File extensions – definition and basic information


File extensions are the integral parts of the files that are on each computer. Often, when working on a computer, we encounter a wide range of files, such as docx, ppt, part, mp3 or rmvb. We realize that they are there – but we often do not know what they are for on our computer.

File extension, also known as the filename extension is a suffix added to the name of a computer file, usually consisting of a number of characters placed after the last dot in the filename, which gives us information about its coding. In other words a file extension is a file format. It allows the operating system (e.g. Windows) to recognize what program it should try to open the file.

In the table below you will find a random selection of popular file extensions.


File extension The full name of the file Category

ACCDB file extension

Access 2007 Database File

Database Files

CRDOWNLOAD file extension

Chrome Partially Downloaded File

Misc Files

DLL file extension

Dynamic Link Library

System Files

EXE file extension

Windows Executable File

Executable Files

GADGET file extension

Windows Gadget

Executable Files

GPX file extension

GPS Exchange File

GIS Files

PAGES file extension

Pages Document

Text Files

PIF file extension

Program Information File

Executable Files

SVG file extension

Scalable Vector Graphics File

Vector Image Files

SWF file extension

Shockwave Flash Movie

Video Files

TEX file extension

LaTeX Source Document

Text Files

TXT file extension

Plain Text File

Text Files

WPS file extension

Microsoft Works Word Processor Document

Text Files

XHTML file extension

Extensible Hypertext Markup Language File

Web Files

3G2 file extension

3GPP2 Multimedia File

Video Files