What is file extension

A file extension is basically a way to tell what type of data the files are created in. There are many different kinds of file extensions and every file will have some form of file extension. File extensions appear after the name of the file and after the “dot” for example “myfile.txt” is a file with a “.txt” file extension and “myfiles” is the name of the file. The more you know about the different types of file extensions the easier your life computer life will be.

Here is a small list of the most common file extensions you should know:

• .txt – this is a text file you can open .txt files with notepad in Windows
• .exe – these are program files, if you click on a .exe file it will execute a program
• .pdf – stands for Portable Document Format created by Adobe, office type documents usually come in this type of file
• .mp3 – this is a audio file and any audio program can open mp3’s because it’s the standard audio file
• .wav and .wma – a few other popular audio file extensions
• .jpg and .gif – image files
• .avi, .wmv and .mp4 – popular video file extension
• .flv – flash video format, Youtube for example uses flash videos on their site
• .html or .php – these two are the most popular website file extensions
• .rar and .zip – whenever you see these two file extensions it means the original file has been compressed to a smaller size and you will need to extract or unzip it back to it’s original form

If your file extensions are hidden then check out this guide to show hide file extensions.