Does anybody 'Hide extensions for known file types'?
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There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
Turn them on: makes no sense to keep them off.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures
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There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
Well, for us, technical persons, we will turn off that "feature", but for the rest of the user base, they don't care about file extensions.
Nihil obstat
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There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
Without file extensions visible I have had real problems supporting non techies - at whom this 'feature' appears to be aimed. When a user opens a folder and sees two files with the same name, in my experience they NEVER know which is the one they want - so end up just double-clicking on one to see what happens. And users generally aren't very good at naming files themselves - so the word document, spreadsheet, powerpoint etc. are all called "budget"
MVVM # - I did it My Way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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I guess they think that having a dot then three letters is a bit cryptic for ordinary people, but you need something to say what it is. It's strange people's unwillingness to change. When Windows 95 came out I was wary of long file names (more than 8 characters) and avoided them for a while, because it was just 'not right'. My brain had adapted to fitting everything into 8 characters and that's what I wanted. Stockholm syndrome of the operating system variety, perhaps.
Regards, Rob Philpott.
Some of the file extensions I've used over the years:
.CS300, .CS400, .CS410, .710PC: extensions for setup files for an application.Substrate: XML data defining a print substrate (e.g. paper).Translator: Preferences for a multilingual resource editor I wrote It's been a looooong time since extensions could only be three characters or less.Software Zen:
delete this; -
There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
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Lloyd Atkinson wrote:
I don't know who in their right mind decided "Let's hide file extensions, that seems a great idea!".
Having been involved in supporting people who are not (to put it politely) PC-literate, for a number of years, I think it's an excellent idea. Extensions are just something else to confuse the lay-person, who really could not care less. They just want to know where their letter, leaflet, or bank statement can be found.
Use the best guess
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Turning that "feature" off is one of the first things I do on any Windows install. I find it incredibly irritating having to rely in an icon in explorer to determine the file type. I don't know who in their right mind decided "Let's hide file extensions, that seems a great idea!".
.-. |o,o| ,| \_\\=/\_ .-""-. ||/\_/\_\\\_\\ /\[\] \_ \_\\ |\_/|(\_)|\\\\ \_|\_o\_LII|\_ \\.\_./// / | ==== | \\ |\\\_/|"\` |\_| ==== |\_| |\_|\_| ||" || || |-|-| ||LI o || |\_|\_| ||'----'|| /\_/ \\\_\\ /\_\_| |\_\_\\this could go quietly into the jokes section.
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Lloyd Atkinson wrote:
I don't know who in their right mind decided "Let's hide file extensions, that seems a great idea!".
Having been involved in supporting people who are not (to put it politely) PC-literate, for a number of years, I think it's an excellent idea. Extensions are just something else to confuse the lay-person, who really could not care less. They just want to know where their letter, leaflet, or bank statement can be found.
Use the best guess
And hiding "well known" extensions is less confusing? MaApplication -> MaApplication.exe MaApplication.exe -> MaApplication.exe.config
Espen Harlinn Principal Architect, Software - Goodtech Projects & Services AS Projects promoting programming in "natural language" are intrinsically doomed to fail. Edsger W.Dijkstra
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There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
Rob Philpott wrote:
So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
I turn it off but my sis turns in back on!
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There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
I guess that feature was kept in place to make sure that people with lesser computer related skills do not accidentally or out of curiosity change the extension of file and make it unusable. I personally keep the extensions and hidden files and folders all visible and set to details view.
"Bastards encourage idiots to use Oracle Forms, Web Forms, Access and a number of other dinky web publishing tolls.", Mycroft Holmes[^]
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I don't see how that causes any confusion - it is just part of the file name. I would think the potential to have several files in the same location with (apparently) the same name would be more confusing...
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There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
For many people, who don't have to do the ridiculously complicated things that we do with the computer itself (they just do ridiculously complicated things with the stuff they store on the computer), the file-type icon is enough, especially if they use large icons. If a file has an "unknown" file type, they probably have no need or desire to open it anyway, but the ones they need or want to use are easy to recognise. Of course, that all breaks down if you do something like "Save as RTF" in Word. For me, it's a right royal pain in the @rse. If I'm working on a locked-down machine that uses the convention, I'll find a way to unlock it up. And don't get me started on SharePoint, where you have to jump through hoops to display extensions.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
I never hide them as invariably a csv icon will look similar to an xlsx,xls etc. icon. If I need to code a file path I need to know the entire name of the file, including the extension. I can't see any need to ever hide file extensions. When it comes to helping users, invariably the extensions will be hidden which takes up extra time when I am trying to find out what type of file it is.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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I couldn't agree more. One of the very first things I do as well!
