Important Windows Explorer Setting

One of the default settings in Windows Explorer that can not only cause a problem in SolidWorks but can also be a potential security issue is Hidden File Extensions.

Since this is a blog for SolidWorks, I’ll mention the SolidWorks issue first. I had a support call from a customer who was having a problem saving her Sheet Format. She had everything laid out like she needed and went to File>Save Sheet Format but when she tried to use the format it wasn’t available. When she saved the sheet format, the file extension was not added because she had the file extensions hidden. As soon as we turned them back on and she resaved the sheet format, it worked okay.

The more potentially dangerous problem with having them hidden is that you might receive a file that you think is a harmless picture (You only see My dog.jpg) but it is actually a harmful executable file (My dog.jpg.exe).

To change this follow these steps:
In Windows XP:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Go to the Tools menu and select Folder Options
3. Click on the View tab
4. Scroll down until you find “Hide extensions for known file types” and uncheck the box.
5. Click Apply then OK

In Vista or WIN 7:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Click on Organize
3. Select Folder and Search Options
4. Click on the View tab
5. Scroll down until you find “Hide extensions for known file types” and uncheck the box.
6. Click Apply then OK