Extensions reflect the type of internal data architecture and their intended purpose, present in almost all files. It is using the given information that synchronization is performed with a program that is able to perceive the data structure. The file type is located immediately after its name or in the Type section, but it is hidden by the system by default.

Since the file will not work without the correct extension, even despite the correctly compiled information in it, for example, the code, the question arises - how to change the file type in Windows 7 and other versions. In fact, the procedure is simple and is performed in a few clicks, it is only important to decide on the conversion method.

There are 4 main options by which you can change the file type:

• With the help of "Rename";
• Using the console;
• Special converters;
• through the target program.

The action is potentially harmful to the file. If it is incorrect to replace the type, then the element will not be opened by programs. It is usually recommended to convert formats for video to work, some players do not process files correctly. Also used when writing code, as indicated instead of txt, bat or html or making changes to the registry.

Windows itself provides several options for converting: the first is convenient for single files, and the second is better for groups.

Changing the extension using standard tools

In order to use the Rename property to replace an extension, you must first set up the correct display of names. This procedure is slightly different in Windows 7 from 8 and above. For the "seven" follows:

• Click on Start and "Control Panel";
• Find the "Folder Options" tile;

• Go to the "View" tab;
• At the end of the list, uncheck the box next to "Hide extensions ...".

We consistently move on to the question of how to change the file type in Windows 10:

• Follow the directory with the target files;
• Click on the "View" tab;
• Click on "Show and hide";
• Set a selection next to "File name extensions".

Now the procedure becomes identical for all Windows. Just RMB on the file and "Rename". Near the name is through a dot and an extension. You can replace it with anything, and then save it by confirming your intentions in the pop-up window.

When, after replacing the type, the element did not succumb to processing, then it should be converted to its original position. Sometimes you have to assign a handler program yourself.

Changing extensions via console

Using the command line, you can replace any type of file with a foreign one. The main highlight of this option is that it can quickly change extensions for many elements. Of course, the procedure is also available for a single file, but it is less convenient.

Before you can change the file type in Windows, you must navigate to the folder with the target elements, then:

• Shift + RMB on free space;
• Select "Open command window";

• Enter the code ren *.txt *.php, where .txt is the actual file extension and .php is the required file type.

Within the directory, all files will change extension and become the given type. For a single replacement, you must additionally specify the name of the element.

Specialized Converters

The main attraction is that applications do not just change the extension, but also recode the data inside the files. That is, in the case of hard manual replacement, you may not get the expected result, but if you use the converter, everything will work correctly. Such applications are more specialized in multiple data transformations, but no one forbids a single change.

On the Internet, there are a variety of programs, often they specialize in different areas. There are multimedia and text converters. For videos, it is better to use Any Video Converter, and for texts, AVS Document Converter. There are also online services, they are slightly less functional, but do not require installation.

All work according to the same principle: navigate through the explorer to the element, specify the required type and start the procedure.

The only caveat is the presence of scammers in this area. Quite often, you are provided with a program for recording video, audio or pictures for free. After recording, you find that the file is in a non-standard format and the player does not open it. To change the extension to a common one, money is extorted. There is only one advice, always check the recording format in test mode beforehand.

Handler programs

The last way to change the file type is to use a target program. So, to change the type of picture, you can use Adobe Photoshop, which will correctly record it while maintaining the proper quality. To work in the field of programming, you can go to Notepad ++ and click on "Save As". In the line "File type" you need to select the required one. All popular programming languages ​​and their extensions are present here.

Other applications work similarly, an important aspect is the need to support two formats and what is currently needed.

In the same way, you can completely remove the type, relevant for the hosts file. Just set "All types" and write the name, no extension will be added.

Any of the methods is relevant and able to perform the conversion without imposing restrictions. The choice of option is made on the basis of convenience and the number of files.

If you still have questions on the topic “How to change the file type in Windows 7,8,10?”, You can ask them in the comments

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Today, dear friends, we will analyze a very important issue that interests a huge number of computer and laptop users. But before we start talking about it, let's find out what an extension is and why it needs to be changed. Let's go in order.

The extension is necessary so that the operating system can quickly determine what type of format a particular file belongs to. Let's say you've uploaded a photo.jpg to your desktop. If the system did not automatically detect the extension, then each time you would look at a photo, you would have to manually select the program through which this image would open. Difficult, agree?

Why might you need to change the extension? Here's a simple example: you have m4a files on your computer that your iPod doesn't read at all. What to do in such cases? Alternatively, you can use special programs that allow you to remake formats. However, such programs are often expensive and take up a lot of free time. Therefore, the most optimal solution can be considered a simple extension change, because the file itself does not change from this, but the iPod can easily read it.

Change the extension in the standard way

I’ll tell you right away, friends, that there is no fundamental difference in this matter between the Windows XP, Vista or 7 operating systems, so we will show an example based on the last of them.

Open the "Start" panel - "Control Panel" - "Folder Options".

