What does a file extension usually mean?

The extension of a file usually indicates the "type of file". File extension is a mechanism, or symbol, used by the operating system to mark file types; the extension is almost an essential part of every file. If a file does not have an extension, the operating system cannot identify the file and cannot distinguish it. What type does it belong to, so it is impossible to determine which software to use to process this file.

The operating environment of this tutorial: Windows 7 system, Dell G3 computer.

The extension of a file usually indicates the "type of file".

Filename Extension, also known as the suffix of a file, is a mechanism or symbol used by the operating system (such as VMS/CP/M/DOS, etc.) to mark file types. . Extensions are an integral part of almost every file. If a file does not have an extension, the operating system cannot identify the file, what type it belongs to, and thus cannot determine which software to use to process the file.

In a file name like "example.txt", example is the file main name, txt is the file extension, indicating that the file is a plain text file, and the period "." is the file main name and file extension. Name delimiter.

The more important role of the file extension is to let the system decide which software to use when the user wants to open the file.

For general extensions, we can clearly know the file type, but for uncommon extensions or files without extensions, it is not that simple to identify their true identity. Using the small tool FileTypeID, the problem can be easily solved. FileTypeID can identify thousands of file types. Run the program, drag and drop files of unknown types directly into the main interface of the program, and click the "Details" button to display the detailed information of the file, as shown in Figure 1. Click the "Analyze" button, and the file type to which the file may belong is displayed in the "Extension" column in the identification list, the probability of matching the file type is displayed in the "Match" column, and the file type is displayed in the "Type" column. Type description information. Based on this information, it is not difficult to discover its true identity.

In addition, when encountering unknown types of files, you can also use search engines such as Baidu to find the corresponding information. In Windows 8, the processing method is much simpler. After double-clicking a file of unknown type, click "More Options" in the pop-up panel to display all programs in the system that can process the file. After selecting the target program, check the item "Open all XXX files with this application", then you can use the program to open the file. Otherwise, you can click the "Find the application in the App Store" item, which can be easily found in the App Store. Quickly find the application corresponding to the file format, select the corresponding application item, view its description information, and if appropriate, download and install the application. [2]

Generally speaking, no matter what type of file, a specific identifier will be displayed at the beginning of it. For example, for EXE files, the identifier is "MZ". Use tools such as Notepad or WinHex to open the target file, find the identification information at the beginning of it, and then search online to learn the specific file type. In addition, using the software "Translate Extension", you can easily identify the actual file type. Enter the file extension in the upper right corner of its main interface and click the query button to quickly find the relevant description information and learn about its actual type. "Translate Extension" supports 6113 file types. For some special file types, if they cannot be recognized, you can click the "Submit" button to send them to the author for screening.

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