How to change a file type using windows

With our increasing use of computers in our daily life, it may get necessary even for a simple user to change the file type of a file from one format to another. Each file format has their own properties. For example a ‘.txt’ file will probably get opened by the text editor while an ‘html’ file will get launched in your default browser.

File format analogy

Even though the contents inside the files might be the same, the file type matters a lot. The process of changing file type is quite simple and straightforward. However, there are some cases whereby changing the file type, the file becomes unusable. Hence it is recommended that you know exactly what you’re doing and also make an additional copy of the file.

Showing file extensions and changing the file format

By default, Windows doesn’t have the file format displayed alongside every file. For example, if a file is a text file, its name wouldn’t display ‘ap puals.txt’. Instead, it will only display ‘appuals’. First, we will enable the file extensions and then through basic rename, we will change the file extension. You can also choose to rename files in bulk if there are a lot of files that you need to change the type for.

1. Press Windows + E, click View from the top-most ribbon. Now click Options and select the option Change folder and search options.

Change folder and search options – Windows Explorer

1. Now uncheck the option Hide extensions for known file types. Now all the files will have their file extensions displayed alongside their names.

Enabling File Extensions – Windows Explorer

1. Now navigate to the file for which you want to change the file format. Right-click on it and select Rename.
2. Now change the file’s extension to the extension of the type which you want to change into. In this example, we change a ‘text’ file to a ‘python’ file. The extensions for a text file are ‘txt’ and for python ‘py’.

Process of changing a file type

Here is a list of common file extensions used in the world of computing. We have listed them according to their type.

Last Updated On: July 4, 2020

If you have a file that you need to be changed to a different format, we will show you how to change the file type in Windows 10. There will be no need to install any additional software, Windows has everything you need to do the job.

It’s just a simple case of renaming its extension. It’s the last three characters at the end of a filename.

But before you can change the type, you will need to be able to edit the extension. It’s a simple setting in File Explorer.

I will also recommend before continuing, to make a copy of your file to work on, so you can make sure you don’t lose anything you want to keep in case something goes wrong.

An example of why you may want to change a file type is due to software making backups.

Now and then a program will make a backup of it and then one of the characters on the extension of the filename gets replaced with an underscore. Which would look like: filename._xe instead of filename.exe.

Let’s go through the steps in order to change the type.

How to change a file’s type

1. Open WindowsFile Explorer.
2. Locate it by navigating to it by clicking various locations in the left-hand pane.
3. Move your mouse pointer over the ‘View’ button on the top menu area. Press your left mouse button.
4. Make sure ‘File name extension’ is checked.
5. Move your mouse pointer to hover over it and press the right mouse button.
6. Move your mouse pointer to hover over the ‘Rename’ item in the contextual menu and press the left mouse button.
7. Edit the last three characters at the end of the filename (everything after the last period on the end) to the type you want.
8. Press enter to save the change.

You have successfully changed the file type.

If for some reason you are unable to see the extension, please refer to our other article showing you how to display file extensions.

How to change programs associated with the file type

1. Press your Windows button on your keyboard.
2. Move your left mouse button to hover over the gear button above the power button. Press your left mouse button.
3. Type in ‘Choose a default app for each type in the search box.
4. Move your mouse pointer to hover over the ‘Choose a default app for each type of file’ item. Press your left mouse button.
5. Scroll down until you have seen the type of file you wish to change the default app for.
6. Move your mouse pointer to hover over the app you wish to change and press the left mouse button.
7. Choose the app you want to open that type of file in the future.

Conclusion

Now you know how to change file types and their associated program.

So you won’t have the incorrect program opening up whenever you click on it.

Marlo is a full-time professional computer programmer, electronics engineer and computer technician. Computers are his passion and he loves to help anyone wanting to know more about them.

Do you want to change a file extension in Windows 10? Fine, Just have a glance at this article wherein the step wise step implementation of the procedure, to change a file extension in Windows 10, is explained.

What is File Extension?

A File extension defines the type of the file. Basically, it is the suffix at the end of the file name, for example: ‘quehow.pdf’ , here “.pdf” is the extension for the PDF format. In the same way you can use .html, .jpg, .tiff, .png, etc for different scenarios.

Steps to Change a File Extension in Windows 10

Step 1: Select a file which you want to change, as I have selected the “New” file. Make sure that you have a backup of that file. Here, you can’t see the extension of the file because it is hidden. So, in order to enable its file extension go to the next step.

Step 2: Go to the ‘Start Menu’ and click on “Control Panel”.

Step 3: Select “Appearance and Personalization”.

Step 4: Now go to the “File Explorer Options” and after clicking on it, you will see a popup window.

Step 5: Here, uncheck the “Hide extensions for known file types” radio button and then click on “Apply” .

Step 6: Your File extension is now visible.

Step 7: Moving further, Just Right click on that file and then select the “Rename” option.

Step 8: Then type the extension in which you want to convert your file, as I have typed “html” and make sure that the extension you are choosing is compatible.

Step 9: A Dialog box will appear, read it and click on “Yes”.

Step 10: Your file is now converted into the html format. Open that file to check whether its content is visible or not.

Sometimes due to the unacceptability by the program in which it is converted, its content is not properly visible.

That’s all friends. Keep reading.

This article outlines how to change a file extension in Windows. For example, you might want to rename a TURF file called MCALL_0110_4865_6500_2074._ip to MCALL_0110_4865_6500_2074.zip

These instructions are for Windows 7 but the same basic process applies to most versions of Windows.

By default, Windows hides file extensions. In order to change them, you must first unhide file extension to make them visible so they can me changed. Then you can change it.

If you can already see file extensions on your computer, skip to Step 2

How to show file extensions in Windows 7

Step 1: If you can’t see the file extension, Open Windows Explorer and click on the Organize button towards the top left. Then choose Folder and Search Options, then click the View tab. Uncheck the box titled “Hide extensions for known file types” like so:

Click OK. Now you should be able to see the file extension.

How to show file extensions in Windows 8

Step 1: It’s simple to turn file extensions on and off in Windows 8. Simply open a File Explorer window (the new name for Windows Explorer) and click the View tab.

Now check the box next to File name extensions. If the box is check, extensions will be shown. If unchecked, they won’t. This is the opposite way the tickbox works in Windows 7 and Vista.

How to show file extensions in Windows 10

Step 1: Open the File Explorer by clicking on the Windows Start button and selecting the File Explorer icon as shown below.

Click the View tab in File Explorer and then click the Options button (or click the drop down menu and click Change folder and search options) as shown below.

The Folder Options dialog box is displayed. Click the View tab at the top of Folder Options as shown below

To view file extensions, uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types option.

Click OK when done.

Step 2: Right-click the file name and select Rename (or left-click and hold down the button for one second). Enter the new extension like so:

After entering the new extension hit the Enter (return) key. Windows will give you a warning that the file may not work properly. This is quite safe—remember that you can restore the original extension if anything goes wrong.

It’s also possible that you might get another message telling you that the file is “read-only”. In this case either say yes to turning off read-only or right-click the file, select Properties and uncheck the Read-only box.

If you do not have permission to change the file extension, you may have to log in as Administrator. Another option is to make a copy of the file, rename the copy and then delete the original.

A File System on a drive decides how data is stored and read from a drive. Think of it as a method for ordering information. If you were to go to a library, the books there will likely be sorted using the Dewey Decimal System. A file system is somewhat similar to this concept. There aren’t a whole lot of file systems but there are enough of them for users to have to stop and think which one they want to use. If you have a drive that’s on a certain file system, and you need to change it to another, you can easily do so on Windows 10.

Change file system of drive

In order to change the file system of a drive on Windows 10, you have two different built-in methods that you can use however, be warned. When you change the file system of a drive, it first erases everything on it. Make sure you back up data before you proceed. You should also know that you cannot change the file system of drive that you’ve booted form e.g., if you’re running Windows 10 from the C drive, you won’t be able to change its file system.

Change file system of drive – Drive format

Connect the drive that you want to format to your Windows 10 PC. Open File Explorer and go to This PC. Right-click the drive and select ‘Format’ from the context menu.

A new window will open with a dropdown for ‘File System’. Open it, and select one of the supported file systems that Windows 10 can convert to. If you want, you can uncheck the ‘Quick Format’ option. Click Start and the drive’s file system will be changed. The process will take some time to complete depending on the size of the drive, and whether or not you choose to disable Quick Format.

Change file system of drive – Disk Management

Connect your drive to your PC. Open Windows Search and enter Disk Management. Select the ‘Create and format hard disk partitions’ result.

