As you know, a user file consists of two parts: name and extension. The name is user-defined and, as a rule, denotes the logical relationship between the name and the contents of the file. The extension, on the other hand, refers the data to some type and determines which program will open the selected file.
I have already given examples from the description when you need to learn how to change the file extension. On the disk, the extension is displayed as an abbreviated three-character mnemonic after the period, for example .exe or .txt - these are all types of file additions.
How to change the file extension in windows
For this simple action, there is the famous “My Computer” program, worn down to holes. In the standard settings of this file manager, file extensions are hidden. By following a few simple steps, you can display and then change the file extension.
You may ask: “Why hide file additions?” The fact is that concealment is a standard mechanism of protection against accidental or intentional alteration of important data. By default, windows hides system files and root partition data completely and hides extensions for all other file types.
To display all the add-ons, open the My Computer desktop folder. You should see the explorer window, in the menu of which there is an item “Service”, a sub-item “directory properties”. Click on it once with the mouse.
Then go to the "view" tab. Scrolling through the list of settings, find the option “advanced settings”, at the bottom of which there is a subheading “hide extensions for registered files”. You need to remove the checkbox from it.
Now, if you need to change the add-on, select the editable file and click on it with the right button. Next, select “rename”. Since the extension is already available for viewing, you can erase it and enter a new one. The same goes for the file name.
How to change the file extension in all folders of the computer
On the “view” tab we find “directory submission” and click “apply to all directories”. Now file add-ons will be displayed in any opened folder, and not just in the selected one. How to change the file extension, you already know.
Warnings and recommendations
By changing the extension of one or more files, you thereby instructed windows to open them with a program that, by default, worked with this type of file. When, for example, you rename a file with the extension .doc to .bmp, and then try to open it, an error will occur. Since you just assigned the launch of this file to the default graphics editor, and the data type being opened is formatted text (not graphics), and the graphics editor will not display it correctly.
Therefore, before changing the file extension, make sure that your actions are correct. Be especially careful when trying to rename a system file! Its accidental changes may lead to the inoperability of the operating system in the future.
7z file manager - change the extension easy and simple
If you have installed the archiving tool 7z from Igor Pavlov in your system, there you can quickly and simply change the addition to any file. How it's done? I will sign on points.
- We open the archiver and file manager in one person - the 7z program.
- Its window is divided for convenience into two panels. Each of them displays your current location.
- If you need to change the file extension in the folder, just click on the file with the right button - “rename”. And then everything is as in a conductor: we erase the old extension - add a new one.
- You do not need to display anything, all file additions are already shown on both panels.
System files - briefly
If you come across a file like .sys or .dll, then most likely this is system data. Do not try to change their extensions. These services are designed for windows to work properly and should not be changed by user by default.