What is a System File Extension and what is it for? Types of Extensions

Many people often wonder what the extensions carried by the files, and there is no file that does not have a. At first glance it seems that the extensions do not meet a specific objective. In this article we are going to clarify for you what the extensions that the files carry are for, what types of extensions there are and what extensions are. In the end you will realize how important these are.

What is a file extension and what is it for?

These are the title that leads to the end of any file, if it is remove the extension to a file this would be blank. And when you wanted to open it, it would not open, but the fact that it remains blank does not mean that the file was damaged. If you put the original extension back at the end it will be the same as before.

The extensions that the files have at the end of their name are to help programs or applications to identify what kind of file it is. Which also helps the performance of the computer since the programs would not have to be reading frequently, files that they are not able to open. Only those that are actually compatible with them will open.

What are the different types of extensions that exist?

The amount is really staggering since there are files of different types of different formats. However, below, we will show you some of the most popular extensions and knowing about them can help you a lot when changing the extension to a file.

Video file extensions

The video files can come in different formats so their extension will always change. The most popular video extensions are: MP4, MPG, AVI, 3GP y MKV. If you rename an “MP4” file to “MP3” it will not be converted to audio, but there is a way to change a video to audio only without using any program.

Audio file extensions

When we talk about audio we can find them with several distinctions which are: MP3, MP2 and WMA. Although the audio sounds the same each extension talk more about audio quality. For example, “MP2” and “WMA” audio files are those that do not have a good quality of Kbps per second.

Instead. the final “MP3” are almost always good quality audios, and can be up to 320 Kbps. However, even if you change the extension to a file “MP2” to “MP3” this will not improve its quality, you can convert rem audio extensions to mp3 for example or all types of extensions, to listen in general in any device.

If you want to change the format of an audio, there is a program worth knowing, which is Audacity and you can download it for free.

Extensions for text files

All text files have a different extension and each one is for a specific program to open. Some of these extensions for text files are: TXT, DOCX, XPS y ODT. However, when the extension is changed to this class of files, it is likely that you will not be able to open them.

An example of this are DOCX files, if you change the extension to TXT to this class of files, you will only see a series of strange characters. This happens because the DOCX exempt text has rich format but the TXT is just plain plain text.

Extensions for compressed files

Each compressed file has a different extension because the type of tablet is different, some examples of this kind of files are: RAR, RAR4 and ZIP. Although all files with this extension are compressed if you change the exemption from a RAR file to ZIP, Windows will say that the file is corrupted. It would be good if you learned to compress files, since doing this you can save a lot of space on your pc.

What must be taken into account when changing the extension of a file?

You should always be clear that not every time you change the extension of a file, it will open it. But to some extent this is an advantage, since when someone tries to open a private file and you have changed the extension it will not open and it will automatically think that it is damaged.