File Extension .dat

[DorisMay]

I am trying to open a file ending in .dat but my computer does not recognise it. Is there free software which will allow me to open it as the ones I have found have to be paid for. Thank you

[Buenchico]

*.dat is a generic file format for data to be used by a computer program. It could contain data which makes up an image, a text document, an email, a video, or just a component within a particular program.

For that reason there's no specific program to open it. You can view the data which is in there by simply right-clicking on the file and choosing to open it with Notepad. However it's quite likely that you'll just see a lot of 'gobbledygook'.

Sometimes a file extension gets lost (e.g. when a file is sent by email) and your PC replaces it with *.dat. If that's the case you might need to rename the file, using an appropriate extension. (e.g. if you know it's a jpeg image file, rename it with the file extension .jpg). You can then open the file with whichever program you normally use to view those sort of files.

Chris