

In my case, the text file was from Excel, so I added that extension back. Obviously, the file has to have originally been from that program that you are changing the file extension too. XXX or whatever the type is for the file you want it to be, i.e.TXT for text files. Now right-click on your file and choose Rename. If the file has no extension at all, this step may not be necessary, but I am including it because if you’re trying to CHANGE the file type from one type to another, then you need to do this.


Go to the View tab and scroll down till you see the option “ Hide extensions for known file types“. In Windows 8, you just click on the View tab in Explorer and check the File name extensions box. In Windows 7, click on the Organize button and then click Folder and search options. You can do this by going to My Computer and then going to Tools and Folder Options. If you want to change the file extension for the file, you first need to be able to see file extensions in Windows. Obviously, since there is no file extension for the file, Windows is not able to determine which program should open it.
