Turning On File Extensions

Microsoft figures that, crucial or not, the file extension concept is just too hard for new users to grasp. Therefore, right out of the box, Windows Explorer doesn't display file extensions. This may not sound like a big whoop, but not being able to see the extension for each file can be downright confusing. To see why, suppose you have a folder with multiple documents that use the same primary name. This is a not uncommon scenario, but it's also a fiendish one because it's often difficult to tell which file is which.

For example a folder with 18 different files, all apparently named Project. Windows unrealistically expects users to tell files apart just by examining their icons. To make matters worse, if the file is an image, Windows 7 shows a thumbnail of the image instead of an icon. (This happens in thumbnail views such as Tiles, Medium Icons, and Large Icons.) The result is impossible to tell at a glance which image is a GIF, which is a JPEG, and so on.

The need to become an expert in Windows iconography is bad enough, but it gets worse. Not being able to see file extensions also leads to two other problems:

• You can't rename extensions-For example, suppose you have a text file named index.txt and you want to rename it to index.html to make it a web page file. Nope, sorry, you can't do it with file extensions hidden. If you try-that is, if you click the file, press F2 to choose the Rename command, and then type index.html- you just end up with a text file named index.html.txt.
• You can't save a document under an extension of your choice-Similarly, with file extensions turned off, Windows 7 forces you to save a file using the default extension associated with an application. For example, if you're working in Notepad, every file you save must have a .txt extension. If you create your own web pages, for example, you can't rename these text files with typical web page extensions such as .htm, .html, .asp, and so on.

TIP There is a way to get around the inability to save a document under an extension of your choice. In the Save As dialog box, use the Save as Type list to select the All Files option, if it exists. You can then use the File Name text box to type the filename with the extension you prefer to use.

You can overcome all these problems by turning on file extensions, as described in the following steps:

1. If you have a folder window open, select Organize, Folder and Search Options (or Tools, Folder Options if you have the menu displayed; otherwise, click Start, type folder, and then press Enter to select Folder Options in the search results). The Folder Options dialog box appears.
2. Click the View tab.
3. Deactivate the Hide Extensions for Known File Types check box.
4. Click OK.