In the Disk Management app, right-click the drive that you want to change the file system for. From the context menu, select ‘Format’.

In the window that opens, open the File System dropdown and select which file system you want to use for the drive. Click OK, change other settings/preferences for the drive if you need to, and then allow the format and conversion to complete.

On Windows 10, you can convert to the NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32 though the options may differ based on the type of drive that you’re looking to change the file system of. There are other file system besides these three such as Apple’s own proprietary Apple File System. You will need a Mac to convert a drive to this file system, or a paid app.

Hello, I downloaded a Audio pack while on windows 8.1 and I noticed after installing windows 10 I could no longer open the file. It displayed an error message that stated: “Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.” I did some digging around the community and have yet not an answer. :/

Replies (2) 

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

We regret for the inconvenience caused.

Provide us the following information to assist you better.

1. How are you trying to play the file? Is it from the file that is saved on the computer or from any media source or from online?
2. What is the file format of the music files which you are unable to play?
3. Does this issue occur when you try to play/download a particular format of file?

Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file. You might encounter this error message for one of the following reasons:

a) The file type is supported by the Player, but the file was compressed by using a codec that is not supported by the Player.

b) The file might have been encoded by using a codec that is not supported by Windows Media Player. If this is the case, Windows Media Player cannot play the file.

Let’s try these steps and check if it helps.

Method 1:

You may check if the file format of the music files are supported by Windows media player using the below link.

Note: If the file type you tried to play is included in this table, the file might have been encoded by using a codec that is not supported by Windows Media Player. If this is the case, Windows Media Player cannot play the file.

Method 2:

additionally, you may also download & install the required codec to play the music files.

Please let us know if you face any issues with Windows.

@bradyjgavin
April 10, 2020, 9:00am EDT

You can rename files on Windows 10 in many ways. If you’re still right-clicking and selecting “Rename” every time you want to change a file’s name, we’ve got some tips to make it faster.

Rename Files and Folders Using File Explorer

Windows 10’s File Explorer is a powerful tool. Did you know that there are four separate ways to rename a file or folder built-in? There’s a keyboard shortcut that lets you rename a file or folder without having to click a mouse, too.

All methods using File Explorer to rename a file or folder work identically for both.

Using the Home Menu

Fire up File Explorer by pressing Windows+E, and navigate to a directory with either a file or folder to rename.

Click on a file or folder to select it, and click “Rename” from the Home menu at the top of File Explorer.

Once the name is selected—if you’re renaming a file, not the file extension—you can start to type a new name. If you’ve configured File Explorer to show file extensions, make sure only to change the file name.

When you’re done typing, press Enter—or just click somewhere else—to save the new name.

Using Two Single Clicks

Fire up File Explorer by pressing Windows+E, and navigate to a directory with either a file or folder to rename.

Select the file with a single click, pause for a second, and then click one more time.

After the name is highlighted, type out a new name, and press Enter to save the changes.

Using the Context Menu

To rename a file from the context menu, right-click a folder, and click “Rename” from the context menu that appears.

With the name of the folder highlighted, start typing out a new name, and press Enter when you finish.

Using a Keyboard Shortcut

If you prefer to use a keyboard shortcut, you can use one to highlight a file or folder’s name so you can rename it without using a mouse.

Select a file or folder with the arrow keys, or start typing the name. Once the file is selected, press F2 to highlight the name of the file.

After you type in a new name, press the Enter key to save the new name.

Rename Files and Folders with Command Prompt

If you feel more comfortable in the Command Prompt, you can use the ren command to rename files or folders with ease.

One of the fastest ways to open a Command Prompt in the desired directory is from File Explorer. First, open File Explorer and navigate to the destination. Click the address bar and type “cmd” in, and press the Enter key.

To rename a file or folder, you can use the following command—if you’re renaming a folder, just omit the file extension:

Although the quotes aren’t mandatory, they’re required if either of the current or new names has a space in them. For example, to rename the file “Home Movies.ogv” to “First Birthday.ogv” you would use the following command:

Rename Files and Folders with PowerShell

Windows PowerShell is even more powerful and flexible than Command Prompt when it comes to renaming files and folders in a command-line environment. While we’ll only scratch the surface of naming your files, you can do some really powerful things, including piping cmdlets together to batch replace characters in a filename.

The quickest way to open a PowerShell window at your desired location is to first open the folder in File Explorer. Once there, click File > Open Windows PowerShell, and then click “Open Windows PowerShell.”

Open Windows PowerShell > Open Windows PowerShell to open Windows PowerShell.” width=”650″ height=”371″ src=” onload=”pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);” onerror=”this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);”/>

First, let’s look at renaming a single file. For that, you would use the following syntax:

So, for example, to rename a file from “SampleVideo.mp4” to “My Video.mp4” you would use the following cmdlet:

PowerShell isn’t just a shell. It’s a powerful scripting environment you can use to create complex scripts for managing Windows systems much more easily than you could with the Command Prompt. If you want to learn how to use PowerShell cmdlets, we’ve put together a list of the best ones to get you started.

Using Command Prompt you can easily change File Extensions.

File name extensions can be considered as a type of metadata. It is the sub-string which occurs after the dot character of any digital file. From the file extension of a file we can understand how to handle the file. Like if a file has .jpg extension we understand that, the file is an image, so we can use any image viewer to open it. Microsoft Windows Operating system also differentiates different file types (Video, Audio, Image, System Files etc.) according to the file extensions.

Sometimes you may need to change file extension of a file. Suppose you want to create an .htm file. You can create it by typing the entire code in a .txt file and followed by changing the extension to .htm. Sometimes changing of file extensions help to fool a system to pass restricted file formats. Like, G mail do not support .exe attachments. Instead of putting .exe files within .zip or .rar you can change the extension to .exe1 or anything else and can send it through G mail. At the other end, .exe1 can be changed to .exe to execute properly. General procedure to change file extensions has already been discussed in this site. You can also change file extensions using Command Prompt. It is much less time consuming.

Steps to Change File Extensions Using Command prompt

1. Press Windows Key + C to go to Windows Charms Bar-> Go to Apps Search-> type “cmd”. Search result will appear in left pane.

2. Right-click on it and select Run As Administrator to open command prompt as the Administrator. You may be notified by UAC. Click “Yes” to confirm.

3. In the command prompt type the address of the directory where the file is located. E.g. if your destination drive is E, then type E: in the command prompt and hit Enter.

4. Now type the following command

ren filename.extension newfilename.newextension

Here filename means your current filename, extension is the current file extension, newfilename represents the new name assigned in place of the old name which is optional, new extension is the new file extension.
Remember to provide blank spaces .

About Debaleena

Happiness is that best therapy. Use it to heal yourself and then others!

Although any file can be renamed, it doesn’t mean that, after it is renamed, it can be opened with any program. For example, you can rename a .BAT to a .EXE, however it will not run because a .EXE file is a compiled file. If you want to change the file type, it must be converted or saved as the destination file type, with the appropriate file extension.

Below is a listing of how to change the file extension for each of the major IBM compatible operating systems.

Windows users

Before renaming a Windows file extension, you must have show file extensions enabled. By default, this option is disabled.

Assuming the file is named myfile.txt, we rename it to myfile.doc.

1. Right-click the file (not the shortcut).
2. Select Rename in the menu
3. Erase the .txt from myfile.txt.
4. Type .doc (it is important to have the dot to separate the file name and file extension).

Renaming multiple file extensions

If you want to rename or change the file extensions of multiple files, we recommend you enter the Windows command line and follow the steps below.

MS-DOS and Windows command line users

Change the directory to the location of where the file is located. In our example below, we rename the file myfile.txt to myfile.doc.

Unless the file already exists, no message is displayed or an “OK” message indicates the file was renamed.

• See the move command page for more information about this command.

Renaming multiple file extensions

If you want to rename multiple files that have the same file extension without the aid of a different program, we recommend you follow the steps below.

The example below we rename all the files in the current directory that end with .txt to .old.

In our example, we are using an asterisk as a wildcard that tells the command line that we want every file name.

Unix and Linux users

Change the directory to the location of where the file is located. In our example below, we rename the file myfile.txt to myfile.htm. Additionally, this example is done from the shell and not a GUI.

If the operation is successful, you will be returned to the shell prompt.

• See the mv command page for more information on this command.

Associating a file type with a program can be done using several ways such as using the Open with… dialog and selecting the “Always use this app to open” checkbox, or via Default Programs or Default Apps. While you can set or change associations using GUI, there is no option provided to delete an existing file type association. This post tells you how to remove file type associations using the Registry Editor.

