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Every file has a name that ends in “. Most of the time, a file’s extension shows what kind of data it contains and tells the system what to do with the file and which programs can open it. On a PC, there are many Change File Extension in Windows 11/10 for documents, images, videos, music files, archived files, executables, and many other types of files.
A file extension, also called a file type or file format, is the part of a file name that comes after the dot. This helps operating systems figure out what kind of file it is. A file type is usually three or four letters long and comes after a full stop (period) in a file name (e.g. .docx, .png, .mp4, .exe).
Sometimes you’ll need to change a file from one format to another. When you try to open a file with the wrong extension, the system might try to open it with the wrong program, which could cause an error and stop you from getting to that file.
How to Change File Extension in Windows 11/10
- Open Windows Explorer. (Search for it or click on the yellow folder in the taskbar).
- Click on View and hover your mouse pointer over the Show menu item.
- Ensure that the File name extensions option is checked.
- Right-click on the file that you want to change.
- Click on Rename and rename the last three characters of the filename after the final period to change the file type.
What Is File Extension
The file extension is also called a filename extension, it is a suffix at the end of your computer files. A complete file name includes the file name and file extension, and the file extension and file name are separated by a dot. The operating system uses file extensions to identify which applications are associated with which file types, in other words, which application will open when you double-click the file.
- DOC/DOCX: Represents for Microsoft Word documents. DOC is the original extension used for Word files. After Word 2007 has released, Microsoft changed the file extension to DOCX. That’s because Word documents are now based on the XML format, so Microsoft added an “X” at the end of DOC.
- XLS/XLSX: Represents Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The reason why XLSX has an additional “X” is the same as that of a Word document.
- PNG: It stands for Portable Network Graphics, is a lossless image file format.
- HTM/HTML: Represents HyperText Markup Language. It is the format for creating web pages online.
- PDF: It stands for Portable Document Format. It is a file type originated by Adobe and used to maintain formatting in distributed documents.
- EXE: An executable format used for programs you can run.
FAQ
How do I enable file extensions in Windows 11/10
In the search box on the taskbar, type file explorer, and in the search results, select File Explorer. In File Explorer under View, in the Show/hide group, select the File name extensions check box.
How do I manually change a file extension in Windows 10?
- Open Windows File Explorer.
- Click the “View” tab. Tick the “File name extensions” option.
- Now you can see the file extension of all your files. Find the file that you would like to change the file extension, right-click the file, choose rename, and enter the new file extension.
Can I just change the file extension?
You can also do it by right-clicking on the unopened file and clicking on the “Rename” option. Simply change the extension to whatever file format you want and your computer will do the conversion work for you.