If You Cannot View And Edit File Extensions In Windows 11, It Is Because The Option To Show Extensions Is Not Enabled By Default, And You Need To Enable It.
The file extension specifies the type (format) of the file you are dealing with. A file extension helps the operating system identify programs supporting a particular file format. When a user clicks on the file, it will be opened with the specified program. While the file extension affects the program that opens the file, it also determines its icon.
By default, Windows does not display the extension of recognizable files in the file name; Therefore, the file format cannot be recognized, or its extension can be changed. If you haven’t installed a program that can open a specific file format, this file will be unknown in Windows until you install the required program.
If you ever need to change the file extension (for example, a file that can be opened in compressed archive format), you should turn on the option to show the file format in Windows. This article will describe three ways to do this in Windows 11.
View file extension with File Explorer
File Explorer is one of the components of Windows that allows you to access and manage personal files. You can use File Explorer to display file extensions on your computer. To do this, follow the steps below :
- Open File Explorer.
- Click View from the top tabs.
- Place your mouse pointer on Show and then select File name extensions.
- As soon as you click on File name extensions, you will see the extensions of all the files.
Display file extension using the command line
- To view the file extension with Command Prompt, go to the start menu’s search bar and type cmd.
- Once the command prompt is launched, type the following command and press Enter:
reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced /v HideFileExt /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
View file extension in file explorer settings
- Open Control Panel. In the search bar in the upper right corner, type the file explorer option and select it.
- Now select the View tab.
In the Advanced settings section, go to the Files and Folders section and uncheck the Hide extensions for the known file types.
- Finally, click OK to save your settings.
As soon as you do the above steps, all the hidden extensions on your PC will be visible again.
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We hope that the methods mentioned in this article have helped you to display the file extension of Windows 11.