How to Show File Extensions in Windows 10

File extensions are used to denote what format a file is. For example, when you open an image up on your computer, the file extension (e.g. .png) is what tells your computer what sort of file it is, and how to open it. Without the file extension, your computer would have no clue what to do when you try to open a file!

In Windows 10, file extensions are hidden by default. This makes sense for the average computer user, as usually software will handle the allocation and reading of file extensions automatically. Rarely will there ever be a case in that a non-technical user needs to actually see or modify a file extension. Sometimes though, it makes more sense for file extensions to be visible so that you can view and change them. Thankfully, it's relatively easy to enable this with Windows.

Simply open up File Explorer (you can do this by typing File Explorer into the start menu), go to the View tab, and then check File name extensions:

And that's it. Seriously. Windows have definitely upped their game from previous versions, where enabling file extensions was a multi-step task.