How to Easily Change File Format in Windows

It happens quite often when you’re downloading stuff online that one of your favorite file gets saved with the file type your Windows cannot open as it fails to find the program which has created it.

How to Easily Change File Format in Windows 1

And to open such a file, either you need to change the file to one of the recognizable formats by one of your programs or allow Windows go online, use the Web services to find the appropriate program. Let’s go with the first option and learn how to easily change file formats.
For example, lets consider the following scenario – When downloading TeachAIDS video which is acutally a .flv file, it accidentally got saved to my PC as .org file instead of flv. Now, to open this TeachAIDS file using one of my video players supporting flv, first I need to change the file type (or file format) from .org to .flv and for easily achieving this task I’ll be using Command Prompt commands.

How to Change File Types Using Command Prompt:

  1. Click the Windows Start button â–º Click Run… to open the Run dialog window.
    Windows Start â–º Run dialog
  2. Type cmd or command in the Run dialog to open command prompt window.
    command-prompt-run-command
  3. The command in use here for changing file extension type is REN which basically renames a file or files. The syntax for REN command is as follows:
  4. rename-command-syntax
  5. So, to change TeachAIDS file from .org to .flv I give the command as below and hit enter: (All commands are case insensitive)
    renaming-file-format-using-REN-command
  6. Here is the snapshot of the file changed to .flv after execution of the rename command.
    ren-file-format-rename-command-executed-success

That’s it!! Successfully changed the file format and ready to watch TeachAIDS video. Are you wondering what is this TeachAIDS??

Well, TeachAIDS is a social venture founded by Standford graduate Dr. Piya Sorcar with the help of a team of world experts in various fields of medicine and health manily to promote HIV/AIDS preventive measures and education around the world. @TeachAIDS Piya and her team work relentlessly to develop medically-accurate, pedagogically-grounded, and culturally-tailored HIV and AIDS prevention animated software to optimze learning and retention.

Go to teachaids.org/software and enjoy watching the most effective HIV/AIDS prevention animation videos provided in various languages for free.

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