Why are you asking about this? There are different types of .dat files,
antivirus software for example might use .dat files, Internet Explorer
uses .dat files, and so on. These files are not meant to be edited
manually, if a program uses.dat files it will normally automatically use
them or modify them when needed without user intervention.
In the context of this newsgroup the only .dat file that would be of
interest would be the Ntuser.dat files in the user profile folders.
Those are registry files, when a user logs on to Windows the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry key is created from the users ntuser.dat
file. That file is only meant to be edited with the registry editor or
when the user changes his user settings or does changes to his Windows
installation, then the changes are automatically done by Windows or by
third party tools and software installers.
John
I'm asking about this because 1) There is a context menu entry for
..dat files that I can't find in the place in the registry where I
expect to find that kind of thing. 2) The entry in question, "edit",
does something unexpected when chosen and I want to find out why it is
doing that.
In more detail, choosing the "edit" menu item on a .dat file comes up
with an error box: "Cannot find the file 'filename.dat' (or one of its
components). Make sure the path and filename are correct and that all
required libraries are available." then does the right thing which is
to open the file using the program defined in the FileExts key ref'd
above. Where is this "edit" item defined and why is it throwing an
error?
In the context of this newsgroup, I am not asking about any specific
file, I am asking about how and where in the registry data is
maintained that controls the behavior of a set of files of this
particular type.
