File Extensions

Friday, January 23, 2009

ashx

This is an ASP.Net file. This file type is known as a web handler. They work a lot like ASPX files.

tar

Tar files were originally used for tape archiving. They combine multiple files into one file, much like zip, rar, and z files do, but the files within them are generally not compressed. Tar files are frequently put inside of a compressed file format after they have been used to group files together.

You may see a taz file or a tar.z file, indicating that it is a tar file that has been compressed into the z file format.

z

This is a compression format usually only used on the Unix operating system.

Z files are similar to zip files in that they are compressed, contain other files, and need a program to get the files contained in the rar file out and back in their original format.

The files contained in a Z file are generally only useful on computers running the Unix operating system or some variation like Linux. Sometimes z files contain text files that can be read on other operating systems.

rar

This is a WinRar file. Rar files are similar to zip files in that they are compressed, contain other files, and need a program to get the files contained in the rar file out and back in their original format.

doc

This is the Microsoft Word files extension. The format that the file is in varies from version to version of Word. A doc file created in Word 2003 can not necessarily be opened in Word 97 unless you told Word 2003 to save it in the Word 97 format. Word 2003, on the other hand, should be able to open doc files created in Word 97 or any version of Word in between.

docx

This is a Microsoft Word document introduced with Word 2007.