How to display file extensions under Windows
By default, Windows prevents users from seeing file extensions that have an associated program, but there are many occasions when we need to view a file's extension.
Luckily, it's pretty easy to configure Windows so that all file extensions are displayed:
We can access this setting in a number of ways, but I find accessing this setting through
My Computer or
Windows Explorer the easiest.
Open either
My Computer or
Windows Explorer and select the
Tools item from the top menu bar and select
Folder Options… as shown in fig a.
fig a.
A new window should appear, titled "Folder Options". At the top of this Window, you should have four tabs (General/View/File Types/Offline Files). Selected the
View tab as shown in fig b.
fig b.
This 'View' tab is broken down in to two areas, 'Folder Views' and 'Advanced Settings'. We are only interested in the
Advanced Settings for this guide, so use the Advanced Settings' right-hand scroll bar and slowly scroll down until you find the
Hide extensions for known file types option.
If the extensions for known file types (file types that have an assosiated software program) were hidden, you will find that the check-box will have a tick, as shown in fig c.
fig c.
If you want to display these hidden extensions, simply un-tick this check-box.
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