Remove a File Type Association Using the Registry Editor

Let’s say you’ve incorrectly associated a file type named .bak, and want to remove the association. Use these steps to remove the file association settings (for .bak) from the registry.

1. Start the Registry Editor ( regedit.exe ), and go to this branch:
2. Note down the (default) value data in the right-pane. It’s the ProgID associated with that file type.
   
3. Right-click the key .bak, and choose Delete. Click Yes to confirm.
4. Go to the following HKEY_CURRENT_USER keys and delete the .bak key.

This should remove the file association settings for .bak file type. The deleted file type should now be treated as unknown by Windows; which is exactly what we wanted.

Delete the Progid as well (optional)

If you also want to clean up ProgID key for that file type, which you noted ( bak_auto_file ) in Step #3 above, you must do so only if that ProgID bak_auto_file is not used by any other file type. This is important.

How to find if any other file type(s) is mapped to the same ProgID? Do a search (for Data containing the ProgID string – match whole string only) in the Registry Editor. Or run one of the commands given below to find it out.

This time, let’s take the example of txtfile Progid. To view the list of file types that use the txtfile ProgID, run:

Example: txtfile (progid used for .txt)

In the above case, the following file extensions are still using the txtfile progid:

So, you should not remove the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTtxtfile registry key, as it would break the association settings for file types that use this key.

Now, let’s use the above method and find out if any other file extensions are using the bak_auto_file Progid. Running the command for bak_autofile , you get this:

As no other file types are using this ProgID, you can safely delete this key:

Summary

To remove the file association settings for .bak file type, we’ve deleted the following registry keys:

That’s it! Hope this guide helped you delete an unwanted or incorrect file type association on your Windows computer.

File associations are a vital part of a functioning Windows experience, so making sure that the right file types automatically open with the right software is a must. But what if you assign the wrong file association or just want to change it to a better program? Windows 10 has proven more restrictive than past versions in terms of file associations and can be particularly fiddly if you just want to remove an association altogether.

Luckily, we have the answers, showing you how to change, reset and replace file associations in Windows 10.

How to Set and Change File Associations

First up, the easy stuff. You’ve probably been asked a thousand times by Windows when opening a file whether you want to associate it with a certain program. Maybe you just pick one of the suggested programs, and that’s the end of that.

But Windows’ suggested programs aren’t always the right ones, so how do you pick exactly what you want?

There are two ways to do it:

First, you can right-click a file whose association you want to change, then select “Open With.” If the program you want to open it with isn’t there, click “Choose another app” at the bottom of the window.

In the new box you’ll see much the same list as before, but scroll down and click “More apps” for an extended list to appear. Select the app you want to associate the file with and tick “Always use this app to open .xxx files.”

If the app you want doesn’t appear in the list, don’t bother with the option “Look for another app on this PC.” That will only open the file with your chosen program on a one-off basis.

To properly manage your file associations, click the Start button, type “default app settings” and click on it in the search results. Here you’ll see an overview of the default file associations. Click any of programs in the list to see your other options for that function.

To see a more comprehensive list of file associations, scroll down and click “Choose default applications by file type.” This will show you a full list of all the file types available and the apps they’re associated with.

You can click any of these, but in many cases you’ll find that there are no options available. This happens with more obscure file types, such as various esoteric image formats that only open with image-editing software like Photoshop. If you have the right program, but it’s not appearing as an option in the associations list, you can force the association using the command prompt (see next heading).

If you want, from the main “Default apps” screen you can click “Reset” to reset the file associations to Microsoft’s recommended defaults. (Warning: Microsoft will of course point you back to using their own software.)

How to Reset or Delete a File Association in Command Prompt

Resetting a file association to nothing is a little more intricate, and you’ll need to do it through an elevated command prompt.

Click Start, type cmd , right-click Command Prompt, then “Run as administrator.”

into the command prompt (where “filename” is the name of the app you want to dissociate, and “ext” is the extension, such as .jpg, bin, .mp3 or whatever).

If you’re unsure of the filename, just enter “assoc” into the command prompt to see a list of all the file type associations. The bit you want to enter after “ftype” is the entire part after the = symbol.

For the sake of the example, we decided to dissociate the “wtv” extension from VLC, so the command we typed was

Once you’ve entered the command, the file type should be dissociated/empty, and you can set a new one when you try to open that file type next time.

Or, if you want to use the command prompt to associate or reassociate files with apps, just follow the below format, replacing the “wtv” and directory with the extension and directory of the program you want to associate it with:

Conclusion

That should tell you everything you need to know about file associations and give you control over which programs go with which extensions. While the command prompt method may be a bit more tricky, it’s less restricted than the “Default apps” window, so if the program you want doesn’t turn up there, you can force the association through the trusty command prompt.

2 comments

The latest Windows updates seem to have broken the ability to change file association via the Control Panel and via the Open With functions. Had to use the assoc command in an administrator console.

Idiots at Microsoft strike yet again.

PS..thank you for the write-up! It was point on for all the topics. Regretfully the standard functionality through the interface is broke but your command prompt suggestion saved me a lot of headaches.

Comments are closed.

Popular Posts

How to Capture a Scrolling Screenshot in Windows 10

12 Useful Windows 10 Registry Hacks to Optimize Your Windows 10 Experience

Latest Windows 10 Update Problems and How to Fix Them

How to Create a Virtual Machine from Your Existing Windows 10 PC

14 Awesome Screensavers for Windows 10

Affiliate Disclosure: Make Tech Easier may earn commission on products purchased through our links, which supports the work we do for our readers.

If you want to change a file name extension in Windows 10, or if you wonder how to change file extension for multiple or all files in one folder, follow this guide.

Part 1: Change file extension for one file in Windows 10

Step 1: Show file name extensions if you haven’t done so.

Step 2: Click the file for which you want to change the file extension to select it, and then click F2 to make the filename and extension editable.

Step 3: Select the extension to highlight it, type another extension, and press Enter to confirm it.

Step 4: When you are prompted with the warning dialog that says “If you change a file name extension, the file might become unusable.”, click Yes to confirm that.

Part 2: Change file extension for multiple files at once in Windows 10

If you need to change the filename extension for multiple or all files in one folder, it would be troublesome and time-consuming to do that one by one. But don’t worry. You can change file extension for multiple files in one folder at once simply with the command prompt. Here are the steps.

Step 1: Locate the file. Right-click on the file while pressing and holding the Shift key on your keyboard, and then select Open command window here from the context menu. This will open a CMD window.

Another way to open the Command Prompt window is to open the folder in File Explorer, click the File tab, point to Open command prompt and then click Open command prompt.

Step 2: After the CMD window opens, type the command: ren *.(current extension name) *.(new extension name), and press Enter. That’s it.

For example, in my case, I use ren *.png *.jpg command to change all picture files’ extension from .png to .jpg, as shown below.

Below are steps on how you can rename a file or directory. Click on one of the following links to automatically navigate to the correct operating system.

You must have write or modify permissions to a file, folder, or directory to rename it. In some cases, you may also need administrator privileges in the operating system to rename.

How to rename in Microsoft Windows

Windows users can rename their files and directories by using one of the following methods. We’ve listed the following recommendations in what we believe to be the easiest methods of renaming a file.

Method one

1. Highlight the file or folder.
2. Right-click the file and click Rename from the menu that appears.

Method two

1. Highlight the file or folder.
2. Press the F2 key on the keyboard.

Method three

1. Highlight the file or folder.
2. Click File at the top of the window and select Rename from the list of available options.

Method four

1. Highlight the file or folder you want to rename by single-clicking the file.
2. Once highlighted, wait a few seconds and click the file again. A box should appear surrounding the file or folder name, and you should be able to rename the file.

If you don’t wait long enough and click the file or folder too fast, it can open the file or folder rather than allowing you to rename it.

Renaming multiple files or folders at once

1. Open Explorer.
2. In Explorer, select all the files you want to rename.
3. Once the files have been selected, press F2 to edit the file name, and type the new name for the files. For example, typing “test” will rename the files to test, test(1), test(2), test(3) etc. If you have file extensions shown, make sure to also type the name of the file extension you’re renaming.

Microsoft Windows users can also rename any file using the Windows command line.

How to rename in MS-DOS and the Windows command line

MS-DOS and Windows command line users can change the name of a file or directory by using the ren or rename command. Below are some examples of how this command can be used. Additional information about each of these commands can be found by clicking the above command links.

Renaming a file

In the following example, this would rename the file test.txt to hope.txt.

If the test.txt file is not located in your current directory, you must specify the path to the file as a prefix to the file name. For example, if the file was in the “computer” directory, you would type a command similar to the following example.

