usually understandable without explanation only to the author. The second part (after the dot, extension) refers to service information, talks about the type of data and how to work with the file.
The extension allows the system or a specific program to recognize stored information and use appropriate processing algorithms. For example, the ".txt" type is assigned to files containing text information, so when accessing them, Windows 7 loads a text editor. “.mp3”, “.wma” files contain music or other audio information, so the system uses the player for them.
List of some file extensions (table)
The need to replace the current file name extension may arise for various reasons. The simplest of them is to correct an accidental or intentional error. For example, when saving, an incorrect extension was specified, or the virus encrypted the full name. In addition, sometimes different extensions can be used for the same data formats (most often text), and therefore documents are not perceived by editors unless they are corrected to be “related”.
Changing the extension can also be used to further protect information. For example, by changing the file type from archive to text or from graphic to archive, you can “hide” it from specialized applications and from prying eyes.
How to make an extension visible or hide it in Windows 7
By default, Windows 7 does not show standard file extensions, limiting itself to general information: “Text document”, “Microsoft Word document” and so on, because it considers this more informative. In fact, this is not always convenient, because most applications are sensitive to a specific extension, and not just to the file type.
To see the extension, you need to change the information presentation settings in Explorer.
Find the “Folder Options” window. The easiest way for our purpose is to use the search bar. Therefore, we press the main Windows button - “Start”, after which we type “Folder Options” in the search bar.
The View tab contains instructions for showing folders and files in Explorer. For example, this is where the ban on showing protected system or hidden files is located to protect them from unintentional deletion. The setting we need is “Hide extensions for registered file types.” Uncheck the box to the left of it, press the on-screen button “Apply”, and then “OK”. If you subsequently want to return to presenting files without showing the extension, you will need to repeat the same steps, only leave the mark this time.
Video: how to change the file extension on Windows 7
How to change the file extension
You can change the current file name extension using Windows 7 tools, file managers, or programs designed to work with a specific type of data.
Using system tools
If the file icon is on the desktop, then to rename it you need to hover the cursor over it and click the right mouse button. Depending on the file type, the context menu that opens will contain a different set of options, but the one we need will always be there. Select “Rename”.
Now all that remains is to enter the desired extension after the dot.
The same set of actions will be required to rename using Explorer. The only difference is the need to first enable the option to show file extensions using an algorithm already known to us.
Total Commander
The popular file manager Total Commander enjoys well-deserved respect from users for its rich functionality and ease of use. For our task, its ability to batch rename files looks most attractive. Instead of changing extensions one by one, let's use a more convenient tool.
Open Total Commander and go to the directory containing the files whose extension needs to be changed. The application contains many options for selecting the files you need. This can be done using the spacebar, mouse and hotkeys. For example, by pressing Ctrl+A, we select all the contents of the directory, and then use a space to edit the list - remove unnecessary ones. More complex selections, including by file type, are available through menu items.
Now you need to find the “Group renaming...” item in the application menu or simply press Ctrl+M.
The Bulk Rename window contains many options for changing file names and file extensions. For example, here you can add a number to each name or replace the capital letters in the name with lowercase ones.
Let's try to change the extensions of the files we selected from “.m4a” to “.mp3”. To do this, in the upper part of the window, in the “Find:” line, type “*.m4a”, and in the “Replace with:” line, which is located slightly lower, “*.mp3”. For user convenience, both previous and future file names are presented in the central part of the window so that you can view and evaluate the potential result.
The "asterisk" in our Find and Replace instructions means selecting all files without exception. If we wanted, for example, to change the extension only for those that begin with the letter A, then we would need to write “A*.m4a”.
All that remains is to click on the “Run” on-screen button. The extension has changed.
Although you can change the name extension of a single file in the same way, it is more convenient to do this from the main Total Commander window. Just select the file and press F2. Now you can edit the name and extension without leaving the window.
Video: how to rename many files at once in the Total Commander file manager
Using the Command Line
Windows 7 retains the ability to use system commands dating back to the days of MS DOS. To execute them, you need to launch the corresponding utility, which, in turn, is called using the “Run” window.
First, simultaneously press the Win buttons (usually located between Ctrl and Alt) and R. In the input line of the window that appears in the corner of the screen, type the command to call the cmd console and press Enter.
You can immediately try to rename the necessary files, but to do this you will have to indicate the full path to them in both the old and new names. Therefore, it is easier to go to the desired directory with the cd command<название каталога>.
Now you can use the rename command. Its syntax is similar to the one we used in Total Commander. First, the command is written, then the old file name with extension or a formula for a group of files, and then the new name. In our case, the command will look like this: “rename *.m4a *.mp3”. Type and press Enter.
How to change the file type
Even similar file formats may have some internal differences. In such cases, simply replacing the file extension is not enough; it is better to use applications that can work with both the old and new file types. For example, to transcode a text file from .txt to .doc, just download it into Microsoft Word, and then save it in a new format using the “Save as...” option, in which you specify the desired file type in the appropriate line.
You can do the same with graphics. For music and video files you will have to use special converter programs. But in this case we will be talking about a significant modification of the file parameters, and not just about changing its extension.
The file extension tells the user, other applications, or the system information about the nature of the stored information and the algorithms for working with it. Usually it is assigned automatically when a file is created and does not change until it is deleted, but there are convenient tools to influence this choice or change the extension if necessary.
