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Windows is designed to keep you from seeing the three characters at the end of filenames. Microsoft probably thought everything would look neater, but the company has no excuse for continuing to make Windows this way.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

How to keep Windows from hiding the nature of files


Aug. 8, 2001


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Microsoft designed Windows to be virus friendly and user dumb. You can change that in a few minutes if you don't mind getting into the menus that control how Windows works.
   I'll skip most of my usual moralizing over this inexcusable mistake. The most important thing, once you realize that Windows is designed this way, is to fix it as soon as you can. You'll also want to save this article (or keep a shortcut to the Web-based version), because Microsoft didn't even fix this giant flaw in its latest version of its monopoly operating system, Windows XP, which will be sold in October.
   Viruses thrive on stupid flaws in operating systems. The one that wins the booby prize in Windows is based on the way Windows handles -- or should we say "mishandles?" -- files based on their names.
   An explanation should help.
   Windows gets its instructions on what to do with every file from the filename's extension, the three characters that follow the period near the end of the name.
   A file named, for example, LOVEBUG.TXT, is treated as a text file. When you double click on LOVEBUG.TXT, Windows calls Notepad into action and loads LOVEBUG.TXT into Notepad. If LOVEBUG.TXT is, in fact, an actual text, you'll be able to read it that way.
   On the other hand, the file named NOTEPAD.EXE is treated as a program. "EXE" stands for "executable." A file that can be executed can do just about anything. (Think of the word "executive." That's the person in charge of a business. A file designed to be executable can take charge of the entire PC if it's designed that way.)
   That's where the biggest virus danger comes from, as you probably can guess. If a virus slips into your Windows PC, all you have to do is run it -- execute it, in other words -- and you're toast. So is your Windows PC.
   Files that have "EXE" at the end of their name are executable. Viruses are executable. So those three characters are very important. You would not want to launch a virus by mistake.
   But Windows is intentionally designed to keep you from seeing the three characters at the end of filenames. Microsoft probably thought everything would look neater -- after all, FLUFFY seems to have more class than FLUFFY.EXE, I suppose -- but the company has no excuse for continuing to make Windows this way.
   Here's how to turn off that default behavior in most versions of Windows.
   Double click on "My Computer." Open the View menu. Choose "Folder Options." Select "View." Under Advanced Settings, Files and Folders, uncheck the setting called "Hide file extensions for known file types."
   That's all there is to it. From now on, you'll see the entire filename, and you'll have a fighting chance against viruses.