Renaming a file with a space

Whenever dealing with a file or directory with a space, it must be surrounded with quotes. Otherwise, you’ll get the “The syntax of the command is incorrect.” error. To rename the file “computer hope.txt” to “example file.txt”, your command would resemble the following example.

Renaming multiple files with one command

To rename multiple files at once, you must utilize some form of wild character. Below are some examples of how this could be done.

The following example would rename all the files in the current directory that end with .rtf to .txt files.

In this next example, the command would rename a file with an unknown character in the file name to something that can be read. The “?” used in the following example is the wild character for an unknown character.

Renaming a directory

Renaming a directory in MS-DOS is much like renaming a file. Use the ren or rename command to rename the directory. Because you cannot have a file and directory that have the same name, you will not need to worry about mistakenly renaming a file instead of a directory, unless you’re using wild characters.

In the following example, this would rename the computer directory to hope.

Rename the directory “computer hope” to “example directory”. Whenever dealing with a file or directory with a space, it must be surrounded with quotes. Otherwise, you’ll get the “The syntax of the command is incorrect.” error.

Rename in a batch file

To rename files in a batch file, you can use any of the rename commands or examples shown in the MS-DOS and Windows command line section.

How to rename in macOS

Apple macOS users can rename their files and directories by using one of the following methods. We’ve listed the following recommendations in what we believe to be the easiest methods of renaming a file.

First recommendation

In the macOS X Finder, select the file by clicking the file once and then press the ‘return’ key on the keyboard. After pressing return, you can type in the new name of the file.

Second recommendation

Select the file or icon you want to rename. Click and then hover over the file name until it is highlighted. Once highlighted, this indicates the file can be renamed.

Third recommendation

Using the Terminal, you can also rename any file. See our Linux and Unix users section for steps on renaming a file using the mv command.

How to rename in the Linux and Unix command line

For detailed information about renaming files in Linux, see the Linux mv command.

How to rename in Google Chrome OS

With the Google Chrome OS on a Chromebook, you can rename your files and directories by using one of the following methods. We’ve listed the following recommendations in what we believe to be the easiest methods of renaming a file.

First recommendation

Highlight the file by clicking on the file once. Press Ctrl+Enter on the keyboard and then type the new name of the file.

Second recommendation

Right-click the file by pressing two fingers on the touchpad at the same time. In the right-click menu, click Rename and then type the new file name.

Because generic icons are so darn ugly

If you have a file on your computer with a non-recognizable extension, then Windows will simply assign that file a generic file icon. If you work in a corporate environment, this can happen all the time with custom software applications using proprietary formats.

Even if you are a home user, it might be worth your time to change the default icon that is assigned for a text document or for all PDF documents, etc. This tip is really just for customizing the look and feel of Windows to your liking.

In Windows XP, changing a file type’s icon was very simple and could be done via Windows Explorer. Unfortunately, the process is more complicated in Windows 7 and Windows 8. There you have to manually edit registry entries, which is no fun. Thankfully, there are a couple of freeware programs out there that get the job done without all the mess.

Change File Type Icon in Windows XP

Step 1: Open My Computer and go to Tools and then Folder Options.

Step 2: Click on the File Types tab and you’ll see a listing of all the registered file types on your computer along with the extensions and the icon.

Step 3: Scroll down to the file extension you want to change the icon for and then select it in the list. After that, click on the Advanced button at the bottom of the dialog.

Step 4: Click the Change Icon button at the top right and choose your replacement icon.

That’s how simple it is to change the icon for a file type in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Now let’s talk about Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Change File Type Icon in Windows 7/8

For Windows 7 and higher, there are a couple of freeware utilities that can change the file icons for you without having to mess around in the registry. I’m going to mention two that I have used and that work well.

Types

Types is a very simple app that only does one thing. It would have been nice if the program was a standalone executable that didn’t require an install, but unfortunately, it’s not. Anyway, once you install it and run it, you’ll get a box with all of the currently registered files types on the system and their icons.

In my example, I want to change the default icon for text files, so I scrolled down to the TXT extension and selected it. Click on the gear icon at the top and that will bring up the properties box.

On the Class tab, you can see the path to the associated program for that file type. In this case, Notepad opens TXT files by default. You can actually change the default program here if you like, but you can also do that via Explorer.

The tab we are interested in is Icon. By default, it shows you the icons stored in the imageres.dll file stored in the SYSTEM32 directory. This DLL file contains a lot of the default system icons used on the system.

If you don’t find any usable icon here, you can read my previous post on extracting icons from EXE and DLL files or taking your own images and converting them into icons. Once you have a custom icon, you can click the little yellow folder button and browse to the icon you want to use.

Simply select the icon and then close out of the properties window. You’ll also see the icon change in the header area at the very top of the properties window.

As you can see above, I changed the icon for the TXT file type to something different and now that icon will show up wherever Windows displays it across the operating system.

FilesTypesMan

The second program I really like is from Nirsoft, my favorite company when it comes to free utilities. The program is called FileTypesMan and it’s better than Types because it doesn’t require any installation on the system.

Once you run it, you can scroll down to the file extension you are looking for using the first column (Extension). In my example, I again found the .TXT file extension and at the bottom you can see the different actions associated with that extension. This is the same as the Actions tab in Types.

When you double-click on the entry, you’ll get a popup dialog with a whole bunch of properties and settings.

Click on the little button next to Default Icon and choose your icon file. You can also configure a bunch of advanced options for showing/hiding different settings related to the file extension. If you work with a certain file type a lot and want a better icon than the default, these two programs are the best options.

That’s about it. If you have any questions or problems updating the icon for a file type, let us know in the comments. Enjoy!

Founder of Online Tech Tips and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications. Read Aseem’s Full Bio

Rename file extension of multiple files with Windows command line, Total Commander or Multi-File Renamer.

How to change file extension of multiple files in Microsoft Windows

It is very annoying, when you need to change extension of multiple files one by one. Luckily, there are possibilities how to do this job easy in just a few minutes and we will show you some of them.

This guide contains three parts :

You can select your the way that fits you best to change file extension of multiple files.

Use Windows command line to change file extension of multiple files

The easiest way how to change file extensions of multiple files without other software is to use command line.

Open Windows Explorer, create a new folder and copy files that will be renamed to it.

Open command line Start → Accessories → Command line or type cmd.exe to Start menu search bar. In Windows 8 open Metro UI → type cmd and press Enter.

Navigate to the folder where files are stored and type command:

ren *.old file extension *.new file extension or ren *.* *.new file extension

Command Prompt ren command syntax for renaming file extensions

Wait a second till Windows renames the file extensions.

Command Prompt renamed file extensions

Use Total Commander to change file extension of multiple files

Disadvantage of the first guide is to have basic knowledge about Windows Command line and its commands. Total Commander for Windows is free and much more comfortable file manager that also contains handy utility for renaming multiple files called Multi-Rename Tool.

Total Commander

Start Total Commander. Navigate to the folder, where are stored files that will be renamed.

Select files by Ins key. If you want to rename all files in the folder you can use * key, or Ctrl+A shortcut to select all files.

Total Commander select files

Go to the Files menu and select Multi-Rename Tool. option. You can also use Ctrl+M shortcut.

Total Commander open Multi-Rename Tool

Click in the Extension box, delete the [E] option and type a new file extension, which you want to associate with multiple files.

Multi-Rename Tool main window

Click on Start! button and wait until the Total Commander will rename files.

Use Multi-File Renamer to change file extension of multiple files

There are many free and paid stand-alone file renamers with various features, but we have selected one that is small, free and easy to use for our topic. It is called Multi-File Renamer and is available for free download on JJC Software website. It is distributed as a simple ZIP archive without installation application.

Start Multi-File Renamer and navigate to the folder, where are stored files for renaming.

Multi-File Renamer main window

Select files by Shift+mouse click, Ctrl+mouse click, or all files with Ctrl+A shortcut and select Change/Add File Extension option in Replace/Remove tab. Click on Rename button.

Multi-File Renamer select files

Type new file extension to text box and click on OK button.

Change/Add file extension option

You will see a Preview window with information about old and new file names.

Multi-file Renamer Preview window

Click on Do It button and wait until the the renaming job is finished.

Related software and links:

Microsoft Windows
A series of operating systems produced by Microsoft

Total Commander
Highly popular file manager for Windows

Did this entry help you?
If the information in this article helped you, please share it with your friends!

