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How do I know which program is used to open a particular type of file?

Question:

I saw your article on file associations, but how do you know which file type
to associated a program with? When I get an email and click to open the
attachment and there is no file association to go with it, how can I possibly
know what program should be use?

Ever wonder why most filenames end in a period followed by three characters?
Like “.exe” or “.doc”? That part of the file name, known as the extension,
tells the operating system what kind of file it is and then from that what program
should be used to operate on it. If the operating system doesn’t already know,
then you can use that same information to figure it out what program should be
used.

Well, usually you can.

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When a program is installed in Microsoft Windows, part of the installation
records the information about what file types that program should be used for.
For example when Microsoft Word is installed, it tells Windows “I’m the program
responsible for acting on ‘.doc’ files.” Thereafter when you double click on a
“.doc” file, Windows knows to go fire up Microsoft Word to open the file.

One program can support multiple different file extensions. Microsoft Word,
for example, will open “.doc”, “.docx”, “.rtf” and more. Most media players
will play many different types of media files, and will not only register
themselves for all of them, but they’ll use the file extension to figure out
what type of media file it is.

Unfortunately there are several problems with this system:

“When a program is installed in Microsoft Windows, part
of the installation records the information about what file types that program
should be used for.”

Multiple applications may try to register themselves as being
responsible for the same filename extension.
We see this all the time
with media players: you download and install one program to play mp3 files, and
it properly tells windows “I’m the program to play ‘.mp3’ files”. Later you
find you need to install a different media player for some other reason
unrelated to mp3 files – and yet it also tells Windows “I’m the
program to play ‘.mp3’ files”. The last program to register that “wins”, so the
next time you try to play an mp3 file you don’t get the program you expect.

Multiple applications may validly register themselves for the same
filename extension.
It’s not a problem, per se, but it can be
confusing. For example Microsoft Word will open “.doc” files, but so will
OpenOffice Writer. And so will several other word processing programs.

The same file extension may be used for different and completely
unrelated purposes.
There’s no official list of file extensions, and
several are over used in incompatible ways. The most common is the “.dat” file
extension which is used by many different program for many different things.
There’s no way to know which application to use if all you have is “.dat” to go
on.

Anyone can use any extension for any purpose. Yes, “.doc”
files are usually documents, and are usually handled by Microsoft
Word, but there’s no requirement that it be that way. I could dream up some new
file type that has nothing to do with documents and which uses only my
proprietary program. There’s nothing to stop me from giving it the “.doc”
extension and confusing a lot of people.

So, how do you know what program to use when you encounter a “no
association” situation?

  • Determine the filename extension; the (typically three) characters after the
    last period in the filename. For example in “resume.doc” it’d be the “doc”.

  • Determine what file type that extension might mean. If I don’t already know,
    I turn to resources like File.org.
    Here you can enter the file extension and get a list of what types of file that
    might indicate.

  • Yes, you’ll get a list of possibilities and now you’ll have to figure out
    which item on the list is the most likely to be appropriate for your situation.
    Even a search for “.doc” turned up 11 possibilities. The first was Microsoft
    Word, but there were 10 other options as well. Use what you know about the
    source of the document to pick from the list. Or ask the person who provided
    you with the file.

  • Once you know what kind of file it is, you’ll need to see if you already
    have software on your machine that will open it. If you haven’t installed
    Microsoft Word, for example, you may not be able to open “.doc” files. If the
    software is installed but you’re still getting the “no association”
    error message, then all you should need to do it
    make the association
    by hand.

  • If you don’t already have software that understand that particular file
    type, you’ll need to find some and install it. Sometimes that means purchasing
    software to do so, but often there are free alternatives. For example as I
    mentioned Open Office, above. It’s a free alternative that will operate on
    Microsoft Word documents. Alternately Microsoft makes available a Word Viewer which will allow you to view,
    but not modify, Word documents. Quite often there are similar alternatives for
    other types, but not always.

It can be confusing. Fortunately once things are set up properly for the
file types you regularly deal with, it’s not something you need deal with
often.

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8 comments on “How do I know which program is used to open a particular type of file?”

  1. I may be wrong but I feel that the .dbx extension must give the most trouble. O.E. email backup uses this but nothing I can find opens this. WordPad nearly works but is peppered with gobbledegook. It’s all MS so what’s going on?

    Reply
  2. Interesting, but….my problem is that when someone on AOL forwards an email to me, rarely am I able to open it. WHY? My email client is other than AOL.

    Reply
  3. —–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
    Hash: SHA1

    There’s no way to know. See this article:
    http://ask-leo.com/whats_a_dat_file.html

    Leo

    —–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
    Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)

    iD8DBQFHXaN6CMEe9B/8oqERAn7YAJ9PKt+9tM/EZXYcE4mUT/5NdofpKwCaA/Z6
    rIkxU6MIW63vDD1G6ccSYbk=
    =PQBA
    —–END PGP SIGNATURE—–

    Reply
  4. This is one of the most useful things I have read in any of your articles past and present. I now have more options to use when I run into this problem. Thankyou again!

    Reply
  5. I have a similar problem, I used some program sometime back to encrypt some sensitive data, they include common file types like DOC, XLS, PDF and Images.

    Now the issue is I forgot which program I was using back then to encrypt these files and I need a file in that badly..

    The file is encrypted in this format for example

    ( filename.extension.encrypted )
    or an example below
    ( myself.jpg.encrypted )

    I only remember had their logo as some spy guy with drench coat and sunglasses….

    Hope someone here know about the one am talking about… or a way to decrypt these files.

    Thank You

    Reply
  6. Almost since my Hotmail self-desstructed, I cannot open .doc files with my new Live Hotmail account. Some of the above explanations slide a bit over my head. I have Vista. Any suggestions for a challenged MCP would be greatly appreciated. Occasionally I can open them.

    Reply
  7. I have the same program issue re:what to open it with only they are zip files that for some reason open with a media player default.running vista x64
    never had any issue with XP pro but with vista nothing but issues,problems,ect article says nothing about zip files.searches lead to confusing if not conflicting answers.

    Reply

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