Unusual file properties

[Miguel]

When browsing generally, as one does, looking at files within folders on my C
drive, I keep coming across files which are listed as 'video CD movie files',
but are not such files. If I right click and highlight 'open with', I am
given the choice of opening them with 'Nero Show Time' or 'Winamp'. I have
both these on my system. Alternatively, I could chose another program that
would play video CD movies, eg Windows Media Player. I have tried playing one
or two of these files, but all I get are random noises.

Here's an example. I had reason to look in 'Documents and settings'. File
path C:\Documents and settings\All users and there in this folder is such a
file with the file name 'ntuser' But they are everywhere. What program
creates them? why are they there? what use are they?

Does anybody know? Does anybody care?

Hasta la vista

 

[Patrick Keenan]

When browsing generally, as one does, looking at files within folders on
my C
drive, I keep coming across files which are listed as 'video CD movie
files',
but are not such files. If I right click and highlight 'open with', I am
given the choice of opening them with 'Nero Show Time' or 'Winamp'. I have
both these on my system. Alternatively, I could chose another program that
would play video CD movies, eg Windows Media Player. I have tried playing
one
or two of these files, but all I get are random noises.

Here's an example. I had reason to look in 'Documents and settings'. File
path C:\Documents and settings\All users and there in this folder is such
a
file with the file name 'ntuser' But they are everywhere. What program
creates them? why are they there? what use are they?

Does anybody know? Does anybody care?

Hasta la vista

" ntuser" is actually "ntuser.dat", and it is a key Windows file. It's
the User portion of the registry hive.

There is one for each user account on the system.

You should not play with this file.

HTH
-pk

 

[sgopus]

I would imagine someone has misidentified them with an improper extension.
the NTuser files are created by the system, do not delete them. they usually
are default folders used by the current logged on user. or settings created
by the current user and saved to the ntuser folder

 

[Miguel]

Hello sgopus,

Thanks for your post.

I am sure you didn't mean to be rude when you said 'someone has identified
them with an improper file extension'; the inference perhaps being that it
might be me. I can assure you that I have not changed the file extension,
nor has anyone else. I am the only user of this PC.

I was hoping to find out if any installed program that I have might have
caused such changes. I do run Iola Software System Mechanic Ver 7.0 This is
supposed to auto clean and keep my PC in good shape, including regularly
backing up the registry etc.

As I mentioned there are many examples of such files on my C drive, and
though I cannot be sure, I don't think all of them are system files.

In the example that I gave, in the folder that I quoted, I do have the file
ntuser.dat which I took to be the appropriate system file.

 

[Mike Warren]

In the example that I gave, in the folder that I quoted, I do have
the file ntuser.dat which I took to be the appropriate system file.

Windows only looks at the extension to determine file type. It does
not actually look at the file itself.

Nero (and quite possibly other programs) associate .dat files as
video files because the video files on a VCD are named with the .dat
extension.

 

[Miguel]

Thank you for your post.

In the folder I was referring to there IS a ntuser.dat file which I took to
be a system file which I do not intend to play with.

In reply to another post from sgopus, which you might read, I mention that I
suspect Iolo System Mechanic as a possible culprit program thatcreates these
files. My second suspect is AVG (Grisoft) Antivirus. There is a rather large
one in their Documents and settings folder.

I still think this is an unusual phenonenon.

 

[philo]

Hello sgopus,

Thanks for your post.

I am sure you didn't mean to be rude when you said 'someone has identified
them with an improper file extension'; the inference perhaps being that it
might be me. I can assure you that I have not changed the file extension,
nor has anyone else. I am the only user of this PC.

I was hoping to find out if any installed program that I have might have
caused such changes. I do run Iola Software System Mechanic Ver 7.0 This is
supposed to auto clean and keep my PC in good shape, including regularly
backing up the registry etc.

As I mentioned there are many examples of such files on my C drive, and
though I cannot be sure, I don't think all of them are system files.

In the example that I gave, in the folder that I quoted, I do have the file
ntuser.dat which I took to be the appropriate system file.

There could be several different apps that access the same file type...
so when you installed your apps...the associations were probably made there.

You can re-associate as desired...but
if your system is working ok as as...I'd just leave it alone.

There are some file associations you would not want to change!

