How to Identify File Types
Let's set up a common scenario here. One day you wake up roll over to your pc to check your email, and you notice some strange file on your desktop. You don't remember downloading that, maybe your little brother or roommate has been using your computer, maybe it's spyware, and maybe you downloaded it and just forgot. Who knows how it got there. What do you do?
Well we would start off with "Do Not Install or Run This App".
2 Reasons Not To Install
- You don't know what the app is.
- You don't know what the app does.
It could be spyware, malware, virus, or some trojan that would auto recruit your computer into a bot army. (see botnet detection and removal page)
The first thing we want to do is to find out what the extension of the file is.
What operating system are you running?
Now if you've followed the directions from the links above you should see a .exe or .msi or .jpg or something to that effect on the end of the file.
Now just google "whats a .exe file" or "whats a .dat file" don't use the " that was just to emphasize the search. Do a little research and see what the file is. If you want to go a little further google the entire file name ie: "somefile.exe" again don't use the parenthesis.
Ultimately if you don't know where it came from, you probably don't need it, and you can probably just delete it. If you need it later on down the road you can probably just download it again.
That's it for now. Stay safe, and free! Spam-IP.com
