Allen writes:

<<I sstill find the little white page with the red bue emblem a mystery. It
seems to stand for alot of things to open.  >>

Allen--

That "Open With" box you get with an unknown file type is a mystery to many
people starting out in computers.  But it's something you need to know if
you want to progress very far in using Windows.

What it means is that your computer has not yet been told what program to
use when opening that type of file--ie the extension at the end (.txt .mpg,
or whatever)  is not known to your computer.  Many are built-in to Windows,
but there are many more strange ones so that you have to tell Windows what
to use.

So----what to do when you get a file with a funny extension, let's say
.fra, that even you don't recognise?

There are really only 3 basic possibilities:
1. It's a system file containing only programming language, so you can't
"open" it anyway.
2. It's some sort of text file.
3. It's some sort of graphic (picture) file.

First try opening it with Notepad in case it's a file containing text (just
scroll down the "open with" box till you come to Notepad and click on
it).  Untick the "Always open with..." box in case your guess is wrong.

If that's no good, then you should have a good all-purpose graphics viewer
such as Irfanview (there are plenty of free ones on the internet).  Scroll
down the box again until you come to Irfan or whatever viewer you use, and
click on that.  Don't try MSPaint--it is too limited (can only see .bmp
type files). If you don't see that program in the drop-down list, you may
have to "browse" to it.  That's another thing you have to learn.

When you find a program that works for your mystery file, then go back and
do the same procedure, but this time tick the "Always use.."
box.  Thereafter your computer will automatically use that program to open
all files with that extension.  You have  now "taught" it to know for the
future.

Sometimes you have just have to try to make an educated guess and try
selecting various other programs until you find something that works--it's
often hit or miss.  Try selecting your Web browser, for example.

Often, if the file is a specialised one only readable by one particular
program, you may be out of luck and there is nothing you can do about it if
you don't have that program on your computer.

If you want to know more about this vital aspect of Windows, see the
tutorial entitled "4 methods of setting File Associations" on my Webpage.

Allen, you have raised an interesting point, one which troubles all
beginners, and I'll be putting the contents of this letter up shortly on my
Webpage as another tutorial.

Don Penlington














Visit my Web pages: http://www.geocities.com/donaldpen/
Computer tutorials,Fractals, poetry, free icons,  and beautiful Queensland
beaches.

                Curious about the people moderating your
                   messages? Visit our staff web site:
                     http://nospin.com/pc/staff.html