MP4 files are used to store and view the video, whereas MP3 files are used to store and view audio. Both the MP4 and MP3 file formats have the same lineage – they both come from the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) format of file compression. In addition, both the MP4 file format and the MP3 file format are quite similar when it comes to their properties, with the only major difference between the two is the fact that the MP4 format is for video and the MP3 format is for audio.

Conversion between the two formats works in a pretty simple manner. The MP4 file format contains both video and audio, whereas the MP3 file format only contains audio. That being the case, an MP4 file can be converted into an MP3 file by simply stripping away its video contents. Converting an MP3 file into an MP4 file doesn’t go as smoothly, however, as it is not generally possible to add a video to an audio file and turn it into an MP4 file. There are a boatload of different applications and programs designed for the Windows Operating System that is capable of converting MP4 files into MP3 files. In fact, even Microsoft’s native media player for the Windows Operating System – Windows Media Player – is capable of converting MP4 files into MP3 files.

Some Common Issues and their resolutions:

Windows Media Player not showing the Menu Bar: Click on Organise and then select Layout. After that, check the “Show Menu Bar” option
Save As Greyed Out: Navigate to the file location from File Explorer, right-click on the file and select “Rename”. Change “.mp4” to “.mp3”. (Click on “View” on top and check “File Name Extensions” to view extensions while renaming).

If you have any version of Windows Media Player on your Windows computer and would like to use it to convert an MP4 file into an MP3 file, here’s what you need to do:

1. Launch Windows Media Player.
2. Click on File >Open…. In the Open dialog that appears, navigate to the location on your computer the MP4 file you want to convert into an MP3 file is located in, locate the MP4 file and click on it to select it, and click on Open to have it opened in Windows Media Player.
3. Once the target MP4 file has been opened in Windows Media Player, click on File >Save as…. In the Save as dialog that appears, click on the File name: field, move your mouse pointer to the very end of the file’s name (the extension), and change the 4 in the extension of the file to a 3, changing the extension from .mp4 to .mp3.
4. Navigate to the directory on your computer where you want the converted MP3 file to be saved, and click on Save. As soon as you do so, Windows Media Player will begin converting the MP4 file into an MP3 file, and once the file has been converted it will be saved to the designated location on your computer. This process does not usually take a lot of time and is fairly quick.

Once you have completed all of the steps listed and described above, an exact copy of the MP4 file (minus the video part of the file, of course) you chose to convert into an MP3 file is saved to the directory on your computer you specified during the process as an MP3 file.

A: Changing a single file extension in Windows is simple. Just highlight the filename in Windows Explorer and type a new extension after the dot. While this method works fine for a small number of files, manually editing a large number of filenames can take a long time. Fortunately, you can speed up the process through automation by following the steps below.

Files in a Single Folder

Below is an example folder with several .TXT files that need to be changed to .XML files.

1. In order to batch rename file extensions, you will first need to open the Windows Command Prompt. To do this, choose Start → Accessories → Command Prompt .

You can also type ” cmd ” and press Enter in the Windows Start Menu text field.

2. Navigate to the directory containing the files to rename using the ” cd ” command (“cd” stands for “change directory”). For example, you would type ” cd DesktopXML Docs ” to navigate to a folder named ” XML Docs ” on the Windows desktop.

3. Type the following command, which will rename all *.txt files in the current folder to *.xml files:

4. The files are all renamed from *.txt to *.xml:

NOTE: If your files have different extensions, or they do not have an extension at all and you would like to add an extension to them, you can use this command instead:

Files in Subfolders

Renaming files in subfolders (or subdirectories) is a more complex task that requires additional syntax. The following command uses a loop that iterates through subfolders (one level deep) and changes all file extensions from *.txt to *.xml:

for /d %x in (*) do pushd %x & ren *.txt *.xml & popd

You can replace *.txt and *.xml with any other extensions in the commands above. Also, you can replace *.txt (the first variable) with just * if you want to rename all extensions for all files.

NOTE: Make sure you type the commands above correctly, as you may not be able to undo the renaming process. If you want to be extra safe, you can copy the files to a new folder so that you have a backup of the files before you run the rename command. Once the renaming process completes successfully, you can delete the extra copy of the files.

A: Changing a single file extension in Windows is simple. Just highlight the filename in Windows Explorer and type a new extension after the dot. While this method works fine for a small number of files, manually editing a large number of filenames can take a long time. Fortunately, you can speed up the process through automation by following the steps below.

Files in a Single Folder

Below is an example folder with several .TXT files that need to be changed to .XML files.

1. In order to batch rename file extensions, you will first need to open the Windows Command Prompt. To do this, choose Start → Accessories → Command Prompt .

You can also type ” cmd ” and press Enter in the Windows Start Menu text field.

2. Navigate to the directory containing the files to rename using the ” cd ” command (“cd” stands for “change directory”). For example, you would type ” cd DesktopXML Docs ” to navigate to a folder named ” XML Docs ” on the Windows desktop.

3. Type the following command, which will rename all *.txt files in the current folder to *.xml files:

4. The files are all renamed from *.txt to *.xml:

NOTE: If your files have different extensions, or they do not have an extension at all and you would like to add an extension to them, you can use this command instead:

Files in Subfolders

Renaming files in subfolders (or subdirectories) is a more complex task that requires additional syntax. The following command uses a loop that iterates through subfolders (one level deep) and changes all file extensions from *.txt to *.xml:

for /d %x in (*) do pushd %x & ren *.txt *.xml & popd

You can replace *.txt and *.xml with any other extensions in the commands above. Also, you can replace *.txt (the first variable) with just * if you want to rename all extensions for all files.

NOTE: Make sure you type the commands above correctly, as you may not be able to undo the renaming process. If you want to be extra safe, you can copy the files to a new folder so that you have a backup of the files before you run the rename command. Once the renaming process completes successfully, you can delete the extra copy of the files.

The following tutorial will show you how to restore default app. A default app in Windows 10 is the one which starts automatically when you open the application. For example, the default Internet browser in Windows 10 is Microsoft Edge. So if you are trying to open a URL using Cortana, then the link will open via Microsoft Edge. If you want, you can change the default internet browser to Google Chrome or Firefox. Similarly you can change the default multimedia player from the default app to VLC Media player or something like that. After customizing the default settings, if you wish to revert back to the original settings, then you can restore default file extensions in Windows 10. The process is very easy and the tutorial will take you through the method.

Steps to Restore Default File Extension Type Associations in Windows 10

1. Open Start Menu and go to Settings.

2. Go to System.

3. Tap on Default Apps.

4. In the right pane, tap on Reset button under Reset Microsoft default options.

About Nick

Nick is a Software Engineer. He has interest in gadgets and technical stuffs. If you are facing any problem with your Windows, feel free to ask him.

• Knowing how to password protect a folder in Windows 10 allows you a degree of protection from the people you share your computer with — or from someone stealing your hard drive.
• As the name implies, password-protected folders require a password to be opened.
• Once you’ve locked a Windows 10 folder, you can open the folder at any time, but only if you know the current password.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

If you have sensitive information stored on a Windows computer that you share with others, or on a laptop that you’re worried could be stolen, you’ll need to keep your data safe.

This is when password protecting a folder can offer you peace of mind, in exchange for a little inconvenience.

You can password protect folders in Windows 10 so that you’ll need to enter a code whenever you open it.

Make sure you remember your password — password-protected folders don’t come with any sort of recovery method if you forget. It might be useful to write down a hint for yourself. You could also make a backup, and keep that somewhere else, like on a flash drive.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Windows 10 Home, available at Best Buy, $134.99

How to password protect a folder in Windows 10

Unfortunately, Windows 10 doesn’t come with password-protection as a built-in feature — meaning that you’ll have to use third-party software.

WinRar is a file compression and encryption tool that’s available for free from their website in 32- and 64-bit versions.

To know whether you’re running 32- or 64-bit Windows, press the Windows icon at the bottom left of your screen and search “System.” It will be listed in your System summary, under “System type.”

1. Install the WinRar version that’s appropriate for your computer.

2. With WinRar installed, you should have new options available when you right-click folders. We’re looking for “Add to Archive.”

3. This will create a new, smaller file that contains the exact contents of the original folder. A menu will also open — select “Set password” at the bottom-right of this menu.

4. A new pop-up will open. Check the box marked “Encrypt file names.” Enter the password you want for this folder. WinRar will ask you to repeat it, to make sure you didn’t make a mistake.

5. Click “OK” in both menus, and you’ll be done. This will leave you with your original folder, and a .rar file that’s locked with a password — you’ll need to keep WinRar on your computer to open it. When the new .rar file is made, you can delete the original folder.

