{"id":549,"date":"2009-05-08T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2009-05-08T07:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=549"},"modified":"2009-05-08T06:55:19","modified_gmt":"2009-05-08T13:55:19","slug":"show-them-extensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=549","title":{"rendered":"Show Them Extensions!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unless you tell it otherwise, Windows hides the important part of a filename, the extension<\/em>. I guess Microsoft does that so as not to confuse to bewilder beginners, though in my opinion it merely reinforces the fault<\/em> in default.
\n
\nA filename has two basic parts: the name<\/em> and then the extension<\/em>. The extension begins with a period and then typically three more characters, though an extension can be anywhere from one to four characters. For example:<\/p>\n

railroads.doc<\/code><\/p>\n

The filename is railroads<\/code>, the extension is doc<\/code>. That doc<\/code> extension identifies the file as a document file, belonging to a word processor. In the Windows world, that normally means the Microsoft Word word processor; doc<\/code> is a Microsoft Word document.<\/p>\n

wambooli.html<\/code><\/p>\n

The html<\/code> extension identifies a web page document, though the letters htm<\/code> are also acceptable.<\/p>\n

playtime.exe<\/code><\/p>\n

The exe<\/code> filename extension is used in Windows to identify program files, and that’s where the problem lies. It’s possible for the Bad Guys to disguise a virus or other malware to take advantage of the fact that Windows normally hides the filename extension. For example:<\/p>\n

evilprorgram.doc.exe<\/code><\/p>\n

The filename is evilprogram.doc<\/code> and the extension is exe<\/code>. Yep, you can use a dot, or period, in a filename. It’s only the final<\/em> dot and the characters that follow that Windows recognizes as the filename extension. So on a typical Windows PC, the kind configured by Microsoft as it comes out of the box, the above file looks like this:<\/p>\n

evilprogram.doc<\/code><\/p>\n

which appears to be simply a Microsoft Word document. A user may just open that file because it looks harmless.<\/p>\n

The sad news about all this is that only now \u2014 some 14 years after the problem first appeared in Windows 95 \u2014 is Microsoft admitting to the problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fix is to recajigger Windows to always<\/em> show filename extensions. Here’s how:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Press Win+E to open a Windows Explorer window.<\/li>\n
  2. In Windows Vista, press F10 to show the hidden menu bar.<\/li>\n
  3. Choose Tools > Folder Options.<\/li>\n
  4. In the Folder Options dialog box, click the View tab.<\/li>\n
  5. Remove the check mark by the item, “Hide extensions for known file types.”<\/li>\n
  6. Click OK.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    After following the above steps, Windows will always show a full filename. Sure, a beginner might be frightened and run screaming from that change. The truth, however, is that a computer is a complex machine. Understanding a simple concept like filename extensions makes you a better user and keeps your computer safe from the Bad Guys. Make the change now, if you haven’t already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Unless you tell it otherwise, Windows hides the important part of a filename, the extension. I guess Microsoft does that so as not to confuse to bewilder beginners, though in my opinion it merely reinforces the fault in default.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":553,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions\/553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}