Chief Technology Writer
Did someone email you a FILE file and you're not sure how to open it? Maybe you have found a FILE file on your computer and wondering what it's for? Windows might tell you that you can't open it, or in the worst case scenario, you might encounter a FILE file related error message.
Before you can open a FILE file, you'll need to figure out what kind of file the FILE file extension refers to.
Tip: Incorrect FILE file association errors can be a symptom of other underlying issues within your Windows operating system. These invalid entries can also produce associated symptoms such as slow Windows startups, computer freezes, and other PC performance issues. Therefore, it highly recommended that you scan your Windows registry for invalid file associations and other issues related to a fragmented registry.
Answer:
FILE files are Misc Files primarily associated with Unknown Apple II File (found on Golden Orchard Apple II CD Rom).
FILE files are also associated with File With No Extension, AS / 400 Physical File (IBM), and FileViewPro.
Additional types of files may also be using the FILE file extension. If you are aware of any other file formats that use the FILE file extension, please contact us so that we can update our information accordingly.
How to open your FILE file:
The fastest and easiest way to open your FILE file is to double-click it. In this case, Windows itself will choose the necessary program to open your FILE file.
In the event that your FILE file does not open, it is very likely that your PC does not have the required application program installed to view or edit files with FILE extensions.
If your PC opens the FILE file, but it's the wrong application, you'll need to change your Windows registry file association settings. In other words, Windows associates FILE file extensions with the wrong program.
Install Optional Products - FileViewPro (Solvusoft) | | | |
FILE File Analysis Tool ™
Unsure about which type of FILE file you have? Want to get precise information about the file, its creator and how you can open it?
Now you can instantly get all the information you need about the FILE file!
The revolutionary FILE File Analysis Tool ™ scans, analyzes, and reports back every detail about your FILE file. Our (patent pending) algorithm will quickly parse the file and, within seconds, provide detailed information in a clear and easy-to-read format. †
In just a few seconds, you will know for sure the type of your FILE file, the application associated with the file, the name of the user who created the file, the file protection status, and other useful information.
To start a free file analysis, simply drag your FILE file inside the dotted line below, or click View My Computer and select the file. The file analysis report FILE will be shown below, right in the browser window.
Drag FILE here to start analysis
View my computer "
Please also check my file for viruses
Your file is being analyzed ... please wait.
Surely everyone came across a file without an extension? Questions about how to open it? One way is so easy to guess and try to change the file extension to different file types and try to open the file. It sometimes works, or it may not be lucky and you won't be able to guess. And the scientific poke method can take a fair amount of time, if you are stubborn, of course, and you need to open this file.
In this article, I will show you a quick and more accurate way to determine the file type that you can use. In order to do this, I created some test files, PDF, JPEG, MP3, EXE and DLL, just erased the extension from them. Obviously, your file can be of different types, but the procedure is the same for any file type. I chose test files quite by accident
For this procedure, you need to know HEX- file code. Well, you are already scared and think how clever it all is. No, for this we need a text editorsuch as standard Notebook , or you can download (I even advise you to do this, it is much more functional and faster) Notepad ++ .
Open files without extension
And now we just open files without an extension in a test editor, I use Notepad ++, but the technique is the same for everyone.
First in line PDFtest and we see in the very first lines information about the extension in an explicit form.
And we see in Jpeg at the beginning of the line, which is not clear JFIF, in DLL and EXE – MZ , a MP3– ID3... Next, the Internet will help us, we drive a phrase into the search engine, for example ID3 format, or JFIF expansion. And we will see that ID3 - this is from the English. Identify an MP3, some kind of metadata format, but it doesn't matter, it's probably an mp3 file. On request JFIF got JPEG File Interchange Format, some specification, MZ - format of executable files EXEand DLL... That is, the first lines contain all the information we need, and we can easily open any file without the extension
Overall, I believe it will be much faster to figure out this way than accidentally trying different file extensions without any idea. If you still can't figure out which file you have, please leave comments and I'll try to help. Enjoy!
Having no idea about its format and type. Find out the file extension and find a solution how to open an unknown file... To open a file, first find out its extension. File extension - this is part of his name, which is separated from the main name by a dot. By extension, you can understand what is in the file: music, video, image or archive. For example, in the file "Readme.txt", the extension ".txt" indicates that it is a text document that can be opened with notepad.
Find out the file extension
What if the extension is not displayed? Let's see its extension through ( Properties ). To do this, move the mouse cursor over the file and click on it with the right mouse button ( PKM ). In the context menu that appears, select the item ( Properties ). A window will appear in front of us ( Properties ), where in the line ( File type ) you can see its extension.
