Running program files on XP with non-executable extension?

[Roger Wilco]

Interesting...I tried this and a couple other experiments and found some
interesting results:

1) Double-clicking on the file on the desktop (instead of opening it inside
of Word) does cause the pop-up box asking what program to use to open the
file.

That is a GOOD thing. All unregistered extensions, including no
extension, should prompt a dialog to ask the user.

2) Tried to open a shortcut on the desktop (from inside Word) to WinZip and
what appeared looks like a 208 page document of code (not very readable,
just a lot of gobbledygook like "fÄj$høFLV<uVjèõ").

A shortcut to a text document may show the text in notpad when called
from notepad, but if you use DOS (and the EDIT program) you will see the
real shortcut file's "gobbledygook" and its target text file mentioned
within. Notepad would probably load the target.

3) Tried to open an actual program executable (an EXE file) and once again
saw a bunch of code.

As you would expect, I expect. )

Apparently Word tries to open each and every file regardless of the type
(tested this with Word 2000 on Win2000 system).

Many programs will, but some will warn that "this is not a valid picture
file" or some such thing if opening an exe in a graphics viewer. Most
editing programs will do the best they can to render the gobbledygook.