Sometimes a situation may arise when, having downloaded a music or video file from the Internet, you find out that it has an archive format with the RAR extension. At the same time, this object is not opened by any archiver, which, of course, is due to the incorrect assignment of the extension to it. To fix the situation, you need to change the RAR file extension to the correct one.
Necessary
Windows XP or Windows 7 computer
Instructions
Step 1
There are several reasons why this might be the case. Perhaps this is a mistake of the webmasters who uploaded this file to the site. Or they specifically download one file format, but with the ability to download it in different extensions. For example, on many office computers, system administrators block the download of music and video from the Internet. And when downloading, for example, a video file that has been assigned a RAR extension, the system “thinks” that it is an ordinary archive.
Step 2
First you need to activate the option to display the extension in the file name. Windows XP does it like this. Open My Computer. Select Tools, then Folder Options. After that, go to the "View" tab and find the line "Hide extension for registered file types". There is a checkbox opposite the line. Take it off.
Step 3
In the Windows 7 operating system, this process is almost the same. Click on the "Start" button and go to "Control Panel". Select the "Folder Options" section. Further steps are similar to those performed in Windows XP. Now you can change the RAR extension.
Step 4
Click on the required file with the right mouse button. In the context menu that appears, select Rename. The file extension is indicated at the end of the file name. Delete the RAR extension and write down the one you want. For video files, this is most often Avi, for music files - MP3.
Step 5
After that, the file will be opened by the program that is set for this file type by default. Alternatively, you can assign the application to open yourself. To do this, click on the file (after changing its extension) with the right mouse button. Opposite the line "Application", click the "Change" button and in the list of programs select the one that will be used to open this file. If there is none in the list, click browse and specify the path to the executable file of the program you need.