How to find out the file extension method 2
We press the button ( Start ) located in the lower left corner of the screen. Next, select the tab ( Control Panel ). In the next dialog, select ( Folders settings ). In the window ( Folders settings) we call on the tab ( View) ... Here in the section ( Extra options ) the slider located on the right side, dragging down. Now uncheck the checkbox of the line ( Hide extensions for registered file types ). We press ( Apply\u003e OK ).
We learned the file extension. Now you need to find a program to open unknown file... How to do it? There are services for this purpose on the Internet. Here are the addresses of several of them:
http://www.open-file.ru
http://www.filetypes.ru
http://formats.ru
Consider the site example open-file.ru.It currently has about 5000 unique file extensions and 5700 formats in its file type database. We go to the site at ( http://www.open-file.ru). At the top of the site, in the header, in the window ( search for an extension on the site ) we type the extension of the file that we want to open. Click ( to find ).
At the sight of a file with an incomprehensible extension, many immediately wonder what software can open it. In this case, the built-in function of the Windows system "Find a program on the Internet", as a rule, does nothing. Such situations arise regularly: for example, a colleague sends you a 3D model for evaluation, forgetting that you do not have an appropriate viewing application, or a friend transfers a photo album packed in a rare archive format. If a file does not open automatically with a double click, in most cases this means that there is no program on the computer that could recognize and process it. The user is faced with the task of finding out the data format and determining what program is needed to open such a file. You can get information about the file type using simple changes that should be made to the settings of your computer's operating system. If after that it is still unclear what kind of file is in front of you, you can use the help tools, including online services. Another way to deal with a stubborn file is to open it with a universal tool, a viewer. If in this case the file cannot be displayed, the last option remains - to convert it to a suitable format. In the article, we will consider all these methods aimed at fighting the unknown, introduce you to less common files, and also tell you what to do if the file you got is damaged.
Each file has its own program
The file type can be determined simply by its extension, after which its purpose will become clear.
Making the system display extensions
File extensions can be hidden in Windows Explorer by default. At the same time, to the left of each of them, a program icon is displayed that can open it, if such a program is defined. For example, a file like article.doc will be listed as "article" and marked with a Microsoft Word package icon. To start displaying file extensions, select successively items "Start | Control Panel | Design and Personalization | Folders settings". In the window that opens, go to the "View" tab, uncheck the box next to the item "Hide extensions for registered file types" and click on "Apply".
Choosing an application
To see which program will process the file by default, you need to right-click on it and select Properties from the context menu. In the window that opens, on the "General" tab, you will see the file type and its extension, as well as the utility that is assigned responsible for opening data in this format. If you need another application, click on "Change". A list of recommended programs will open. If none of them suits you, click the "Browse" button, in the window that appears, go to the folder corresponding to the required utility, and click on the executable file. Typically, this is the name of the application with an EXE extension.
Determine the file type
You can find out which program corresponds to a particular format using the online service OpenWith.org. Its pages provide brief information about files of different types. You can use the search box to search for specific information by specifying the extension. In addition, numerous extensions are grouped on the site in an alphabetical catalog. It is enough to select the first character of the extension - OpenWith.org will present a list of options starting with that letter. Separately, there is a classification of formats according to their purpose: audio data, documents, plugins and much more. Interestingly, for each extension, the service offers one or more applications at once. However, the site is not localized, and all comments to programs and files are presented in English.
If you often come across data in unfamiliar formats, you can download a small free utility from the OpenWith.org website that will tell you which program can open a particular file. The OpenWith application offers a simple and convenient function: after its installation, an item appears in the context menu that helps to determine the software for launching a specific file.
Windows built-in tools can tell the file type
In the operating system, you can assign a program that will deal with this type of data
The OpenWith utility will determine the program with which to open the specified file
On the online service OpenWith.org, file types are categorized, making it easier to find the appropriate program
Converting to the desired format
In some cases, converting a file to a different, more common format can help solve the problem with opening a file. This can be done using special converter programs.
Vector images
With the versatile free tool UniConvertor, you can convert files from one vector format to another. In terms of import, the program supports extensions such as CDR, CDT, CCX, CDRX, CMX (CorelDRAW), AI, EPS, PLT, DXF, SVG and others. The export is carried out in the formats AI, SVG, SK, SK1, CGM, WMF, PDF, PS. The utility is available in both Windows and Linux versions.
Raster graphics
Free Image Convert and Resize takes up little space on your hard drive, but offers functions for converting and converting bitmaps, including in batch mode. The following file formats are supported: JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, TGA, PDF (the latter is for export only).
