If you are a Windows XP user and if you are required to change the extension of a file, then your chances of succeding are very low unless you have some tech knowledge
Extension is the 3 letter term used after the dot in a filename like .exe for executable files .txt for text files .doc for office documents .xls for spread sheets, it may sometimes be just two letters long like .pl for Perl language files. By default windows doesnot show you the extension of a file, only those files which it are not yet associated with any program are shown along with their extensions. Rest of the common file types dont have extensions displayed, when you try to change a file’s extension when its extension is not displayed you will just end up adding the new extension to the filename and not to the extension part of it, like you have a spreadsheet named accounts which is actually accounts.xls and you want to change it to a text file called accounts.txt when you just rename it you will end up renaming it to accounts.txt.xls where accounts.txt is the filename part and .xls is the extension part. So the solution for this is to make windows display the extensions of all files, to do this open Windows Explorer or commonly known as the My Computer and go to the Tools Menu (Alt + t) and then click Folder Options, in the dialog box change to the View tab and look for Hide extensions for known files and uncheck it and click OK.
Now all your files have extensions displayed along with filenames so when you want to change a file extension you can just change the 3 letter part after the . (dot) in the filename. One thing you should take note of is when you want to just change the filename make sure you dont alter the part after the . in the filename. You have to change only the part before the . to change the filename.
If you feel strange having all the files with those 3 letter extensions you can change it back to normal by checking the Hide extensions for known files option in the Folder Options dialog box.
26 comments ↓
this is a sick post for dummies..
alright Mr. pro its actually meant for dummies and why dont you just ignore it if you are so talented?
zeyejomawujicn
nice post
This entry was on the second page of a Google search for “show file extensions”. I wish it had been on the first page – I had to wade through 20 other overcomplicated websites to get the simple answer from this post.
Seems like lots of “pro” users like to make things appear more complicated than they really are. I wonder why?
Nice post. Thanks.
Last week, i had 2 doc files that could not be opened. Anybody can access the doc via the intranet. When i tried to open the file, it gave me error messages. When i right click the doc, it will not give me the “open” option but the “open with” option. It was tough for me coz im not a tech guy and i had a deadline to meet that day. I had a hunch then that somebody changed the file extension. On the afternoon of that day, the file was restored. The restoration was late though because i already redo the documentation. I think the file extension was changed. What i wanted to know now is how would i know who did it? If somebody changed it, it must have left some kind of trail. Any advice?
hi though im not an expert in such things one thing you can try is, incase you have not moidified the file after the ‘culprit’ modified it, look at the last modified date for the file, (right click on the file and click on properties to see the last modified date and time) and try to find out who might have used your computer at that time
[...] Some people are unaware of the procedure to change filename extensions in Windows XP because they never bothered about it, there are others who work on making great web sites [...]
Thank you so much angrys0ul! I had a HJsplit video that the XP was recognizing as avi, and I couldn’t join the parts, you just save me having to re-download 100MB, great tip!!!
The hell with the first comment, when you don’t have something nice to say, just shut you mouth up, schmuck!!!
@Marco
Glad that it helped you, and thanks for the comment
what better prize can a blogger get than a positive comment from a reader
i agree with you on the first commenter
This was so helpful. Thank you so much. Rude people suck.
Perfect! Thanks so much!
Thanks for the simple post!
Thanks a lot 4 the post
Thanks for the simple post!
Helps make the internet a simple place to live on
You rock!!! Thank you for posting this helpful info. I was stumped that they would hid the flipping extensions in XP. I had a file with no ext, thought it was sent as a pdf but really it was just a txt, put .pdf on the file and poof, it kept the .pdf and would not let me change to a .txt like I would have in the “old days”. Luckily I found your article after about 30 min of searching!!! You are wonderful, thank you for posting!!!
Thanks, that helped a lot
Thank you so much!! This has just solved my problem – I need to change a MOD file from a movie camera to an MPG file so that Picasa will recognise it & I have just spent the better part of my morning cursing the computer – now I see the light at the end of tunnel – THANKS SOOOO MUCH!! You have made my day!!
thanks!!!!
thanks helped a lot/ i forgot where it was
hey angrys0ul. i’m sorry but i do not see the ‘folder’ option listed on the tools menu. The only options that i see is :
1. map network drive…
2. disconnect network drive…
3. synchronize.
Thanku!!! this helped solve s problem which otherwise would hv taken a long time
I tried this and it still doesnt show my extensions
what else is there?
some files also hv extensions with single letter
e.g. .m for matlab .c for c language
and thnx a lot for the advice
I never actually post comments on articles i read on the internet. I forgot how to change the extension, and you saved me. Just wanted to say thank you for taking your time writing this.
after reading the article, i was looking for a ‘like’ button but realized this isn’t facebook. thanks a lot!
Man, kudos to you. This is a great post. It saved me the time to read long tutorials pointing to one endless easy and simple operation. Keep it up.
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