Comments on: Tip of the day: Show or hide file name extensions

By: John Barone

John Barone — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Personally, I always leave the file extensions visible for another reason — to prevent bad guys from messing with the extensions and counting on them being hidden. E.G., if the extensions are hidden, “MyInnocentDocument.doc.vbs” displays as “MyInnocentDocument.doc”. I know that you can tell that such a file is actually VB Script by the icon (and by the “doc” extension which shouldn’t be there), but seeing the full filename is a helpful reinforcement for those times when I’m caffiene deprived…

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

In both Outlook and Outlook Express, the “multiple file extensions” trick has been a non-issue for years. If you receive a file attachment in either of these programs, you see the final extension regardless of your Explorer settings.

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Am I the only one who is seeing squares with red Xs in the middle rather than actual screenshots?

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

No, Ken. I don’t see the pics either. He has them locally linked to his hard drive.

On topic, I have mine set to view the extensions. It makes it easier when renaming. Plus I always want to see the file type in case Windows cannot identify it.

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

I fixed the graphics. Thanks for pointing out the mistake!

Whether to show or hide file extensions is a matter of personal taste, for sure. That’s why I point out both techniques here. In Windows XP, the extension for an unknown file type is always shown, so if that’s the issue, there’s no need to change the default settings.

By: Zaine Ridling

Zaine Ridling — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

I install and uninstall so much software that when I come across an odd/unknown file extension, I ask, What the heck?, not having any idea it belongs to a long uninstalled program!