What to Learn
- To change a file extension in File Explorer, go to View > Show > File name endings.
- After that, right-click the file, choose Properties, and change the name. Finally, press OK > Yes to finish.
- You can change the extension of several files at once with the ren command prompt tool.
In this article, we will discuss how to change a file extension in Windows 11. It also talks about the difference between a file’s file type and its file extension.
Contents
- 1 Change a File Extension in Windows 11: The Simple Way
- 2 Change a File Extension From the Command Prompt
- 3 How to Change File Extensions in Bulk
- 4 Change the File Type by Converting the File
- 5 How does changing the file extension work?
- 6 Reasons to Change the File Extension
- 7 This file has a different ‘type’
Change a File Extension in Windows 11: The Simple Way
If you want to change a file name in Windows 11, you can do it from the same place where you changed the file name. However, Windows doesn’t show file names by default. We need to make a small change to that first; then, we can edit the file extension.
1. Open the File Explorer program. WIN+E is a quick shortcut.
2. Click View, then Show > File name extensions at the top of the window.
3. Once Windows 11 displays file extensions, right-click the file you want to edit and select Properties.
Tip: To save a file quickly, left-click it once (do not open it), press F2, change the file name, press Enter, and then choose Save. |
4. To change the file extension, go to the General tab and change the names of the characters after the break.
5. Press OK and then Yes to save.
Note: The file type stays the same even if the file name changes. Read more about that at the end of this page. |
Change a File Extension From the Command Prompt
If you know how to use Command Prompt, you might find it easier to change a file ending with the rename/ren command. You don’t have to change any settings in File Explorer to use this method. For example, you can hide file names, and it will still work.
1. Open the Command Prompt.
2. Navigate to the directory where your file is located.
In this case, type this into Command Prompt if it opens to C:\Users\jonfi but the file is on your desktop:
cd C:\Users\jonfi\Desktop
3. You must type ren, followed by the original file name and then the new name.
The following example shows how to change DOCX to TXT:
ren file.docx file.txt
4. Press Enter to change the file extension immediately.
How to Change File Extensions in Bulk
If the files are in the same area, Command Prompt also makes it very easy to change the file extensions of multiple files at once. Asterisks are the key because they let you skip calling out each file by name.
1. Make sure all the files you want to edit are in their folder.
2. Select Open in Terminal from the right-click menu next to the files.
3. Confirm that the folder appears in the Command Prompt. My example shows C:\files>.a
To open the Command Prompt, press Ctrl+Shift+2. If PowerShell opens instead, do the same thing.
Read More: How To Connect Your Macbook to a TV in 2 Simple Ways
Important: Do not skip this step. There is no easy way to undo the command you are about to run if you are in the wrong place. |
4. Type the following, but change the *.jpg to the file extension you want for your files:
ren *.* *.jpg
You can change the command a little if you only need to rename a group of files with similar names. Type the following if you want all GIF files to have the JPG file name: Nothing else will change.
ren *.gif *.jpg
5. Press Enter. It will automatically change all file extensions.
Change the File Type by Converting the File
A tool that changes files can also change the file name. Most of the time, you’d do this to change the file format (also called “file type”), like when you need the file to work with a certain device or piece of software.
This shows how to use the Zamzar file conversion to change an audio file from an MP3 extension to a WAV extension.
1. Select Choose Files from Zamzar.
2. Click Open after selecting the MP3 file you wish to convert to WAV.
3. Select Convert To, and then pick WAV from the list.
4. To convert the file, select Convert Now.
5. Choose Download to save the file to your device.
Some software has tools built in that can change the format of files. This happens a lot with apps that can open different kinds of files. For instance, Adobe Photoshop can open a PNG file and change it to more than a dozen other picture formats. That change the file extension to something like JPG, GIF, TIFF, and so on.
How does changing the file extension work?
For example, Windows uses the file name to figure out how to open a file. Say you double-click on a TXT file to open it. Notepad will probably open it. Notepad is set up to open TXT files, so this happens.
Because my PC is set up to use Word for that file type, if I changed the TXT file name to DOCX, Word would open it instead.
Reasons to Change the File Extension
One reason to change a file name is if the wrong one was added for some reason. When you download a file from a website, this can happen. If the web service saved your file as something other than a PDF, for example, you can change the file extension to PDF to make it work with your PDF reader.
Let’s look at a different example: a BAT file. Building it as a TXT file makes more sense. That way, when you need to make changes, you can double-click it to open it in a text editor. But when you’re done, you need to change the file name to BAT for it to work.
If you want to use the file with a different software or device, you might want to change the file extension. For instance, if your eReader can read PDF files but your book is an FB2 file, changing the file name might be a good idea. You’d have to change the file type, though.
This file has a different ‘type’
It doesn’t change the type of the file when you change the name. If the icon changes and when you double-click it, a new program opens, it might look like it does. However, the file extension is only used to tell Windows what app to run when you open the file.
The file type tells you what kind of format the file is in. Something like an SVG file is a picture format, but it’s not at all like a JPG file, and neither is it like an ISO file. Those are three different kinds of files.
The DAT file name also shows this. There are different types of DAT files, such as video files, text files, and backup files. If you click on that page, you can see them all. There are three different types of files with the same name.
Picture what would happen if you changed the end of an MP3 file to a DOCX file. This will help you understand why the changes are important. MP3 is a format for music files, and DOCX is a format for text files. If you change the file extension, the MP3 lyrics won’t suddenly show up in a document format that you can read in Microsoft Word.
To change the file type, you should instead use a file adapter. The best way to convert an MKV video to an MP4 file is to use a file conversion tool. This is because your favorite video player may only work with MP4 files. It’s the same for other kinds of files.