file extensionfile managementwindows
I sometimes get files from my clients that have the wrong file extension. For example, the name is image.jpg but the file is actually a TIFF image. In many cases I can clarify it by opening the file in a text editor, looking at the first few bytes, then deducing which file type it is.
This works for me with JPEG, TIFF, GIF and PDF files. However there are many more file types out there.
Is it possible to automate identification of the correct file type by analyzing the containing data?
Two things are most likely on your system for this to happen:
The option Hide extensions for known file types is checked.
You haven't registered the PHP filetype to your system and thus is an unrecognised file format.
These combined will show .php file extensions while other documents are hidden.
You can change this when you open a folder and go to: Tools > Options > View
There you'll see the option to uncheck Hide extensions for known file types. Do so and save.
If you want to hide the PHP file extensions, leave the extensions option hidden and just register the filetype.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 throw up the following window upon opening a file with no extension when you double click a file:
There is no checking done within the file (I tried a renamed PDF) and on a system that fully expects files to have an extension for it to work properly I would doubt mime-types to work anywhere outside of a web-browser.
Best Answer
You can use the TrID tool which has a growing library of file type definitions for identifying files with.
Wildcards are supported, so in your example you could just put all the images to be examined in a folder, e.g. C:\verifyimages - then you can use the command:
This will examine all files in the
verifyimagesfolder.There is also a GUI version available, TrIDNet:
There is documentation available on how you can you can easily integrate TrID or TrIDNet into Windows Explorer and Total Commander:
Windows Explorer
Total Commander