DAT File Extension: What is a .dat file & How to open it?

The .dat file extension stores information related to a specific application to which it refers. Most of the time you will find the DAT files by their default extension name, but sometimes they are also associated with  DLL files.

The simple data file can be plain text or a combination of images, videos, or other files. For example, there are some email applications that provide image attachments with the .dat extensions.

If you have downloaded a file from the chrome browser and the file has.CR extension at the end then you might be facing issues in opening the file. In that case you can use the CR download reader to open CRdownload file easily.

Since you don’t know what kind of data are within your DAT file, the only way to examine it by opening it in a text editor like the Notepad application. Then you can look for the options that will help you convert the file into another file format. This action will help your computer choose a program that will open the file for you.

File Extension DAT

Various programs use these types of DAT extensions to perform certain operations in their specific applications. The file extensions do not necessarily provide any information on how to open them so you will have to find out your own way. For example, an MP3 file lets you know that it is an audio file, a .JPEG file extension tells you that it is an image, but a .DAT file does not tell you anything about itself.

Therefore, these types of files are not obvious like the ones mentioned above. Similarly, they don’t determine a specific application from where you can Open DAT File. If you think that you need to open or edit that dat file, you need to determine the types of contents it has within. For example, if it is simply a text-based, video-based, a simple attachment or something else.

Some dat files contain simple texts and you can easily read them with a text editor like Notepad. Most of the time, you can easily locate the dat file in:  

C:Program Files (x86)Common FilesAdobeXMP…FileInfo_pt_BR.dat

Or,

C:Program Files Common Filesmicrosoft sharedinkhwrlatinlm.dat

Since you are wondering with what application you can open that dat file, you can simply start with a text editor. Windows Notepad is an in-built text editor that comes in every version of Windows. However, you can also search for other text editors from the internet that might contain advanced features.

Open DAT File in Windows

To determine what type of data you are dealing with in your .dat extension, let’s follow these simple steps-

  1. First, open your Windows Notepad application
  2. And then select File and then Open
  3. In the Files tab, select All Files and then you have to open the DAT file
  4. If the file contains only text, then be assured that it is the text type. And if you see another file type like “GIF”, “PNG” or “JFIF, then it is an image file. If the file contains “mp4” or “avi,” extension, then it is a video and the “GIF” type file contains GIFs.

Windows support various types of file formats. So you can use suitable applications to open the files or edit them. You can also find all the information related to that .Dat file and you will know what is the role of the file. You can also see which program the file is associated with.

However, all .DAT files are not text files, the type of the file depends on in what purpose they are being used. Some dat files are hard to delete, edit, or moved- and these types of files are locked and the programs are always using them. You can find those types of DAT files in the installation directory of the programs.

Change File Extension

When you get to know the data type of the file, you can rename it with the correct extension so that your system will know how to open the file. In case you are unable to change the file type, you can rename the file to another file to see if your Windows can open it. Here are some useful steps to follow-

1.Go to Control panel on your computer and select Appearance and Personalization

open dat files

2. Next select Folder Options and under the option, click on Show hidden files and folders

open dat files

3. From the Advanced Settings options, click on Hide extensions for known file types

dat file opener

4. Click OK

5. Now you can right-click on the file and select Rename to change the file name from DAT to the correct format

6. Next, click Yes

7. Double-click on the file

Sometimes users receive winmail.dat attachment from the email which is also a DAT file. If the sender uses Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Exchange Client, then you can encounter files like these. These types of files basically use Transport Neutral Encapsulation format, but your email application is unable to decode it.

You can open this type of DAT file by uploading it to an online DAT file opener. You can use  WindmailDat or other similar apps available on the Google Play Store or iPhone Store. Mac OS users can use Klammer on their Mac computer.

Open DAT Files- Video Files

Sometimes some DAT files are video files that you can only open with the programs that have created them such as VCDGear or CyberLink PowerDirector. Here you can find out where is the location of the file on your computer. Most of the times the files are created in program directories and are mostly useless because they are some computer codes that you won’t understand.

What are the Other Types of Dat Files?

DriveImage XML is a program that uses DAT files for a completely different purpose than others. It is a backup program where the entire backup data is stored in a DAT file which is also accompanied by an XML file. You cannot open or edit this file with anything else rather than DriveImage XML. So in this case, you can restore that DAT file to a hard drive using the same connected XML file.

You can convert these types of DAT files into other formats using a free file converter online. And if you are looking for a suggestion or have any questions about Open DAT File, please feel free to ask us in the comment box below.

Similar Posts