A new window has opened in front of you. Select the "View" tab and scroll down until you see the inscription "Hide extensions for known file types". Uncheck the box next to it, and then click "Apply" and OK.

Now what? And now we go to the desktop or to the folder where the desired file is located, select it, right-click and select "Rename" from the menu. Now you can safely change the file extension to whatever you need. As you can see, the whole process took only a minute of your free time.

As for Windows XP, the folder options section in this operating system is not in the control panel, but in the "Tools" section (open any folder and you will see it in the top menu). Otherwise, there are no differences.

Using a file manager

You can always use the file manager if it is installed on your computer. In extreme cases, such a program can be downloaded on the Internet - they are distributed, as a rule, completely free of charge. In this case, we will show an example based on Total Commander.

Open your file manager, select the drive and folder where the file is located. Hover your mouse over it, select Rename and change the extension.

Using WinRAR

This method is designed for the most real maniacs and you can use it only for your own satisfaction, because it is too unusual, although simple.

Most of you probably have a program for archiving and unzipping files installed on your computer. She will be useful to us.

Take the file and zip it with WinRAR. Then open the archive, select the desired file, change the extension and unzip.

We hope we have helped you with your answer. If you have questions or any advice, feel free to post them through the comments, we will be interested to read them. Sincerely.

Each file has its own extension, with which the operating system identifies it. This is necessary to define a program that is able to work with a specific object or an action that should be performed when clicking on it.

The extension is a set of letters that appears after the name. There are many situations in which there is a need to see the type of an object, or there is a need to change it. By default, the Windows 10 operating system hides the format of elements from the user.

How to display hidden file extension in windows 10?

Sometimes users encounter a Windows 10 issue where there is no option to change the format as the system hides it by default. This is intended for security purposes, so as not to accidentally damage the necessary system data. How can I change this setting so that you can see the expansion of objects?
The first method is that you need to click on the "Start" button in the lower left corner of the screen. Enter "Folder options" in the search form, and then select the found item. In the window that opens, in the "View" tab, uncheck the box "Hide extensions for known file types."

To perform the second method, you will have to open an arbitrary folder on your computer and click on the "Organize" button in the upper left corner. After that, a menu will open where you need to select the line "Folder and search options". A window will open where on the "View" tab you need to uncheck the line "Hide extensions for known file types".

The third method suggests going through the Start menu to the Control Panel utility. There, select view in the form of small icons, go to "Folder Options". In the new window, find the "View" button again, scroll to the very end and uncheck the "Hide extensions for known file types" item.

In Windows 10, it is possible to make such changes most quickly. To do this, you need to open any folder, or the explorer itself, open the "View" menu section.


Check the box next to "File name extensions", after which for all files on the computer not only the name, but also their format will be displayed.

How to change file type in windows 10 using context menu

The easiest way is to use the "Context Menu". To do this, you need to select the desired element, then right-click on it, select "Rename". After that, it will be available to change. To do this, you just need to enter the desired value.

In the new dialog box, confirm your desire to change the file type.


Before changing the file extension, it is recommended to make sure that the data in it can be run using the scheduled program. Sometimes it's easier to find special software for a particular type of file than to change it "manually".

How to change the extension of a group of files

To do this, you need to go to the folder where the files are stored. Then, holding down the "Shift" key, right-click on an empty space in the folder. After the done manipulations, a command window will open.
In the command line that opens, write the command: ren *.jpg *.png, where: “*.jpg” is the original; "*.png" is the final value.

How to change file format using conversion

It often happens that the object is not launched by the program even after changing the format. But this is not surprising, since it is intended solely to associate an executable object with a program. The object itself is defined by the content.

If the format is not supported by the programs installed on your computer, you can try to convert it. To do this, there are many special programs that can be downloaded for free. They differ in functionality depending on the tasks that need to be solved. These programs can be divided depending on what formats they can convert. Sometimes you can resort to using standard utilities.

Saving with a specific extension

In most cases, in order not to fool around later with how to change the extension, it is easier to immediately indicate the one you need, changing it while saving. For example, to make changes to the system, you may need an element with the .bat extension or hosts without .txt. To create them, you just need to launch notepad and select "All files" in the "File type" field during saving. If necessary, you can specify any other required format.

Each Windows user may be faced with the need to change the type of a file. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the main ways to perform this simple task.

Interesting! It is customary to designate the part of its name that is contained after the dot by the extension or file type. For example, the file "Everything about everything.Docx" has the extension ".docx" or the Microsoft Word file extension.

Please note that initially all file extensions are hidden from users. In order to change the file type, we first need to make all extensions visible to us. You can do this through the "Folder Options" window, and you can access it in the following ways:

Method 1. Use the basic explorer of your operating system

Step 1. Open "My Computer" or "Computer".

Step 2 Depending on the language of your OS, in the upper left corner, click "Organize" or "Organize" and select "Folder and search options" or "Folder and search options".

Method 2. Through the search in the "START" menu

Step 1. Press the "Win" key / the corresponding icon in the lower left part of the screen.

