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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
December 14, 2008
Q.
When I receive an attachment in my email and
want to open it by clicking on it, I
sometimes get a message that it Windows
cannot open it. How can I see what is in the
document?
A.
When you double-click a file to open it,
Windows examines the file name extension.
The extension is the 3 or 4 characters
following the last period. If Windows
recognizes the file name extension, it opens
the file in the program that is associated
with that file name extension.
Also, if
Windows recognizes the file name extension,
it will by default not display it. I
personally find this hiding of "known" file
types extremely annoying and always set
Windows to display all file extensions. The
"known" in this case means known by Windows,
not by the user. Here is how to force
Windows to display the file extension.
Open My
Computer and click on Tools, Folder Options,
then the View tab. Scroll down to the item
"Hide extensions for known file types" and
uncheck it and click OK. There are many
other settings that can be changed here, but
they will be for another time. However, feel
free to experiment here as any of the
settings can be changed without hurting
anything, and can be easily changed back if
desired. There is also a "Restore Defaults"
button if you really mess things up.
When
Windows does not recognize a file name
extension, you receive the message: Windows
cannot open this file (filename here) To
open this file, Windows needs to know what
program you want to use to open it.
This
indicates that there is no program on your
computer that has this file extension
associated with it. This does not mean that
you cannot open it as you may have an
program on your computer that can open it.
If this
is something that only occurs occasionally,
then there is a way that you can try to open
it without establishing an association. If
it is a file type that you receive often,
you can associated the file name extensions
with a program so that Windows opens all
files that have this extension by double
clicking on them.
To try to
open this file one time without associating
it with a program, first save the file
attachment from the email and note where you
saved it. Now open a program that you do
have installed. If you think the attachment
is a document file of some type, open
Microsoft Word or Wordpad. Once Word is
opened, click on File then Open, then locate
the file where you saved it, and see if it
can be opened. If Word or Wordpad doesn't
work, try another program. If no program can
be found that can open the file, then you
truly cannot view the file.
If you do
find a program on your computer that can
open the attachment and want to set it so
that it will always automatically open the
file with a double click, here's how.
You
cannot use this method for a file that does
not have a file name extension, or for a
file that has an .exe, .com, or .bat
extension. If you change the program that
Windows uses to open a certain kind of file,
and that program was not designed for the
type of data in that file, the files may not
appear correctly in the program. To be safe,
note the name of the program that Windows
previously used to open the file type so
that you can reverse your settings if it is
necessary.
To change
which program starts when you double-click a
file, follow these steps:
1. Open
Windows Explorer by right-clicking the Start
button, and then click Explore.
2. Click a folder that contains a file of
the type that you want Windows to open in a
program that you select.
3. Right-click the file and, depending on
the programs installed on your computer,
complete one of the following steps: Click
Open With to choose the program that you
want or point to Open With, and then click
Choose Program to choose the program that
you want.
4. The Open With dialog box will display.
Use one of the following methods to select
the program that you want to use for this
file type: In the Programs list, click the
program that you want to use or click
Browse, locate and then click the program
that you want to use, and then click Open.
5. Click to select the Always use the selected program to open this kind
of file check box if it is not selected.
Click OK.
From now
on, Windows will open all files that have
this file name extension in the program that
you selected. To change this, you must
follow these steps again and associate a
different program with this file name
extension.
One word
of caution when assigning file extension
types to programs. It is possible that there
are more than one program on your computer
that uses the same filename. Generic names
like picture.exe, video.exe, music.exe,
etc., may be used by more than one program.
If a program name like video.exe is already
associated with a file extension, another
program with the same name, video.exe cannot
be associated with a file extension even if
the extensions are different. |