Video files
The powerful free Hamster Video Converter tool provides converting video files from one format to another. Supports converting to 3GP, MP3, MP4, AVI, MPG, WMV, MPEG, FLV, HD, DVD, M2TS, etc. Batch processing is available.
Audio data
The free program Hamster Free Audio Converter from the same manufacturer offers audio conversion between AIFF, OGG, WMA, MP3, MP2, AC3, AMR, FLAC, WAV, ACC, COV, RM formats. The manufacturer's website also contains converters of archive formats and e-books.
We use online services
It is not always possible to install a converter program on a PC - in this case, Internet resources will help to convert documents.
Zamzar
The zamzar.com service can convert files up to 1 GB in size. The list of supported formats includes several dozen (music - AAC, FLAC, OGG, WMA, etc., video - 3GP, FLV, MPG, etc., text - DOC, KEY, ODS, etc.). However, when working with documents, problems with Cyrillic files may arise.
FreePDFconvert
Freepdfconvert.com can help you convert DOC, XLS and PPT files, images, web pages, and other types to PDFs. In addition, the service can perform the reverse conversion of PDF to data in DOC, XLS or RTF format. The general list of supported resolutions is close to 70. However, the service has limitations: it is allowed to process no more than 15 files per month.
Free utility UniConvertor helps you quickly convert vector files in batch mode
Free Image Convert and Resize has the simplest functions to convert and resize images
To convert video and audio files, it is convenient to use Hamster programs with built-in codecs and a set of presets
Online resources Zamzar (top screenshot) and FreePDFConvert - universal converters with limited volume
View any file
Viewers often do not allow you to work with the file in full - for example, edit it. But with their help, you can open the file and look at its contents.
Free Opener (freeopener.com, free) allows you to view files in over 80 different formats. It can be safely called a universal tool: the utility allows you to open office suite files, videos, images, archives and PDF documents. In the settings, you can set syntax highlighting for text files or files with program codes.
With Ultimate File Viewer (ultimatefileviewer.com, there is a trial version), you can not only view files of different formats, but also perform additional actions with them - for example, copy or move to different folders, send by e-mail. An added benefit is searching through the contents of the file.
ICE Book Reader Professional is a universal tool for reading e-book files and various kinds of text documents, which include DOC, TXT, HTML, PDF and many others.
The free utility Free Viewer opens files of different formats, displaying an additional window with information. With its help, you can find out exactly which program is needed to open a particular file. In addition, the application has a built-in converter, and it allows you to set the association for files at the OS level.
A small free program XnView will serve as a convenient viewer of graphic files. In addition, it allows you to perform elementary image editing operations (inserting an inscription, rotating, applying effects). In total, the utility supports over 400 different extensions and allows you to convert them into more than 50 formats. Additional features of the program include working with a scanner, creating screenshots, writing drawings to a CD.
If the data is damaged
In some cases, when trying to open a file, the user may encounter a message that this object is corrupted. You can try to recover the data. For example, in the case of a Microsoft Word document, in the "Open Document" window, you can select a file and use the "Open and Restore" item. In the same way, you can try to "resurrect" Excel files and other applications of the office suite. In other situations, you can use other utilities to solve the problem. For example, the commercial program Word Recovery Toolbox will help you recover DOC, DOCX and RTF files. You can also use the free online service online.officerecovery.com/ru, but in this case you need to think about whether to trust confidential documents to an open resource. Another option is to use the trial version (free period - 15 days) of the WordFIX utility. We recommend the free File Repair program as a universal file recovery tool. With its help, there is a chance to bring Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint documents, ZIP and RAR archives, video, audio and graphic files back to life.
Online directories of file types
You can read about file types and understand their diversity on specialized online resources.
Open-file.ru - format guide with descriptions and tips.
Neumeka.ru/tipy_faylov.html - what are the file extensions.
Convertfile.ru - All about video formats.
Filecheck.ru - information about different files and tips for their use.
Fileext.ru - a guide to file types and how to open them.
File-extensions.org - An English language reference for file extensions.
Filext.com is a database describing file types.
A format in computer science is a certain standardized structure of an information object.
- File format - description of the data structure in the computer file.
- - text data storage format.
- - formats for storing graphic information - photographs and drawings.
- - storage formats of sound files.
- - video storage formats (also Aspect ratio: 4: 3, 14: 9, 16: 9) (also see List of file formats - list of some file formats)
- Open format is a publicly available (its description is not closed) specification for storing digital data.
(From Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia)
Now more or less familiar words begin to occur, if, of course, you have read them.
What are file format and file types?
So let's continue.
We have created text format file , in which the information was recorded by copying it from the Internet. Now we can open this file at any time, see what is written there, can correct something or add (edit) and then save.
