CHANGING FILE DESIGNATION TYPE FROM .DAT TO .MPG

[Narrin Notenboom]

I need to change the designation of a file from "Windows
Media Player" to "Movie Clip". I downloaded a file. It
was in the ".dat" format. When it completed the download,
it didn't change automatically to a "Movie Clip" format
like usual. It stayed in the ".dat" format. So I tried to
change the name of the file to ".mpg" and then tried to
open it with Windows Media Player. A window popped up
which said it had no associated program to run it. So, I
chose Windows Media Player. It runs, however, the
designation of the file is now ".mpg.dat". I can't get
rid of the ".dat" designation, and by associating this
file with Windows Media Player, it associated all my
current ".dat" uncompleted downloading files with Windows
Media Player! Help. I just want to make this completed
file a "Movie Clip" designated file that runs with my
chosen Media Player. I didn't want to change all
my ".dat" files to associate with Windows Media Player.
Now I can't get my ".dat" files to return the way they
used to look either, because I can't find a program to
associate them with that works correctly.

Please help.

Narrin

 

[Richard McCall [MSFT]]

In the Explorer window choose Tools, Folder Options and View tab. unselect
hide file extensions for known file types. Now when you look at the file it
is *.mpg.dat. Right click and rename. Remove the .dat and hit enter you
should get a warning about changing the file extension. Simply changing the
file extension alone may not be sufficient for other applications to
recognize the format