Note, however, that if you password protect a folder that has a program in it, you won’t be able to open that program without taking it — and all of the files it needs to run — out of the locked folder.

If you’ve saved something like a Word document, and later update it, you should save the new version outside the locked folder, and then drag-and-drop it in. You can then overwrite the old version.

WinRar is the best free program for this task. Your next best option is to use commercial software like Folder Guard or Protected Folder, though these come with a price tag attached.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

How to create a shortcut in Windows 10 to open any program, file, or folder faster

How to change the icon size of your files, folders, or applications on a Windows 10 computer

How to invert or change the colors on your Windows computer, to make icons and links easier to see

How to find your stored Wi-Fi passwords on a Windows 10 computer, and use them to connect another device

Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.

This article will describe how Firefox handles downloads for different types of files and how you can change that behavior.

• For help with download problems, see What to do if you can’t download or save files.
• For help with embedded media on web pages, see Fix common audio and video issues.
• For help changing the e-mail program that Firefox uses, see Change the program used to open email links.

Table of Contents

When you click a link to download a file, the Internet Media type, also called the MIME type or Content type, determines what action Firefox will take. You may already have an application installed that will automatically handle the download. Other times, you may see a dialog asking whether you want to save the file or open it with a specific application. When you tell Firefox to open or save the file and also check the option to “Do this automatically for files like this from now on” (see below), a new Content Type and Action entry for that type of file will appear in the Applications section of the General panel in Firefox Options Preferences .

You can change what action Firefox takes for defined content types. This will not affect media embedded in a web page – only links to the files themselves.

1. Click the menu button and select Options . Preferences .
2. In the General panel, go to the Applications section.
3. Select the entry for the file type you want to change.

When you click on a link for a type of file that doesn’t have a set content type and download action, Firefox will ask you how to handle the file:

• Open with: Saves the file to a temporary folder and opens it in the default application for that file type. To select an application, click Choose. Browse. .

• Save file: Saves the file to the download folder (specified in the General panel of Firefox OptionsPreferences ).
• Do this automatically for files like this from now on: Check mark this setting and then click OK to add a new entry to the Content Type list for that file type.

If you are having problems with how Firefox is handling file downloads that you can’t resolve, or if you just want to start fresh, you can restore the default content types and actions by manually deleting the file that stores these settings.

Open your profile folder:

• Click the menu button , click Help and select Troubleshooting Information . From the Help menu, select Troubleshooting Information . The Troubleshooting Information tab will open.
• Under the Application Basics section next to Profile Folder Directory , click Open Folder Show in Finder Open Directory . A window will open that contains your profile folder. Your profile folder will open.

These fine people helped write this article:

Volunteer

Grow and share your expertise with others. Answer questions and improve our knowledge base.

Here’s how you can modify Hosts files in Windows 10, and map domain names to server IP addresses of your choice.

1. Open Notepad with administrator privileges
2. Browse to C:WindowsSystem32driversetchosts (Or paste this into the address bar)
3. Open the file
4. Make your changes

Applies to All Windows 10 Versions

Windows 10 still retains the old computing standard of having a hosts file for rudimentary hostname mapping. In simpler terms, the hosts file provides a mechanism to map domain names (such as “onmsft.com”) to server IP addresses of your choice.

Windows refers to the hosts file each time it connects over a network using a hostname. If it finds an entry for the hostname in the hosts file, it will contact the server specified in the file. Otherwise – and in the vast majority of cases – it will resolve the hostname using DNS (domain name service), which is the process used on the Internet to obtain the server IP address behind a domain name.

While it may sound technical, the hosts file is a really simple approach to network routing – and it’s easy to add your own entries. To get started, you just need to open the file. It resides in Windows’ internal “System32” folder, so to save your edits you’ll need administrator access.

The quickest way to open the file is using Notepad with administrator privileges. Search for Notepad (press the Start button and type its name) and right-click the app to display the context menu. Click “Run as administrator” to launch a privileged instance of the app. Note you may need to reauthenticate yourself or get an administrator’s password if you’re not already logged in as one.

With Notepad open in administrator mode, you’re ready to open the file. Click File > Open and browse to the file at C:WindowsSystem32driversetchosts (you can copy and paste this into the address bar at the top of the Open window). If you do browse through the folders graphically, remember to change the file type filter to “All Files” so the hosts file shows up.

Now you’re ready to edit the file. If you’ve never opened the hosts file before, all you’ll see is a short section of text describing its purpose and how to make edits. The introduction provides a useful overview of how the file is structured, but we’ll cover the basics here.

The hosts file is a simple mapping of IP addresses and hostnames. Each entry goes on a newline, with the IP address (that’s the numerical address) first, followed by a space or tab character and then the hostname (or domain). You can add comments to the file by placing a “#” character at the start of the line – this will make Windows ignore the line when reading the file.

Therefore, if you want to point “microsoft.com” to the IP 1.2.3.4, you’d write “1.2.3.4 microsoft.com” on a new line. Each time you try to visit microsoft.com, you’ll find yourself instead at the (non-existent) 1.2.3.4 website.

At this point, you may be wondering why you’d ever need to edit the hosts file. While it is more useful to technical users, there are also a few more general cases in which it might have value. One example is if you wanted to block a certain website, for example Google. By adding an entry for “google.com” to the hosts file, you can force Windows to point the address to a different location – so users won’t be able to visit the site.

To achieve this example, add a line such as “0.0.0.0 to the file. Save the file and try and visit Google in your browser. You should find the site fails to load.

Remember that this is a far from infallible way to block a site – another user could simply reverse the hosts file edit themselves. In addition, some software may employ its own techniques to lookup hostnames which might ignore the hosts file.

One far more realistic application of the hosts file is to block websites which serve up ads or spyware. Although we won’t be listing any here, if you map the addresses of prominent ad providers to an unused internal IP address (such as 127.0.0.1), you’ll suddenly be browsing an ad-free internet – in every browser.

Windows will resolve the ad URLs to an address that no longer points to the providers’ servers. Just remember that every address you add must be the hostname only (example.com), not the full web address ().

That’s all about the hosts file. While you’re unlikely to use it outside of a development or network environment, it does have practical applications which could be of use to every PC consumer. You should also know that the hosts file also exists on Mac and Linux systems with the same syntax, albeit in a different location.

It is a good way to customize your own Windows OS and improve the using experience by changing the icons on Windows 10. If you are bored with the default icons on your Windows 10 computer, you can use the following ways to change icons on Windows 10 easily.

1. Change Desktop Icons on Windows 10

Step 1: Click Start > select Settings > choose Personalization click Themes.

Step 2: Slide the left pane and locate to Related Settings. Then choose Desktop icon settings.

Step 3: In the Desktop Icon Settings window, select the desktop icon you want to change and click Change Icon.

Step 4: Choose a new icon from the list or click Browse to input an icon and tap OK.

Tip: The icon type can be exe, dll, or ico.

Step 5: Click OK to confirm the change.

2. Change Folder Icons on Windows 10

Step 1: Right-click the folder and select Properties in the context menu.

Step 2: Choose Customize and click Change Icon in the Properties window.

Step 3: You can replace the folder icon with a basic/personalized one. Then click OK to save the change.

Step 4: Hit OK to finish changing the folder icon.

3. Change a Type of File’s Icon on Windows 10

Different from personalizing desktop icons or folder icons, changing the icon of a type of file needs the help of the third-party tool like File Types Manager and here it will be used as the utility.

Step 1: Get File Types Manager on your Windows 10 PC.

Step 2: Find the file type that you want to change its icon. Then close the Find box.

Step 3: Right-click the file and choose Edit Selected File Type.

Step 4: Click the 3-dots button in the pop-out window.

Step 5: Pick one of the existing icons. You can also input your own icon by clicking Browse > click OK.

Step 6: At last, don’t forget to click OK to execute the operation.

Related Articles:

iSunshare is dedicated to providing the best service for Windows, Mac, Android users who are in demand for password recovery and data recovery.

Question

This is the scenario

1. Let’s assume a file is uploaded to a document library called “MyTest.txt” (with want to upload a different file “MyTest.Docx” to same ID
2. When I see Version History, I should see Version 1.0 for “MyTest.txt” and Version 2.0 for “MyTest.Docx”

Suresh Kumar Udatha.

Answers

There is a workaround. You could add the document set in the document library. And you could regards the one document set as the one item. Then you could upload the files with different file extension into the same document set. It can store the files with different extensions in the same set and you could check the versions of the files.

The article below is about document set in SharePoint 2013.

