Problem to open a file

[Dincer Olcay]

I just want to have solution to the problem that when I
try to open a stored file in my documents I see a notice
on my sceen sayin that I am trying to open a file with,
for example, 'dat' extention. Since this extention is
used with many files it may be not a good idea to play
with it .But if you continue to open it windows must know
the associated program ... etc. Although that file
contains my phonebook. Could you please help me out
Thank you and best regards.
Dincer olcay

 

[Patty]

try using notepad to open the file....

Normally, a file's extension indicates the file's format. The format usually
can tell you which application created the file and/or which application you
might use to read it. Examples: .doc is often Word, .xls is often Excel, and
..pdf is often Adobe Acrobat. But this usage is all done by convention; you
can use .xls to name one of your Word files, but it would just be confusing
and annoying.

The ".DAT" extension is often used to indicate a file containing arbitrary
"data." Some applications that have a format of their own choosing simply
use .DAT. This means that as a user, you must have your own way to figure
out how to open the file. There is no single way to open or view a .DAT file
since there can many different types of content. The best way is to ask
whoever gave you the file what application should be used to open it.

Failing that, there are some applications that can open almost any file. For
example, on most Windows OSs, NotePad can be used to look at any type of
file. If you try to open the file in NotePad, you might see something
recognizable. For example, if you open a file that is really a .PDF file in
NotePad, you might see the string "%PDF" near the beginning of the file.
What you see will probably be mostly junk, but it might give you a hint
about what's there.