How To Know Which Program To Use To Open An Unknown File Extension

Trouble:

This is quite common problem that you see a file with some unknown extension and you don’t even know which program to use to open it.

Recently we wrote about how can you associate an unknown file extension with a particular program, this post is about how to find which program can open a file with unknown file extension.

Let’s see how to find a program associated with a unknown file extension.

Fix:

There are different ways through which you can first find out which program is correct to open a unknown file extension

Method 1: Use a web service to find the appropriate program

1. Double click on the file and Select “Use the Web Service to find the appropriate program”

This method will call a web service by Microsoft which lets you find out which program is suitable to open the file with unknown extension

Trouble Fixers Hack: You can also use this service in another way to check which program to use for a particular file extension

 http://shell.windows.com/fileassoc/0409/xml/redir.asp?EXT=txt

In the above link just change the extension txt with any unknown file extension in the above link to know which program to use to open a file with that unknown extension

Method 2: Use the web-site www.filext.com

1. Open the site www.filext.com in your browser.

2. Enter the extension of unknown file type, here in the image below by red arrow(click to enlarge the image)

3. Press Submit Query button, you will see a new page containing all the information about that file extension.

FilExt will display the complete description about that file extension and the program required to open that unknown file extension.

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Author + Admin: Rohit Khurana
Software Engineer by profession. I am a part time tech blogger and believe in blogging because I enjoy writing on technology. I also write about Cars and Bikes at www.carblogindia.com. You can catch me on twitter @rohit_khurana. Get in touch with me at RohitKhurana.in.