Christmas tree sticks, you say. Well, how much can you talk about the same thing. You can, in principle, no longer chew. In principle, yes, but since I very often hear a question like, how to open file format file, then all the same I will explain this topic in more detail so that you will not have any questions.
After all, if you figure it out, what's not clear? He text and in Africa text.
For us, yes, but not for the computer. The computer doesn't care if it's a picture of a president or a recipe for pancakes, our favorite song or the latest masterpiece of cinema.
The point is that the computer “knows” and “performs operations” with only two digits - “0” and “1” (zero and one). All. He, like a piece of iron, knows nothing more. Yes, he doesn't need it. This is quite enough for him. (By the way - this is digital format .)
For him, for a computer, maybe enough, but not for us. Agree that for us to contemplate zeros and ones is not at all interesting. Give us a meaningful text or a beautiful picture, for less we do not agree. Well, that's right.
Yes, there are only two numbers - "0" and "1". But there can be billions of combinations.
For example, if we take simple text, then for a computer each character is strictly defined in binary , that is, any sign or letter has a specific combination of zeros and ones.
For example, the English (Latin) letter "A" in binary form looks like "01000001" (takes 1 byte or 8 bits), and the Russian (Cyrillic) letter «
A «
in binary it looks like "11010000 10010000" (takes 2 bytes or 16 bits).
Remember how many bytes our pancake recipe "weighs" from the first part of the article? In my case, it was 507 bytes (Yours may differ from mine, but it doesn't matter now).
Let's see how the computer "sees" our pancake recipe.
I didn't lay it all out, there is another 5 or 6 times that much. And it is not necessary. The important thing is how the computer "sees" our information and how it is recorded.
But the program (application) "Notepad" "stupidly" reads this information from where we wrote it down and "stupidly" displays this information to us, transforming it into a convenient form for us, on the monitor screen. Since the file contains simple information in the form of letters and numbers (text format), we have no problems with the perception of this information. And the speed of displaying such "small things" on the monitor, one might say, "crazy".
I did not write the word "stupid" by chance, and we will talk about this later. But from a simple text editor "Notepad" more, frankly, is not required.
I hope you understand everything and questions how to open file type, you will never have.
All. Moving on to more complex formats .
What types of files are there and how can I change the file format to another?
You may remember that we had problems saving the picture. For this, there are more "powerful" programs (applications) that can save text, pictures (images), and tables - and they can still do a lot of things.
To further clarify the concept of "format", I will use the text editor "Microsoft Office Word" (link to lessons with a Word) from the office software package "Microsoft Office". This is a rather powerful and friendly "monster" that can easily store anything (well, almost everything).
Let's go again to the site page, where we copied the recipe for pancakes and copy this fragment again to the clipboard, as we did in the first part of the article.
That's it, the text with the image in the clipboard and let it sit there for now.
Let's create a Microsoft Word file (Microsoft Word). Basically, you can create it in the same way as we created a text file. But let's create it a little differently (in the future you will be able to decide for yourself which way it will be more convenient for you to do this).
Click in sequence with the left mouse button: Start - All Programs - Microsoft Office - Microsoft Office Word 2003, as shown in the figure.
You will open a window of the text editor "Microsoft Word" (Often the text editor "Microsoft Word" is called a "word processor" to emphasize its great capabilities, that is, this text editor allows you to work not only with text, but also with graphics, tables and so on. This has nothing to do with the processor of the computer itself).
Now we paste into the file we have created the content that "languishes" in the clipboard. To do this, right-click on the white field, then in the menu that appears, move the mouse pointer to the "Insert" menu item and press the left mouse button, as shown in the figure.
All. We copied the recipe we needed from the Internet, and even with a picture. And the whole thing looks pretty nice.
Let's save all this to the desktop (I use saving files to the desktop solely for clarity. Generally, in the future I do not recommend doing this. It is best to create a couple of thematic folders on the desktop, well, for example, "My recipes", "My pictures. ”Moreover, inside the folders, you can create more folders (subfolders) by subject. For example, in the folder“ My Pictures ”create folders“ At Vasya’s kebabs ”,“ How I had a rest in the Canary Islands. ”And immediately save everything in created folders. Believe me, save a lot of time and nerves).
To save, do the following. Let's sum up pointer mouse and sequentially left-click the menu items, pop-up menu items and pop-up window buttons as shown in the figure: "File" - "Save as ..." - "Desktop" - "Save".
