Guest Yeeman Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 I've never had a problem renaming a file or files in a group, now a message pops up & says that the file may be unusable if I change the extension. I'm not doing anything different.....is a setting changed ? I never changed an extension...just right click & type in the new title.
Guest Richard in AZ Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 Re: problem when renaming "Yeeman" <Yeeman@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:33533AC4-4159-4A66-BCAA-F2192FAE8C4A@microsoft.com... | I've never had a problem renaming a file or files in a group, now a message | pops up & says that the file may be unusable if I change the extension. | I'm not doing anything different.....is a setting changed ? | I never changed an extension...just right click & type in the new title. Under Folder Options (control panel) "view" tab there is the option to "hide extensions for known file types". If that box is checked, you can simply change a file name by typing in the new name. However, if that box is unchecked, then you have to make sure you re-add the correct file type extension when you change the name or you will cause the computer to loose recognition of the file type. (File type extension are TXT for text, DOC for Word documents, etc.)
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 Re: problem when renaming On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:11:02 -0700, Yeeman <Yeeman@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > I've never had a problem renaming a file or files in a group, now a message > pops up & says that the file may be unusable if I change the extension. > I'm not doing anything different.....is a setting changed ? > I never changed an extension...just right click & type in the new title. The extension is the last three (usually) characters in a filename, after the dot. For example, in the filename iexplore.exe (the executable file for Internet explorer), the extension is .exe. By default, the extensions are hidden when you display them in My Computer, so you may not realize that the file whose name you were changing even had an extension. It's a very poor default, in my view, and, assuming that you are set that way, I recommend that you follow Richard's advice and change the setting so that extensions are visible. The extension tells Windows what to do if you double-click the file. So if you double-click an .exe file, it will execute it. Or if you double-click a .doc file, it will open it in Word. But if you change the extension, Windows will either not know what to do with the file or open it in the wrong program. For example, if you change anyfile.doc to anyfile.exe, Windows will try to execute it when you double-click it (which won't work); change it anyfile.zzz, and Windows won't know what to do with it at all. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest Yeeman Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 Re: problem when renaming "Richard in AZ" wrote: > > "Yeeman" <Yeeman@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:33533AC4-4159-4A66-BCAA-F2192FAE8C4A@microsoft.com... > | I've never had a problem renaming a file or files in a group, now a message > | pops up & says that the file may be unusable if I change the extension. > | I'm not doing anything different.....is a setting changed ? > | I never changed an extension...just right click & type in the new title. > > Under Folder Options (control panel) "view" tab there is the option to "hide extensions for known > file types". > If that box is checked, you can simply change a file name by typing in the new name. > However, if that box is unchecked, then you have to make sure you re-add the correct file type > extension when you change the name or you will cause the computer to loose recognition of the file > type. (File type extension are TXT for text, DOC for Word documents, etc.) > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Thanx, Richard.I'm back on track now !!!!! >
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