 

[WaIIy]

When browsing generally, as one does, looking at files within folders on my C
drive, I keep coming across files which are listed as 'video CD movie files',
but are not such files. If I right click and highlight 'open with', I am
given the choice of opening them with 'Nero Show Time' or 'Winamp'. I have
both these on my system. Alternatively, I could chose another program that
would play video CD movies, eg Windows Media Player. I have tried playing one
or two of these files, but all I get are random noises.

Miguel -

It's possible that Nero Showtime made itself the default "player" for
..dat files.

Leave the .dat files alone, they can't be played. They aren't playable
files.

You need not be concerned.

 

[WaIIy]

Hello sgopus,

Thanks for your post.

I am sure you didn't mean to be rude when you said 'someone has identified
them with an improper file extension'; the inference perhaps being that it
might be me. I can assure you that I have not changed the file extension,
nor has anyone else. I am the only user of this PC.

Miguel, Miguel - It's not something you did. Nero did it to my computer
and it's a pain in the ass to change it because Nero keeps trying to
associate itself with .dat files. It doesn't matter, it's just a Nero
thing. You will have no reason to ever open a .dat file.

You're correct, they are not all system files.

You can try this...

left-click any .dat file to select it, press and hold down the shift key
and
then right-click the file again. From the context menu select "Open
With....", scroll down to "Notepad.exe", check the box, "Always use the
selected program to open this kind of file:", and click "OK"

 

[Miguel]

Hi Philo,

Thanks for your post.

With the kind interest of people out like your goodself, the answer is
becoming clear. The consensus is the Nero decided to highjack all my .dat
files when it was installed (or updated). I apreciate that these file are
STILL .dat files and are accessed by my XP operating system when necessary,
but in the interest of neatness I have the urge to re-associate them to their
default file property, though everybody says 'if it's not broken, don't mend
it'.

I'll sleep on it and then decide

 

[Miguel]

Hi Wally,

Thank you for your post.

The dilemma now is do I change them in the way you have described, or just
leave them if all is working OK, on the basis that it is a 'niggle' not a
'problem'

 

[witan]

Miguel -

It's possible that Nero Showtime made itself the default "player" for
.dat files.

Leave the .dat files alone, they can't be played. They aren't playable
files.

You need not be concerned.

Nero Playtime does grab .dat files, because some olf the earlier video
files did have the extension ".dat". I have two (dated 2003) of them
on my hard disk, and they can be played using Nero Playtime or Windows
Media Player. I haven't tried Quicktime or Realplayer. I also remember
that in still earlier days, I had used the Xing Player for *.dat
videos.
Nearly 13 years ago, I had also created with WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS,
a mail-merging file, "editor.dat", for addressing the same letter to
editors of several different newspapers. I use only eMail for the
purpose now.

 

[WaIIy]

Hi Miguel,

Trying the shift-right click method won't hurt anything, but it might
not stick. During the install of Nero, I think there is an option to
select which files you want Nero to associate with, but the option
isn't all that obvious.

There is a way in Nero to change the associations, but I never had any
luck trying it. You have to run Nero Product Setup which is in
Nero - Programs.

If you use the Nero Auto-Updater, it's likely it will take over your
associations once again.

Get this and stop any Nero stuff from running on startup...

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml


I have the full Nero 7 install and noticed I have my .dat files
associated with nothing. I wish I could remember how I did that.

Yup, it's a "niggle" and not a functional problem with your computer.

Computers and programs can be frustrating and a challenge.

Feliz Navidad

Wally

 

[... et al.]

Thank you for your post.

In the folder I was referring to there IS a ntuser.dat file which I took to
be a system file which I do not intend to play with.

In reply to another post from sgopus, which you might read, I mention that I
suspect Iolo System Mechanic as a possible culprit program thatcreates these
files. My second suspect is AVG (Grisoft) Antivirus. There is a rather large
one in their Documents and settings folder.

I still think this is an unusual phenonenon.

Control Panel : Folder Options : View : Advanced settings :
(Checkbox) 'Hide extensions for know file types'
Leaving it at its 'checked' dangerous default will cause you to
think that;
'ntUser.dat' is actually named 'ntUser',
'ntUser.dat.log' is actually named 'ntUser.dat',
and that
'PrettyPicture.jpg.exe' is actually named 'PrettyPicture.jpg' and
thus you are led to believe that it is a picture you want to
view, while in fact it might be a malware virus or perhaps just a
harmless prank.

Stop letting WinXP play these mindgames on you and uncheck the
checkbox for 'Hide extensions for know file types'.