In the "File name:" field, you can write any name you like (I wrote "Recipe for thin pancakes." You don't have to write the .doc extension here, the program will substitute it if the "File type:" field contains "Word document (* .doc) ")
Here I deliberately opened the list formats and their respective extensions (in the figure, the arrow points to this button) in which Microsoft Word can save the file. By default, the document is saved in Microsoft Word format (- "dock" document). This list can be "flipped" with the slider.
But you can also save the document in a different format, for example in text format, by selecting “Plain text (* .txt)” in the “File type:” field. For what? Well, for example, so that this file can be opened and read by the program (application) "Notepad". True, in this case, Word may throw out warnings that, they say, you will lose all formatting elements, pictures and something else. But if you don't pay attention to all these "screams", then it will save the usual text in a text format file.
What would you understand how to change file type, let's, for clarity, save in two more formats. In text format and in a format that can be placed on a website page on the Internet.
In the first case, in the "File type:" field, select "Plain text (* .txt)" by clicking on this line with the left mouse button and then again with the left mouse button click the "Save" button. Word will save our recipe as "Thin Pancake Recipe" with the extension .txt. that is, it will be saved in text format.
In the second case, in the "File type: « select "Web page in one file (* .mht; * .mhtml)" by clicking on this line with the left mouse button and then again with the left mouse button click the "Save" button. Word will save our creation with the name "Recipe for Thin Pancakes", adding the extension .mht to it, i.e. e. will save in web page format.
On the desktop, there are 3 new files with the same name "Recipe for thin pancakes", but with different extensions and, accordingly, different icons (icons, pictograms).
In other words, we created three files of different formats with the same (for us) information. And these three "recipes" are opened by different programs (applications). Ie clicking twice quickly on each of shortcuts (well, or by opening them by the "old-fashioned method" as I described in the previous part of the article), we get the following:
"Recipe for thin pancakes.txt" - by default it is opened, edited and saved by the program (application) "Notepad"
"Recipe for thin pancakes.doc" - by default it is opened, edited and saved by the program (application) "Microsoft Word"
"Recipe for thin pancakes.mht" - by default, it is only opened (not edited) by the program (browser) "Internet Explorer", since this is a program only viewing rather than editing.
Now if anything, you know how to change file format.
Comparing sizes of different types of files?
Let's compare two files that are opened, edited and saved by different text editors by default - "Recipe for thin pancakes.txt" and "Recipe for thin pancakes.doc".
To do this, we will look at the properties of these files (To do this, as you remember, the mouse pointer must be hover over the shortcut, right-click, move the mouse pointer to the "Properties" menu item and left-click on it).
So, what happens (the sizes of your files may differ slightly from mine, but this is a topic for another conversation and in our case it is not important). A "text" document has a size of 511 bytes, and a "Word" document has 46,080 bytes (a picture of pancakes in a file is 23,226 bytes).
I call up the calculator ("Start" - "All Programs" - "Standard" - "Calculator") and start counting.
The size of the "Word" document is about 90 times larger than the "text" one. Thus, on our hard drive "G:" in 10 GB, which we took for example, will fit (roughly) 200 thousand "Word" documents in contrast to 20 million "text".
The comparison may be a bit rough, but it illustrates very well how much disk space is occupied by the same information, depending on the format in which it is recorded.
You can smile and say sarcastically to me: So what. Yes, in my life I cannot "rivet" so many documents. And the hard drive on my computer is 500 GB, I don't even want to count how much it will fit. And as regards the documents, you will be absolutely right.
But the space taken up by documents on our hard drive is actually a thousandth, or maybe even a millionth of what is stored on our computer.
For example, one high quality (HD) movie can take up 20 GB of hard disk space, or even more.
And one more interesting point. Let's try to open a file in Microsoft Word format with a program (application) "Notepad", which does not understand this format.
To do this, call the Notepad program. Moving the mouse pointer sequentially with the left mouse button click "Start" - "All Programs" - "Standard" - "Notepad".
In the program window that appears, do the following: with the left mouse button, select "File" - "Open" - "Desktop". In the "File type:" field, left-click, click on the "drop-down list" button and select "All files".
We opened the file. But what do we see?
Nothing interesting. The Notepad program "stupidly" opened to us what it was reading from the disk.
"Encoded" information with Microsoft Word can be read only by the program that "understands" the .doc format (there are such programs, except for Word_a itself), and our application, as you probably remember, understands only the text format.
I also wanted to tell in this part of the article about graphic, music and video files ... But the article turned out to be a bit long again, and I really wanted to bring the fundamental things to you.
As for graphic, music and video files, there are a lot of interesting things, and I would like to tell you a little more about them. And, in order not to bore you anymore, I will tell you about it in this article.
That's all. Good luck and creative success to everyone. 🙂
