Make sure that “File name extensions” is checked. Windows 10 and the file extensions option.
+ E will do - or right-click the Start menu and click File Explorer. Where you find it and whether you check or uncheck the box differs depending on your version of Windows. That way, the file is revealed for what it truly is. The best way to prevent this? Don’t “Hide extensions for known file types”.
The program installs malware on your machine. It’s an application, and Windows treats it like a program and runs it. Seeing this, you believe it’s a document and double-click the file to open it. You view that file in Windows Explorer and see only something.doc. You receive an attachment or download a file named. The Type column shows the correct type - Application - but the display looks like it’s a. What shows is “example.doc”, even though the filename is really “example.doc. When a file named is shown using Windows default settings, which hide the file extension, it looks like this: The Type column shows what type of file Windows thinks it is, but the actual extension is hidden from view. You can see that the “.doc” is not displayed. Here’s how example.doc appears with “Hide extensions for known file types” unchecked:Īnd in the default case, with it checked: Let’s look at a file displayed in Windows File Explorer. “Hide extensions for known file types” is a setting in Windows File Explorer that makes it hide the file extension portion of the filename. For resume.doc, it indicates a document-editing program be run.Īt any point in time, Windows “knows about” many file extensions, depending on the applications you have installed on your device. For example, when you double-click picture.jpg, the file extension tells Windows it should open up your image-viewing program. For resume.doc, the extension is “.doc”.įile extensions tell Windows what to do with a file when you double-click it (among other things). 
For example, in picture.jpg, the extension is “.jpg”. Why this is so importantĪn extension is the part of a filename from the last period onward. When extensions are hidden, malware authors can make documents appear as something other than they really are - which is malicious. Make certain Windows File Explorer’s “Hide extensions for known file types” setting is not checked, or that the “View -> File name extensions” setting is checked. Change this setting in Windows File Explorer
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