There are times when we are not quiet sure which program could be used to open a file. Worst case scenario is when the file doesn’t have an extension. Here are some ways in which you can recognize/open such files.
Try the extension at an online file extension archive.
Use a Universal File viwer to open the file.
If everything else fails open the file with a HEX editor or using Notepad. Look for the first few charecters. These will be the filetype headers in most cases. Here is a small list of filetypes and header charecters for popular file types.
| MIME type | File Extension | Starting characters |
| image/ | PNG | ‰PNG |
| image/gif | GIF | GIF |
| image/jpeg | JPG | ÿØÿà |
| image/bmp | BMP | BM |
| imagge/tiff | TIF | II* |
| MID | MThd | |
| audio/mp3 | MP3 | ÿú |
| application/zip | ZIP | PK |
| application/rar | RAR | Rar! |
| MKV | .Eߣ | |
| DB | ÐÏ | |
| application/pdf |
Some related articles you may like :
- Hide files under other files (merge) using command prompt
- Open and save Office 2007 files in Office XP and 2003
- Batch files to automate tasks in Windows environment – tutorial
- How to get icons from exe and dll files of programs
- How to delete undeletable files
- Correction to the list files and folders from a directory to a file
- Online archives for file types, extensions, application used
- How to find out all open ports, connections and originating IP addresses
4 Comments
Thank you for the information and the descriptive title. It’s allways a mess to search for information on the internet, just because the post title is not descriptive enough.
I had a file with no extension but found the “ÐÏ” string in the header. Just to add some information, you can use this filetype with libre office.
wany to know how to determine unknown file
This post rocks. I have also found a FREE utility to hide files under jpeg image. I used it. It is a poor man’s digital steganography application
Also, a lot of people don’t know about the hiding of extensions They can go to Control Panel -> Folder options -> View -> Deselect “Hide extensions for known file types-OFF”