TechNet Community Support
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

• Proposed as answer by Victoria Xia Monday, August 3, 2015 12:52 AM
• Marked as answer by Victoria Xia Tuesday, August 4, 2015 12:05 AM

It is not possible in SharePoint document library.

since you are allowed to do custom solution, you can try with new metadata field.

You try with new metadata property for document name with extension.

may be you can add a workflow/event receiver/calculated field(need to check) and set the value when the document is added or modified. Display the version history from new metadata field instead of displaying version history from title field.

hope this will helps you

• Proposed as answer by Victoria Xia Monday, August 3, 2015 12:53 AM
• Marked as answer by Victoria Xia Tuesday, August 4, 2015 12:05 AM

if you want only one level then you can go ahead with two fields(one for file name and another one is for file references)

If you want multiple level then you will have to have a dedicated list with parent child relation. Parent is you core document library and child can be your archived library or a custom list.

• Proposed as answer by Victoria Xia Monday, August 3, 2015 12:52 AM
• Marked as answer by Victoria Xia Tuesday, August 4, 2015 12:05 AM

All replies

As I understand, you want to upload different file type to the same ID in the document library without losing version history in SharePoint 2013.

You could change the file extension of the first uploaded file to the file extension of the file you will upload before you upload the second file.

You could achieve it by code. You could use SPFile.MoveTo() function to rename the file extension.

The article below is about SPFile.MoveTo method.

For more detailed information, you could refer to the similar cases below.

There are similar cases:

TechNet Community Support
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Thanks for your response, Sara.

I tried “SPFile.MoveTo()”. Which i’m able to upload a new file type, but the problem I see is with version history.

with this change both my previous and current Versions in “Version History” points to the same newly uploaded file.

For Example: in 1st version if I uploaded a text file and in my 2nd version I uploaded a Doc file. In version history both my versions (V1.0 and V2.0) points to Doc file. ideally V1.0 should point to text file and V2.0 should point to Doc file. This is what i’m looking for.

Any thoughts of implementing this with OOTB or with minimum customizations?

Each file type on your computer is associated with an application that runs it. Files of type JNLP are run by Java Web Start. It is possible for JNLP files to become associated with another application, causing it to open incorrectly. Because Java Web Start opens the search application, when the JNLP files are associated incorrectly, the search application cannot open.

Document Details:

To modify the file association to have JNLP files open with Java Web Start on a Windows XP, Windows 7/Windows Vista, Windows 8, or Windows 10 computer, follow the steps below:

Go to the nhdeeds.com website, then click on Search County Records.

Click to Accept Registry Disclaimer , then click the link to Launch the search application

When prompted to open or save, choose save

Navigate to the saved location to right-click on the saved .jnlp file and choose Open With

Make sure there is a check-mark in the box that says Always use this app to open .jnlp files , then click More apps

Scroll down to the bottom and select Look for another app on this PC

Select the Java folder, (If you do not see Java, go back up one level to the c:/ drive and select Program Files(x86) , then select the Java folder. If you do not have a Java folder here, you will want to go to and download the latest version before continuing with these steps.)

Double click the latest jre folder (example: jre7, jre1.8_191, etc)

Double click the bin folder

Double click the javaws application

Click the Close button

Windows 7 and Vista:

Click on Start and select Control Panel.

In the top right corner of the Control Panel, select Category from the view by: pull down menu.

Click the Programs link.

Under Default Programs, click the Make a file type always open in a specific program link.

Under the Name column, locate and select JNLP from the list of Extensions.

Click the Change program button.

From the Open With window, click the Browse. button..

From the Open With. dialogue window, (This will typically open in the c:Program Files directory)

Select the Java folder, (If you do not see Java, go back up one level to the c:/ drive and select Program Files(x86), then select the Java folder. If you do not have a Java folder here, you will want to go to and download the latest version before continuing with these steps.)

Double click the latest jre folder (example: jre7, jre1.8_191, etc)

Double click the bin folder

Double click the javaws application

Click the OK button.

Click the Close button.

JNLP files will now open, by default, with Java Web Start.

Windows 8:

Open Default Programs by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search (or if you’re using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search ), entering Default programs in the search box, tapping or clicking Apps , and then tapping or clicking Default Programs .

Click Associate a file type or protocol with a program .

Locate . JNLP under the list of registered file types. Highlight the JNLP file by tapping or clicking .JNLP under the Extensions column, then tap or click on Change Program .

Tap or Click Java™ Web Start Launcher from the list of programs.

If you do not see Java Web Start Launcher listed, tap or click More options then Look for another app on this PC .

Tap or double-click on Local Disk (C:) in the left column (located under “Computer”).

Tap or double-click Program Files (x86) . If you do not see this, select Program Files instead.

Locate and select the Java folder.

Select the latest JRE folder (JRE6 or JRE7 or jre1.8_*).

Select javaws.exe and press Open .

JNLP files will now open, by default, with Java Web Start.

Windows XP:

Click on Start and select Control Panel from the Settings menu (or click Start and select Control Panel).

In the control panel, click Folder Options .

In the Folder Options window, click the File Types tab.

Locate JNLP under the list of registered file types. Highlight the JNLP file by selecting JNLP file under the Extensions column.

Click the Change button.

From the Open With window, click the Browse button.

From the Open With dialogue window, locate the file javaws.exe :

In the C:Program Files folder, double click the Java folder

Double click the jre* folder

Double click the bin folder

Select the javaws.exe application

Click the Open button

Click the OK button to close the Open With window.

Click the Apply button to apply settings to the Folder Options window. Click the OK button to close the Folder Options window.

JNLP files will now open, by default, with Java Web Start

We can use the command rename to rename files from windows command prompt(CMD). Find below syntax of the command with examples.

Syntax of rename command:

After executing the above command we’ll have file2.doc in the folder d:data

Ren is alias for rename , so both refer to the same command.

Errors:

1. If the files is being used by a program, then rename command fails with below error.
2. You also need to have sufficient privileges to rename the file.
3. Rename changes just the file name, it does not convert a file from one type to another. For example, if you rename a file from mp4 to mp3 extension, it does not change the file format. Renaming a doc file ‘mydocument.docx’ to ‘mydocument.pdf’ does not make the file readable in Acrobat Reader.

Does the command have to be executed in the root directory, or can it be done in a subdirectory that is in the root directory? Also, can a directory be renamed (EXAMPLE: renaming Dell.dir to Newname.dir)?

yes, you can run the command (for that matter, any other windows command) from any folder, it need not be root folder. And yes, ren works for directories too. There’s a separate post for this –

this command gives repeating of filename when there are more then 40 files in the folders ?
any solution for renaming 100s of file .

i have
4299999940_M_harsha.png these type of files in several sub folders, with similar name structure(42 as first part of name, 40_M_harsha as last part of name.. in between 6digits(which may contain 42 and 40 also.in this example it has 999999))
i have to rename it as 99999..i.e, remove first and last part of file name which is common for all files in the subfolder
another examples:
4292345640_M_harsha.png -> 923456
4291424040_M_harsha.png -> 914240
could u please help

how do I rename a file by keeping the last 20 characters. I have random file names however the last 20 characters are what I want to keep. They are dates and a document ID.

filename too long cannot rename Please now setup new rename

I use, Batch Rename Files Tool. You can easily found hier BatchRenameFiles.org that allows you to quickly rename all the files in a specified directory.

Simple stuff. Been there and done that but I have a mess of files that contain a “%20” or several in the filename. I need help to sort this out. My REXX program has produced a batch file containing lines like these:

1.JPG” corn_escaLator.jpg
ren “CHOCO%

1.JPG” choco_Lady.jpg
ren “CAT%20

4.JPG” cat_wet_getting_bathed.jpg
ren “CAT%20

3.JPG” cat_burrito.jpg
ren “CAT%20

2.JPG” cat_bra.jpg
ren “CAT%20

1.JPG” cat_bite_nose.jpg
ren “BOOTY%

1.JPG” booty_cake.jpg
ren “BIRD%2

2.JPG” bird_watersLide.jpg
ren “BIRD%2

1.JPG” bird_mouth_dog.jpg
ren “BIG%20

1.JPG” big_mac.jpg
ren “BANK%2

1.JPG” bank_cake.jpg
ren “ANGEL%

Suffice to say it isn’t working as intended. I get tons of
“The system cannot find the file specified.” messages.

I prefer not to use the powershell whether I have it or not in case I need to run this in a more primitive Windows. I have tried rename instead of ren and without double quotes. I have administrator privileges.

I am running Windows7 32-bit.

GOOD, IT WORKED FOR ME

I use windows 10, and I did the steps, even in the location but it ‘couldn’t find the file specified.’ Please help.

