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In an effort to be “user-friendly,” Windows (and perhaps some other operating systems) hides the most important part of a file name from new computer users: the extension. Okay - we’re assuming that the reasoning behind hiding extensions is a “user-friendly” one because we just can’t come up with any other reason for hiding them. No harm could ever come from seeing an extension, but plenty could be learned from it. Fortunately you have this article to guide you through some of the most common extensions that you’ll run into.

But before you can see file extensions, you need to turn them on. From Windows Explorer, click on the “Tools” menu, and select “File Options.” Click the “View” tab and then uncheck the box next to “Hide file extensions for known file types.” Click “OK” and you’ll notice that the files in Windows Explorer show a dot and group of three letters after their names. That dot and group of three letters is known as an “extension,” and the extension explains what kind of file it is.

A file could be a plain text file, an image, a sound, a video, or program. But without seeing the extension, you wouldn’t know it unless you double-clicked on it. The following list defines some of the most common extensions that you’ll find on your computer.

.au - This extension indicates a sound file. Most sound players will load up and play this kind of file.

.art - This extension indicates an image file that was compressed with AOL (America Online) technology. Both Internet Explorer and the AOL service software can display this kind of file, however if you don’t have AOL installed on your system, Internet Explorer will display it.

.avi - This extension indicates a video file playable by most multimedia viewers including Microsoft’s Media Player.

.bmp - This extension indicates another image file that might have originated from Windows Paint program.

.dll - This extension indicates a Dynamic Link Library which may contain additional programming code for software. Many different programs often share Dynamic Link Libraries and you’ll find a bunch of them in the Windows/System directory (but don’t ever delete them)!

.exe - This extension indicates a program or an application like Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, or Outlook Express. Use extreme caution when downloading .exe files from the Internet since malicious programmers like to hide viruses in these types of files.

.gif - This extension indicates another image file and it stands for “Graphics Interchange Format.” .Gif files are often smaller than .bmp files (described earlier) and they’re commonly found on Internet web pages.

.jpg - This extension indicates yet another image file and it stands for “Joint Photographers Experts Group.” Like the .gif file, it’s commonly found on Internet web pages, however it’s much smaller than both the .gif image and the .bmp image.

.mid - This extension indicates a sound file created with a Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Windows Media Player will open and run these files, however they don’t sound like normal .wav or .mp3 files (described later). .Mid files are designed to product synthetic sounds using a computer’s sound card.

.mp3 - This extension indicates a sound file that authentically reproduces voice and/or music. Windows Media Player will open and run this kind of file.

.scr  - This extension indicates a screen saver file.

.sit - This extension indicates a Macintosh archive StuffIt file. They will not open on a Windows system without a special utility.

.ttf  - This extension indicates a font especially designed for use on a Windows system. It stands for “True Type Font.”

.txt - This extension indicates a plain text file that can be opened with Notepad.

.wav  - This extension indicates a sound file that like the .mp3 file, can be opened with Windows Media Player or Windows Sound Recorder. .Wav files are much larger than .mp3 files.

.zip - This extension indicates a Windows archive WinZip file. They will not open on a Macintosh system without a special utility.

Every new computer that’s brought home from the store has an operating system installed onto it. But what most new computer users don’t realize, is that without an operating system, that computer would be a simple shell of possibilities. A powered computer lacking an operating system wouldn’t display anything more than a bunch of confusing text messages that describe the computer’s boot process. At the very end of this process, the computer looks for an operating system and if not found, it will prompt the user to tell it where it is.

Earlier computers didn’t have an operating system and if you have experience with the computers of the early eighties, you’ll remember that most to them didn’t even have a hard drive! These old computers booted an MS-DOS type operating system from drivers stored onto a floppy disk, and in order to use a program, users would remove the boot floppy and then insert a new floppy that contained the program. The floppy not only stored the program (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.), it also stored the drivers that the program needed to communicate with the computer’s hardware. As you can imagine, the cumbersome process of switching from floppy to floppy prompted the birth of the operating system.

An operating system is a software program that controls how the computer’s hardware (and installed software) works. It manages the activity of every component and then displays that activity as a user-friendly interface (GUI). It keeps track of where things exist on a computer’s hard drive as well. But perhaps most importantly for the end-user, the operating system is responsible for translating commands issued with a keyboard and mouse into binary code (010110101 stuff) that can communicate with a set of speakers, a printer, a scanner, and more.

With an operating system installed onto a computer’s hard drive, users no longer need to boot a computer with a floppy disk, nor do they need to run programs from a floppy disk. All the drivers of a program are stored onto the computer and used whenever a program is started.

Apple’s Macintosh computer was among the first of a couple systems to establish a user-to-hardware relationship through a user-friendly interface. Today, we have quite a few operating systems. Some of the more popular ones are Windows Vista, Mac OS X, ZETA, IBM, Unix, and Linux. But even still, operating systems have extended onto to non-computer devices such as game consoles, portable music players, and PDAs. Regardless of the device, the operating system installed onto it serves the same purpose across the board: to enable user-to-hardware communication.

When you think about upgrading your computer to a new operating system, be careful to make sure that you have the necessary hardware components. We tried to upgrade one of our Windows 98 machines to Windows XP, but we were cautioned that the former may not be hardware compatible with XP technology. Apparently, the Windows XP operating system requires components that weren’t developed at the time Windows 98 was distributed and if we were to install Windows XP on this machine anyway, the new operating system would look for hardware that the computer didn’t have. And that would be an instant recipe for failure.

Also be careful about installing operating systems that are incompatible with existing hardware. The hardware of Macintosh computers is extremely different from the hardware of Windows computers and under no circumstances will a Windows operating system work on a Macintosh machine!