How To Rename A File Extension On Mobile, Windows or Mac

What is about to be discussed in today’s topic will be helpful for any computer or mobile phone users who work with files. It is a comprehensive tutorial on renaming a file extension on your phone or computer. Within this topic’s context, I will illustrate how to do this on an Android phone, Windows PC, and Mac.

 

What are file extensions?

A file or file name extension is the letters immediately shown after the last period in a file name. For example, the file extension.txt has an extension of .txt. This extension lets the operating system know what type of file it is and what program to run when you double-click it.

There are no particular rules regarding how an extension should be formatted other than it must begin with a period and have at least one character after it. For the most part, file extensions consist of three characters, typically letters or digits, representing the type of file it is. Some examples of file extensions include .txt, .mp3, .jpg, and .gz, which represent text files, mp3 files, jpeg image files, and files compressed with the gzip program. As you can see, the actual extension name gives clues as to the type of file it is.

Note: When determining a file’s extension, it is important to remember that the extension is simply the last period in a file and the characters that follow it. If there is no period in a file, it does not have an extension.

Chart Showing Examples of File Extensions

 

Filename	Extension	Notes
report_card.txt	.txt	The extension is the period followed by the remaining characters.
Terminal.app	.app	The extension is the period followed by the remaining characters.
Postcard.pdf.exe	.exe	This one is a bit tricky because there are two periods in this file. The important thing to remember is the extension is the last period and the characters that follow it

 

Extension	Description	Comments
jpg, png, gif	Graphics, pictures	Opened by default browser or by a graphics program
bmp	(Bulky) graphics	Opened by Paint or by a graphics program
doc, docx	Word processing file	Opened by or Microsoft Word or alternative office software
xls, xlsx	Spreadsheet	Opened by or Microsoft Excel or alternative spreadsheet software
ppt, pptx	Powerpoint slideshow	Opened by or Microsoft Powerpoint or alternative software
txt	Text file	Opened by Notepad or text editor or Word, etc.
pdf	Portable document file	Opened by default browser or PDF software
htm, html	Web pages, etc.	Viewed in a browser, code edited in text editor or
wav	Audio file	Opened by Windows Media Player or multimedia software
mp3	Audio file	Opened by Windows Media Player or multimedia software
avi	Video clip	Opened by Windows Media Player or multimedia software
wmv	Windows media video	Opened by Windows Media Player or multimedia software
rm, mp4, mpg	Video clip	Opened by multimedia software
mov, qt	Apple Quicktime video	Opened by Quicktime or multimedia software
swf	Adobe Flash video	Opened by a browser or Adobe Flash player
dll	Dynamic link library	Used by software in a variety of functions. Should be left alone.
exe	Executable file	File that actually runs software (also type of ZIP)
zip	Compressed file	Opened by native Windows function or archive software such as 7Zip
msi	Installer program	Used to install Windows programs
reg	Windows Registry file	Used to modify the Windows Registry
bat, cmd	Batch file	Executable script
vbs	Visual basic script	Executable script
js	Javascript file	The executable script opened by a browser
jar	Java Archive File	Executable file opened by browser plug-in or Java player
iso, IMG	Container file for contents of an optical disk	Mounted natively in Windows 8. Otherwise opened by disk creation software or certain archive programs

Read Also: How To Extract / Decompress A Compressed Files

Why is the knowledge of File Extensions Important?

Generally, most file names have two parts; the file’s name, then a period(.) followed by the extension (suffix). The extension is a three- or four-letter abbreviation that signifies the file type. For example, in lemmy.doc the filename is lemmy, and the extension is doc.

Extensions are important because they tell your computer what icon to use for the file and what application can open it. For example, the doc extension tells your computer that the file is a Microsoft Word file. Highlighted below are the reasons why file extensions are important.

• Format

First off, file extensions give us knowledge of the format of a file. A file extension is generally a three- or four-letter acronym or abbreviation. An extension can be anywhere from one to 253 characters, but convention limits its length to three or four. An extension can contain letters or numbers but cannot contain control characters, periods, slashes, bars, question marks, colons, or asterisks.

• Encryption

Secondly, you can falsify the true extension of a file to encrypt and protect it from unauthorized access. For example, if you create a binary file(.bin) you can rename it .doc.exe to shield or protect it from someone who may want to open it instinctively. This is not a foolproof method, but it works. In addition, some file uploaders deliberately rename a file with the wrong extension to bypass tracking and tracing. I often downloaded files that remained unusable until I contacted the file uploader, who now told me the actual file extension.

Your ordeal could be worse if an archived file is renamed as an executable file. e.g., .rar to .exe or .bin.

• File Identification

Thirdly, the file extension allows computer users to identify the nature of a file’s contents quickly. Users can group, sort, or order files in a directory by file extension.

• Security

Furthermore, file extensions provide the user with a means of verifying a file’s trustworthiness. For example, an EXE file attached to an email from an unknown sender may indicate the email is malicious. This “.exe” file extension indicates that the attachment is an executable file rather than a normal attachment. On the other hand, an email with a TXT file, which only contains plain text, is not likely to harm the computer.

• Applications

You need the knowledge of file extension to know which application can open which file. Windows uses file extensions to determine how it opens different types of files. When a user double-clicks on a file to open it, Windows will open it with the application associated with that file’s extension.