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
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There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
Well, I always disable that option but I understand why its enabled by default. As others have said, non-techies don't really care about files and they don't want to care. They do care about the "report for the boss", or the "invoice for customer x", or the "budget for 2013". And those were the names they typed when they saved their work, so suddendly the "report for the boss" becoming "report for the boss.docx" or "budget for 2013" becoming "budget for 2013.xlsx" *can* be confusing. Also, your average user never starts an application from anywhere but either the start menu (and that's the reason taking it away in Windows 8 is such a big problem) or a shortcut in the desktop or the taskbar. Or, and this happens a lot, from one of the many actual files they keep on the desktop. So they never *ever* have to tell "excel.exe" from "excel.exe.manifest", and even if they did, "excel" (as it shows when the extensions are hidden) would have an icon they associate with, well, Excel, and "excel.exe" would not. Not confusing at all.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
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I guess they think that having a dot then three letters is a bit cryptic for ordinary people, but you need something to say what it is. It's strange people's unwillingness to change. When Windows 95 came out I was wary of long file names (more than 8 characters) and avoided them for a while, because it was just 'not right'. My brain had adapted to fitting everything into 8 characters and that's what I wanted. Stockholm syndrome of the operating system variety, perhaps.
Regards, Rob Philpott.
Rob Philpott wrote:
dot then three letters
as in web.config, default.html, ...
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough." Alan Kay.
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Turning that "feature" off is one of the first things I do on any Windows install. I find it incredibly irritating having to rely in an icon in explorer to determine the file type. I don't know who in their right mind decided "Let's hide file extensions, that seems a great idea!".
.-. |o,o| ,| \_\\=/\_ .-""-. ||/\_/\_\\\_\\ /\[\] \_ \_\\ |\_/|(\_)|\\\\ \_|\_o\_LII|\_ \\.\_./// / | ==== | \\ |\\\_/|"\` |\_| ==== |\_| |\_|\_| ||" || || |-|-| ||LI o || |\_|\_| ||'----'|| /\_/ \\\_\\ /\_\_| |\_\_\\I think that feature was added so that idiots don't actually rename the file with the extension and then complain about why something is failing. I think with Win7, the rename option is smart enough to highlight just the filename, without the extension, so hiding the extension is no longer as dangerous. Renaming extensions with the extension hidden has always been problematic for users with a bit/lot more common sense.
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There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
We were forced to have them off, some big app was so shoddily coded that it wouldn't work if extensions where on. Plus with Office's stupid similar icons and file descriptions that are identical till about the 30th character... And we suffer regularly because it...mainly because XP has then no f'ing way to find out what the extension is. The properties dialog hides it too, if they'd just added that simple fix, at least some issues would go away. I turn it on everywhere I can.
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There are few things as dull as installing Windows. I'm in the update stage and having downloaded the updates, it's installing them - 141 of them. That's just Windows, once I get Office on there and Visual Studio there'll be all the service packs as it morphs from 'Windows' to 'Microsoft' update. In my set-up routine I always go into file explorer and make all the file extensions show up as I'm simply lost without them. Also hidden files, but this time I'm going to leave system files hidden. So question - does anybody hide file extensions or does everybody turn them back on?
Regards, Rob Philpott.
I typically leave them hidden until such time as I need to do something that requires them to be visible.
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Kyudos wrote:
it is just part of the file name.
I was talking about people who have no real understanding of how filenames are structured, or why. They just understand documents and folders.
Use the best guess
Richard MacCutchan wrote:
I was talking about people who have no real understanding of how filenames are structured, or why. They just understand documents and folders.
I would presume that this would include a lot of people that don't care either. I have seen people who had no interest in computers but didn't have any problem figuring out what extensions were. And they would still need to figure out the icons.