File name extensions are how OS X recognizes file types, and changing the extension is one way to associate a file with a different program. Sometimes, however, changing the file extension does not ...

Back in the pre-Mac OS X and macOS days, Apple’s System 9 and earlier relied on hidden metadata to associate files with apps. File extensions, those bits of text that follow a period at the end of a ...

Microsoft uses file associations to set default programs for opening different file types on all its operating systems. As a result, when you open a file, be it text, image, or document, on your ...

When you open files that have a particular file extension, Windows will look at its configuration to determine what the default program should be in order to work with these files. The default program ...

BearPup sometimes wants to open a file in one program, and other times open it in another. He asked the Answer Line forum for an easy way to do this. Windows uses a file’s extension–the part of the ...

1How to view file name extensions for all files on a Mac 2How to view file name extensions for a individual file on a Mac The default setting for Mac OS is to not display a file's extension. For those ...

You might encounter a situation where you may not be able to open any .exe files or shortcut link files, i.e., EXE or LNK files. You might instead get a “Open with” dialog box, or it may open the file ...