Step 2 In the search bar, we begin to enter "Folder and search options" or "Folder and search options", click on the result.

Method 3. Through the "Control Panel"Windows

Step 1. Press the "Win" key or the corresponding icon in the lower left part of the screen.

Step 2 In the menu that opens, select "Control Panel" or "Control Panel".

Step 3 In the upper right corner, change the view type to "Large Icons" or "Large Icons".

Step 4 Among all the icons that appear, look for one with the name "Folder Options" or "Folder Options" and click it.

As a result of using any of the above methods, the desired window will open in front of you, in which you should uncheck the box "Hide permissions for ..." or "Hide extensions for known file types".

Uncheck the box "Hide permissions for ..." or "Hide extensions for known file types"

After that, you will see the extensions of all files on your system. In order to change one type of file to another, select it and:

1. Right-click on it, then click on the “Rename” or “Rename” option, and then change the text following the dot.
2. Press the F2 key and also change the text after the dot.

Important! The extension is the text after the dot in the file name. To change the file type, you must LEAVE the dot and change the text after it. Look at the picture below.

Method 4. Use the Windows 7 command line

First you need to open a command prompt:

Step 1. Simultaneously press the Win+R keys.

Step 2 A window will open in front of you, in the empty field of which you must enter "CMD" and press "Enter" or "Ok".

Now you need to use the "Rename" command. For this you need:

• type "rename" and press the spacebar;
• print the full path to the file and the name of the file along with its current extension;
• put a space, put an asterisk and immediately after it write a new extension.

A simple example of a complete command, along with an accompanying screenshot:

"Rename C:\Users\temnikov.s\Desktop\Personal\121.rtf *.docx".

As a result of applying this command, we will change the file format called "121" from plain text to Microsoft Word 2010.

Interesting! Please note that by changing the file type you will not change/damage its contents in any way. All you do is tell your WINDOWS that this or that file is in a format that should be opened through a certain program.

We use third party programs

The file extension can also be changed using additional software. We suggest using one of the most popular Total Commander programs:

Step 1. We open the program and we reach the file we need.

Step 2 Press the F2 key, then change the file name after the dot and press the "Enter" key. We remind you that it is the text after the dot that contains information about the file extension. Now in the "Type" column you will be able to see the file with its new extension.

In this example, we changed the extension of the "Error Codes" file from ".doc" to ".txt"

Video - How to change the file type on Windows 7

The file extension is a 2-3 character abbreviation of letters and numbers added to the file name. It is mainly used to identify a file: so that the OS knows which program to open this type of file.

For example, one of the most popular music formats is "mp3". By default, Windows Media Player opens such files. If the extension (“mp3”) of such a file is changed to “jpg” (picture format), then this music file will try to open a completely different program in the OS and will most likely give you an error stating that the file is corrupted. Therefore, the file extension is a very important thing.

In Windows 7, 8, file extensions are usually not displayed. Instead, the user is prompted to identify file types by icons. In principle, you can also use icons, only when you need to change the file extension, you must first enable its display. Let’s take a look at a similar question…

How to enable extension display

Windows 7

1) We go into the explorer, on the top of the panel, click on "arrange / folder options ...". See screenshot below.

Rice. 1 Folder options in Windows 7

Rice. 2 menu view

3) At the very bottom, we are interested in two points:

"Hide extensions for known file types" - uncheck this item. After that, you will start showing all file extensions in Windows 7.

Rice. 3 Show file extensions.

Actually, the setup in Windows 7 is complete.

Windows 8

1) We go into the explorer in any of the folders. As you can see in the example below, there is a text file, but the extension is not displayed.

Rice. 4 Display file in Windows 8

2) Go to the "view" menu, the panel is on top.

Rice. 6 Check the box to enable extension display

4) Now the display of the extension is enabled, is "txt".

Rice. 6 Editing the extension...

How to change file extension

1) In the explorer

Changing the extension is very easy. It is enough to right-click on the file, and select the command rename from the pop-up context menu. Then, after the dot, at the end of the file name, replace 2-3 characters with any other (see Fig. 6 a little higher in the article).

2) In commanders

In my opinion, for these purposes it is much more convenient to use some kind of file manager (many call them commanders). I like to use Total Commander.

One of the best programs of its kind. The main direction is the replacement of the explorer for working with files. Allows you to perform a wide range of different tasks: searching for files, editing, group renaming, working with archives, etc. I recommend having a similar program on your PC.

So, in Total, you immediately see both the file and its extension (i.e., you don’t need to include anything in advance). By the way, it's pretty easy to immediately turn on the display of all hidden files (see Figure 7 below: red arrow).

Rice. 7 Editing the file name in Total Commander.

By the way, unlike Explorer, Total does not slow down when viewing a large number of files in a folder. For example, open a folder in Explorer with 1000 pictures: even on a modern and powerful PC, you will notice slowdowns.

Do not forget that an incorrectly specified extension may affect the opening of the file: the program may simply refuse to run it!

And one more thing: do not change extensions unnecessarily.

Successful work!