Encription help

I just want to know something about Encription?

I have an AVi Video that is say 10 Seconds long and most people have the Show File Ecstantion turned off on there systems.

Well I have my system were it shows the File Type so on my AVi file I rename .AVi to .txt

And it turn the Icon into a diferant type.

Now when I go to open it it wont open it just trys to but hangs there.

Now if I give this file that the Extantion was renamed by me and they have there Show File Extantion turned off and try to open it.

Am I right it wont and is this a form of Encription?

 

http://www.file-encryption.net/file_encryption.php

 

I know what I did is not a real Encription but if I did change the File Extantion and someone trys to open it and they have there Show File Extantion turned off then they can not open it.

And if they can't see the Extantion then they wont know what it is or may be.

This is all I ment would this be a kind of Basic Encription??

 

Hi Robert,

The three letter file extension is just a naming convention for uniformity. It is simply a means of naming all files of certain content with a uniform three digit code for convenience. So all users of a computer could see which type of file it was and then choose the appropriate program to open it. It has never been mandatory. I could start naming all my avi files with the extension .123 and then tell my computer to open .123 files with my video player. But it is just easier to go with the convention and name my video files .avi so they are easily recognizable by all video programs.

For example it would be difficult to have two programmers working on one computer if they just named their programs with no rules. I might write a payroll program and call it p55 meaning payroll version 55. I know what it means but the other programmer would have no idea where my payroll program was if I was out sick one day. If I name it Payroll_current_Jan 30 2012.exe it is much simpler for my coworker to find. He knows he is looking for a program which will be an .exe file and my name describes the program.

Changing the file extension nowadays does nothing except tell Windows to open the file with the wrong program. It may fool someone with very limited computer skills but that is about it. I'm sure many a teenager renames his porn videos to things like MyBookReport.doc to fool his parents.

***Encryption basically scrambles a file and only the correct password will put it back together correctly. (It doesn't actually scramble it but that is close enough for an explanation).

 

Ok first off I do know even if you do not have your Show File Extantion Turned Off the system still sees it so it know what program to use to open it.

But I Turned my Show File Extantion Turned On and renamed the .avi to .txt then clicked on it to open it.

Windows tryed to use Notepad to open it but then it told me it could not.

Now I know I did not Scrable the Data it just did not know the right program to use to open it.

But even if I give this file to some who does have Show File Extantion Turned On they will see the .txt I named it.

They would just have to go through every changing the file Extantion to all of them till the right one worked and the system would know how to open it.

Is this right?

 

Yes.

All you are doing by changing the extension is giving them a file that will be opened by the wrong program. When given an error, they can then try to determine which program will open it and see it correctly.

You are just confusing them. I don't know why you would want to do that.

Maybe, you could explain what exactly you are trying to accomplish?

 

I am not doing nything I just wanted to know the diferance.
Thanks again

 

The difference is that encryption makes a file unreadable by any program until it is unencrypted using the password. The file simply cannot be used until it is unencrypted.

Changing a file extension just tells the computer to open the file in a program that cannot display it properly but the file is physically unchanged and still accessible if the user chooses the proper program to open it.

I hope this helps.