Filename extension: Difference between revisions

Eventually, [[Windows 95]] introduced support for long file names, and removed the 8.3 name/extension split in file names from non-NT Windows, in an extended version of the commonly used [[File Allocation Table|FAT]] [[file system]] called [[VFAT]]. VFAT first appeared in [[Windows NT 3.5]] and [[Windows 95]]. The [[Long filename#Limits|internal implementation]] of long file names in VFAT is largely considered to be a [[kludge]]{{By whom|date=October 2018}}, but it removed the important length restriction and allowed files to have a mix of [[upper case]] and [[lower case]] letters, on machines that would not run [[Windows NT]] well.

[[BeOS]], whose [[Be File System|BFS]] file system supports extended attributes, would tag a file with its media type as an extended attribute. The [[KDE]] and [[GNOME]] [[desktop environment]]senvironments associate a media type with a file by examining both the filename suffix and the contents of the file, in the fashion of the [[file (command)|file]] command, as a [[heuristic]]. They choose the application to launch when a file is opened based on that media type, reducing the dependency on filename extensions. [[macOS]] uses both filename extensions and media types, as well as [[OSType|file type codes]], to select a [[Uniform Type Identifier]] by which to identify the file type internally.

Later Windows versions (starting with [[Windows XP]] [[XP Service Pack 2|Service Pack 2]] and [[Windows Server 2003]]) included customizable lists of filename extensions that should be considered "dangerous" in certain "zones" of operation, such as when [[download]]ed from the [[World Wide Web|web]] or received as an e-mail attachment. Modern [[antivirus software]] systems also help to defend users against such attempted attacks where possible.