By default, your Windows Operating System conceals the most important part of a file name, the file extension. The motivation behind the concealing of the file extension said to relate to Microsoft wanting to prevent ugly file extensions from showing up in the file manager, this presumably makes it easier for people to view programs by visual icons as opposed to messy extensions.

Seeing as we don’t really care what Microsoft thinks is ugly or not, we’ll start by showing you how to reveal file extensions.

From Windows Explorer / Your Windows File Manager do the following:

Click on the “Tools” menu,

Select “File Options.”

Click the “View” tab

Uncheck the box next to “Hide file extensions for known file types.” Click “OK”

Like magic, you will instantly see file extensions in the Windows Explorer / File Manager. The file extension will appear with a dot followed group of three letters. That dot and group of three letters is known as an “extension” or “file extension” and the extension tells you what type of file it is.

A file could be a simple text file, image file, sound file, video file, program file and so on. One great reason to having your file extensions visible is that it lets you see which type of file you’re dealing with, rather than relying on a visual queue of which program is associated with that specific file.

I’ve listed some of the most common file extensions that you’ll find on your personal computer, but this  is  by no means  and exhaustive list because there are hundreds of file extensions.

.avi – This is a video file extension which is playable by virtually all multimedia software packages like Microsoft’s Media Player.

.bmp – This is an image file extension which is short for bitmap and can be opened by most modern photo and drawing software packages including the dreaded and useless Windows Paint program.

.dll – This Dynamic Link Library file extension are additional files coded by geeks as additional programming code for various software packages/programs. In essence, most programs will stop working if these files become corrupted or deleted because they contain important code that makes your programs work, so don’t go crazy deleting this stuff, in fact, don’t touch them unless you know what you’re doing.

.exe – This file extension is short for executable, and is associated with programs or applications. many executable programs that you install into your PC have a .exe and can include anything from applications like Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, or Outlook Express.

.gif – This is an image file extension which is short for “Graphics Interchange Format.” .Gif. GIF files are very common all over the Internet due to its small size when compared to larger files like .bmp files.

.jpg – This to is an image file extension which is short for “Joint Photographers Experts Group.” .jpg images are preferred over .gif due to it having a wider range of color range making them a favorite for photo storage.

.mp3 – This is a sound file extension and if you don’t know what it is, then get back under that rock you squirmed out from under.

.ttf  – This Windows system font file extension and is short for “True Type Font.” In essence, you have a folder in your PC where all of your .ttf files get stored which are then accessed by an array of applications, including Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Word just to name a couple. BTW, you can add .ttf file extensions till your hearts content allowing you to increase the number of fonts available to your applications.

.txt – This is plain text file extension which is by default associated with the ever trusty Notepad program.

.wav  – This is a sound file extension but unlike an .mp3 file, the amount of information stored in a wave file is much greater and therefore .wav files are much larger than .mp3. Many music software use .wav files to store raw music data, giving you the option to convert to .mp3 for a manageable portable file.

That’s about it for file extensions, obviously there are many many more out there, I hope you enjoyed this briefing of some of the most common files on your PC.

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