Only one application, however, can be registered as the default program for each file extension. To use a program other than the default to open a file, right-click the file and choose “Open With.”

File Extensions and Decoders Software

Most decoders’ software carries the .bin file extension. However, some can have different types of extensions like .stb. As far as a decoder is concerned, we are dealing majorly with the .bin extension.

For example, you can have something like .bin e.g. 1512Combo_Q28G(S2+T2)_MA_V7.06.86_20150526.bin  :

99% of free-to-air decoders use “.bin” as their upgrade software file extension for the records.

What is .bin/Binary File?

A binary file is a file whose content must be interpreted by a program or a hardware processor that understands how it is formatted. The file is not in any externally identifiable format, so any program that wanted to could look for specific data at a certain place within the file.

This means particular hardware understands the .bin software for which it is designed. That is why using a q28g .bin file will give an error on a qsat q11g file. Now that we understand file extensions let us move to how to change a file extension.

Why Should I Change a File Extension?

The first rule of thumb is never to change a file extension for the fun of it. If you change a file extension(even inadvertently), you can badly screw things up.

Secondly, note the file’s original name before playing around with a filename and extension.

Finally, be sure of what you are renaming the file into before you rename it. For example, for a normal upgrade of a typical satellite decoder, you need a compatible .bin file(you cannot rename a file labeled for letter.zip directly into letter.bin. First, you must extract it, and you will automatically get the .bin file you desire.

How to Rename a File Extension in Windows, Mobile, or Mac

Now that we know why we may need to rename a file extension, let us proceed to how to do just that on Windows, Mac, or Android phones.

How to Show File Extensions on Windows PC

Before you can rename a Windows file extension, you must set your computer to display file extensions. This was hidden by default, so you won’t mistakenly delete important system files on your PC and crash your computer. Once again, please, please be careful.

How to view file name extensions in Windows XP

1. Close all programs so that you are on your desktop.
2. Click on the Start button. This is the small round button () in the lower-left corner of your screen with a Windows flag.
3. When the start menu appears, click on the My Computer menu option.
4. Now click on the Tools menu and select Folder Options.
5. When the Folder Options control panel is on, please click on the View tab.
6. You should now see the View tab Folder Options control panel as shown below.

6. Uncheck the checkbox labeled Hide Extensions for known file types. Once done, your Folder Options screen should look similar to the image above.
7. Press the Apply button and then the OK button.

You will now be at your desktop, and Windows XP will be configured to show all hidden files.

How to View File Name Extensions in Windows Vista and Windows 7

1. Close all programs so that you are on your desktop.
2. Click on the Start button. This is the small round button () in the lower-left corner of your screen with a Windows flag.
3. In the search field, type Show hidden
4. When you see the Show Hidden files and folders listing appear, click on it to open the Folder Options Control Panel.
5. When the control panel opens, you will see a screen
6. Remove the check mark from the Hide Extensions checkbox for known file types. Once this is done, your Folder Options screen.
7. Press the Apply button and then the OK button.

How to View file name Extensions in Windows 8 & Windows 10

1. Select the Windows Explorer app from the Windows 8 Start Screen, as shown in the image below.

 

• When Windows Explorer, please single-click on the View tab. Once you click on this tab, you will be shown a screen similar to the one below.

3. In this screen, put a checkmark labeled File name extensions in the checkbox.
4. You can now close Windows Explorer.

You will now be able to see file name extensions in Windows 8.

How to Rename a File Extension on Android Phones

Just like Windows computers, Android OS disabled the renaming of file extensions by default. I mean, you can only use your stock file manager to change the name of a file, not the extension.

For you to rename a file extension on an Android phone, you need a very good  3rd party Android file manager. I will use File Expert as my case study. You can download file expert on google playstore. We have countless file managers, but I use File Expert and ES Explorer mostly because they both work fine without bugs, even on Android phones that are not rooted. Let’s use File Expert as our case in point. Once you have installed File Expert, perform the following:

• Open File Expert File Manager>>select >>Home>>files>>locate the folder where you download and save the file you want to change its extension>>select the file by pressing and holding>>then carefully rename it. The following pictures shed more light on how this can be done

 

 

 

 

 

And that is the easiest way of renaming file extensions on Android. It is also possible to rename files on an iPhone, but you need to first jailbreak your iPhone. Besides, the iPhone is not to be messed with anyhow simply because you want to rename a file.

HOW TO RENAME FILENAME AND EXTENSION ON MAC OS X

I will give an example of how to do this on MacOS Yosemite and OS High Sierra. Apple has added the renaming option to OS Sierra. This was missing in Yosemite. It is extremely easy to rename a file and its extension on a Mac computer, it takes just three steps. These steps are as follows:

Select the file you want to rename by clicking on it to highlight it>> right-click on it>>choose>> Get Info or rename>>then under name and extensions, carefully do the renaming. The pictures below talk more about this:

Rename a file extension on MacOS High Sierra

• Click on the file once to highlight it

Next, right-click on the file to choose either renaming or “get info.” You can use either of the two but you can surely quickly get it done if you select rename.

 

• Finally, rename the file extension with an appropriate one. Wrong renaming will lead to unusable file