Learn to "Hide" or "Unhide" file extensions!

Learn to "Hide" or "Unhide" your file extensions in just a few steps (Windows 95-2000).

This question was answered on January 23, 2004. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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Don't you just hate it when Windows hides the extensions of filenames by default For example: the file "mybills.doc" is shown as just "mybills" Maybe you are one of those people who don't want to see the file type and it annoyes you when shown Well we have a way to fix this situation whichever way you like better

There is one possible danger for those users who want to hide the extentions and that is if the extension is "mybills.doc.exe", which is an executable program In this instance you would mistake this for just a Word document and it may have a virus in the executable This is potentially very dangerous and confusing It is the basis for many of the recent Trojan horse attacks and other email/IRC viruses

Follow the steps below to unhide file extensions in Windows 95/98:

1 Open Windows Explorer

2 Under the View menu, select "Options"

3 Check "show all files" option

4 Uncheck the "hide MSDOS file extensions that are registered" feature

5 Then click "OK" to finish

In Windows 2000:

1 Select "Start", go to "Settings", then to "Control Panels"

2 Select the "Folder Options"

3 Click on the "View" tab

4 Check "show hidden files and folders"

5 Uncheck "hide file extensions for known file types"

6 Then click "OK" to finish

You can hide file extensions by going through the same steps but instead of unchecking the "hide file extensions" feature, you must check it.

Note: Note that even after you unhide the extensions using the above steps, you still cannot see certain hidden extensions for files ending with .shs, .pif, and .lnk These files are executable, and are rapidly becoming the most popular choices for many Trojan horses

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Posted by Michal of Data Doctors on January 23, 2004

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