How do i change a file's extension? (W98)

[jinx]

Ok, heres the story:

I have recently downloaded a film clip which turned out to lack a proper
file type extension. By chance i gave it an .avi extension simply by
renaming it, making windows recognize it as such and not as what it really
is (like .mpg or similar...). This makes all my media applications unable to
play it since they thinks it's an .avi, when in fact it's something
different.

I guess what i need to do now is to "rename" the file with it's proper
extension to have windows recognize it correctly. How do i do this?

[POBrien]

You can't. You have to have the supported software in order to view the file's contents.

example...

if the file name ends with .xyz you would need a program that supports xyz

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[jinx]

I think you got me wrong.

I do have software that supports practically any moving picture format. The problem is that i have a movie file wrongly identified as a .avi file when the file in fact is in another format.

It seems that my media apps wants to open the file as an .avi even though it's not, making it impossible to watch...

[thisisasignin]

Do you happen to know the correct file extension?
I do not think there is an application that will find the extension for you.
I suggest renaming it different extensions untill you find one that works, or just re-download the file to see if it simply wasnt downloaded all the way.
Here are the extensions I know of: AVI, MPEG/MPG, RM, WMV, ASF
Im sure there are more...

[dmorse03]

While holding down the 'SHIFT' key, right click the mouse. Click 'OPEN WITH' and select the program you want to use to open this particular file. This assumes you know what kind of file it is.

[jinx]

Unfortunately the correct file extension isn't mentioned at the download site.

Renaming the file will only give results like this:
movie.mpg.avi. The .avi tag will still be there.

I'm pretty sure the download was completed all the way.

This is so dumb... I can't believe something simple like this is so hard to solve....

[7ate9]

I think you're halfway there. You tried renaming the file (I'll just refer to it as MOVIE) from MOVIE to MOVIE.mpg. Apparently you dont have all file extensions showing since you renamed it, and its now listed as MOVIE.mgp.avi, so you need to go into Folder Options and make sure that all file extensions are shown for all files. Thus, when you rename MOVIE.avi (or MOVIE.avi.mpg), it will just be MOVIE with whatever extension you choose.




7ate9
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[jinx]

You rock! Now i can change the extensions. Thanks a million!!!

[thisisasignin]

You know, that is something I wish Microsoft would do for their next OS, make the Folder Options show file extensions, show hidden files and show system files by default. Even though Im guessing they set it the other way to keep novice users from damaging their OS, it stands to reason from my experience that a persons OS gets damaged without them being able to see the system files or extensions.
Just my opinion Bill :P