Sometimes when you plug in a USB device, it doesn’t show up

A task you will most likely have to perform a few times in Windows is changing the drive letter for an external hard drive, mapped network drive, or DVD drive. Sometimes when you plug in a USB flash drive, it doesn’t automatically get a drive letter assigned to it and it may not show up on your computer.

In those types of cases, you have to change the drive letter for the device and it will normally pop right up. In this article, I’ll show you how to change the drive letter for these devices using the GUI and also via the command prompt.

Change Drive Letter via Disk Management

You can open disk management on a Windows PC by either right-clicking on the Computer or This PC icon on the desktop and choosing Manage or by clicking on Start and typing in diskmgmt.msc.

You’ll see a list of volumes at the top and the disks and partitions at the bottom. Any partition that has a drive letter will be shown in the white area. If you connected a USB drive and you see it listed, but it doesn’t have a drive letter, you can now assign one.

To assign or change the drive letter for a disk or partition, simply right-click on it and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.

A window will pop up with the current drive letter, if there is one, and a couple of options. Here you want to click on Change.

Next, you will choose the new drive letter from the dropdown list. You can pick from the letters A to Z.

That’s about it. Click OK to close out all the dialogs and the drive should now show up in Windows with the new drive letter. If you’re having issues using the GUI interface or you simply feel more comfortable using the command prompt, read the instructions below on how to use diskpart.

Use DiskPart to Assign Drive Letter

If you need to change or assign a drive letter via the command prompt, you have to use the diskpart command. I’ve written a bit on how to use diskpart, which is really useful for many disk management tasks.

To get started, open an administrator command prompt in Windows by clicking on Start, typing in CMD and then right-clicking and choosing Run as Administrator.

Now type in the following commands, each followed by the Enter key.

Above, you’ll replace x with the volume number in the list that corresponds to the drive you want to change and with the letter you want to assign to the drive. Here are the commands I ran for an external USB drive:

You’ll also notice that under the Type column, external drives will show up as Removable. That’s a good way to check before you select a volume. You can also figure out which drive is correct by looking at the size and also looking at the Info column. Volume 0 in my case is the system partition, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that by accident.

Overall, it’s a fairly simple process and hopefully you won’t run into any problems. There are times, however, when things don’t work properly. Below are some possible reasons.

Troubleshoot Can’t Change Drive Letter in Windows

One problem that I have seen is that the Change Drive Letter option is simply greyed out. This can occur for a few reasons. One of the main reasons is the volume is not formatted in FAT or NTFS format. For example, if you are attaching a disk from a Mac computer, you will not be able to change the drive letter unless you format the drive into a compatible format.

Another reason is if the drive is set to read-only. If so, you’ll have to Google the steps to change the drive to allow read/write access.

Also, if you don’t need any of the data on the volume in question, a simple solution is to delete the volume, which is normally never greyed out. Once you delete the volume, you can right-click again and create a new simple volume. Now you will be able to change the drive letter.

Make sure to read my other tips on how to hide drive in Windows and how to map a folder to a drive letter in Windows. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!

Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications. Read Aseem’s Full Bio

• It’s easy to change the size of your icons in Windows 10 if you’re having trouble seeing them, or if they’re too large.
• In Windows 10, icons are the items you click on to open different programs and files. They’re usually a small picture with the title of the file beneath them.
• Making icons smaller allows you to fit more icons on a page, and changing them to be bigger makes them easier to see.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

If you’re looking at a large page of text documents on your Windows PC, you might want to make your file icons smaller to fit as many titles in the window as possible. If you want to look through an SD card of pictures, however, you’ll want big icons to see what each picture looks like.

In either case, you’ll probably want to change the size of your icons, which are the small pictures or graphics that accompany every file and program.

Windows 10 makes it easy to make the icons in a folder larger or smaller.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Windows 10 (From $139.99 at Best Buy)

How to change icon size on a Windows 10 computer

First of all, note that changing the icon size of files in a folder changes the size of all the icons in that folder. It doesn’t change the icon sizes in other folders.

1. Use the File Explorer to navigate to the folder you want to change icon sizes in. Using the top toolbar, click “View.”

2. Below the “View” tab, there will be a small sub-window with options like “Extra large icons,” “Small icons,” “Tiles,” and more.

3. You can change your icon sizes by clicking on the different options. You can hover your mouse over the different options to preview them.

4. Alternatively, you can hold the Ctrl key while scrolling up or down with your mouse to change between these options, even without opening the View menu. Scrolling up will make the icons larger, and down will make them smaller.

The “Details” and “Content” options will sort your files into a single vertical column, while “Tiles,” “List,” and all “Icons” options will sort them into multiple columns.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

How to change your Windows password to protect your computer, or reset the password if you’ve forgotten it

How to speed up your Windows 10 computer in 7 different ways

How to find your stored Wi-Fi passwords on a Windows 10 computer, and use them to connect another device

How to properly uninstall programs on Windows 10, to protect your computer and free up space

Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.

Windows 10 makes it easy for the users to configure Windows Firewall by using pre-defined configurations of Windows Firewall. By default, there are three network types on which Windows Firewall configurations are used, public, private and domain.

Windows gives users an option to select a network type when a new network is connected to the computer. Windows will set the Windows Firewall rules according to the network type selected. Lets first know more about each network type.

Network Types

Public Network

A public network is the default network type. If no network type is selected, Windows will configure Windows Firewall using the Public network type rules. In public network, Windows Firewall rules will be the most restrictive. The firewall will block most of the apps from connecting from the Internet and disabling some features like file and printer sharing, network discovery and automatic setup of network devices etc.

You should use this type of network when you have only one computer and do not want to communicate with any other network device.

Private Network

The private network can be a home network or work network. This type of network will enable most networking features of Windows 10 like file sharing, network device setup, network discovery etc.

Use this network type if you trust the network you are connecting to.

Domain Network

The domain network is automatically detected when your computer is a member of Active Directory domain network. Windows should automatically detect this type of network and configure Windows Firewall accordingly. This type of network gives more control to the network administrator and the admin can apply different network security configurations using Active Directory group policies.

In this article, we will be more interested in changing the network type from public to private and vice versa as the domain network is automatically detected by Windows 10 and we don’t need to change anything.

What is the current network type of your computer?

Before going through the ways to change network type in Windows 10, we need to see what is the current network type of the connected network. To check the current network type settings, follow the steps below:

1. Go to Control Panel –> Network and Internet –> View Network status and tasks
2. You will see the network type under each connected network

Ways to change network types in Windows 10

Let’s go through a few methods to change the network type in Windows 10.

1- Using Windows Settings

To change the network type using Windows Control Panel settings, follow the steps below:

1. Go to Control Panel –> Network and Internet –> HomeGroup
2. Click on Change Network Location link.
3. This will open a charms dialog asking you “Do you want to allow your PC to be discoverable by other PCs and devices on this network”.
4. Press the Yes button if you want your network to be set to Home or Work and No button if you want to be in public network.

You can configure each type of these networks in more detail by clicking on the link “Change advanced sharing settings…”.

2- Setting network type using Windows Registry

If you are an advanced user and are comfortable with editing Windows Registry, this method will be easier for you to change the network type especially when you want it to be done on multiple PCs using just a single registry file.

1. Go to Run –> regedit
2. Go to the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE –> SOFTWARE –> Microsoft –> Windows NT –> CurrentVersion –> NetworkList –> Profiles
3. Under the Profiles key, you will find some sub-keys with different GUIDs. This corresponds to the no. of network cards you’re using with your computer.
4. Select each sub-key of the Profiles and look for the ProfileName key in the right hand pane. This will give you the name of the network so that you can easily recognize which network you want to change.
5. After identifying the right sub-key, you can change the Category DWORD value in the right hand pane to change the network type of that particular network.
   Value data can be 0 for Public network, 1 for Private network and 2 for Domain network.

3- Change network type using Local Security Policy

1. Go to Run –> secpol.msc
2. Select Network List Manager Policies. This will list all the networks in the right hand pane.
3. Double click your desired network, go to Network Location tab.
4. Change the Network location type to either Not configured, private or public.
5. If you want to do this for all the connected networks, you can double click All Networks instead of your desired network.
   

4- Setting network type using PowerShell

Open PowerShell with administrative privileges

1. Run the following command:
   Get-NetConnectionProfile
2. See the network name you want to change its type and run the following command:
   Set-NetConnectionProfile -Name “ ITT ” -NetworkCategory Public
   Where ITT is the name of your network and you can change the -NetworkCategory switch value to Public or Private.
   

This will change the network type immediately.