Why We Should Stop Hiding File-Name Extensions

An anonymous reader writes 14 years after the Anna Kournikova virus took advantage of users' ignorance about file-name extensions in order to wreak worldwide havoc, virus writers and hackers are still taking advantage of the tendency of popular consumer operating systems to hide file-name extensions: Windows users still need to activate extension visibility manually – even though email-transmitted viruses depend most on less savvy users who will never do this. Additionally applications on even the latest versions of Apple's OSX operating system still require the user to 'opt in' to including a file-name extension during an initial save. In looking at some of the eccentricities of the modern user experience, this article argues that it might be time to admit that users need to understand, embrace and responsibly use the only plain-text, obvious indicator of what a file actually is.

Comments

Good operating systems Dont.

[Anonymous Coward]

The crap ones like Windows and OSX, they hide it because they assume the user is a drooling moron.

And most of the time they are right.

Re:Good operating systems Dont.

[Gerald]

I can't get OS X to hide extensions on my machine. Is there a special flag you have to pass to ls?

Re:Good operating systems Dont.

[swimboy]

Yes, it's | sed s/\.[^\.]*$//

Re:Good operating systems Dont.

[ShanghaiBill]

The crap ones like Windows and OSX, they hide it

I am using OSX right now. File extensions are not hidden. There are some dialogs that optionally hide them, usually when only one extension is possible, such as .pdf in Adobe Reader, but in general, they are not hidden. But even where extensions are hidden, it is not at the same level of stupidity as hiding them on Windows. On Windows, the extension actually changes how the operating system interacts with the file, such as whether it is executable. So Microsoft uses the extension to convey very important information, and then hides that information from users.

Re:Good operating systems Dont.

[gnasher719]

Except that MacOS X doesn't hide extensions when an attacker uses the double extension trick. So if you downloaded a file prettyimage.png.exe, even with "hide extensions turned on", MacOS X will display both extensions, while Windows (as far as I know) displays "prettyimage.png".

Yes, I agree

[GargamelSpaceman]

The first thing I do on windows is change the settings to show tilename extensions. Much of the confusion I see in others can be directly traced to the fact that they don't know what their files are.

Stop being afraid to make someone learn something useful to use a computer.

That being said, don't make people learn useless things. Design a powerful set of useful things to learn each of which is valuable and worth learning and remembering and then reward people for learning them by maintaining their usefulness

Making things overly simple robs users of the power to make things simple for themselves, and ends upt complicating their interaction with the computer.

Re:Yes, I agree

[Anonymous Coward]

"The first thing I do on windows is change the settings to show filename extension"

Hear hear! Hide the extensions is one of the stupidest things Microsoft has ever done and it is a huge disservice to the end user.

The condescending My Docs, My Music, et al should also go.

Re:Yes, I agree

[gstoddart]

I just went through setting up a new Windows 8.1 machine.

And the sheer quantity of places where Microsoft has more or less gone out of their way to hide basic stuff about your computer, and make it as difficult to find as possible -- well, that is kind of mind boggling (and very frustrating).

And when they do make it available to you, they couch it in a "well, everything hereafter is your fault".

Essentially, in my opinion, Microsoft has tried to dumb down the system so far that when you try to do anything it is almost useless, and if you need to see more information it just throws up its hands and says "fuck it, not my problem".

So, maybe instead of trying to write a crappy, useless system for the users who will be scared to know they're looking at a text file or an exe ... Microsoft should try to write something which isn't crap, isn't still predicated on using that crap autorun to ensure every possible source of malware is ran without being prompted, and from the get go tells users "this is a computer, we're not hiding this from you".

It boggles my mind even at work on a Windows server, when my account is an admin and I'm doing admin tasks how Microsoft goes out of their way to hide the actual functionality. And when they don't their "helpful" error messages are garbage ... like "something bad happened, contact your administrator". Tell you what, I'm the fucking administrator, why don't you tell me an actual error message instead of assuming I'm a child?

It seems like the more Microsoft tries to dumb things down for their users, the worse they actually make their software. Because it actively tries to be sure you can't see what you know, and simply can't (or won't) tell you what happened when it should.

Microsoft is way too focused on pointless eye candy (like the Metro interface on my desktop I had to remove), and dumbing down the user experience ... and seems to utterly fail to make it possible for someone who actually has some idea of what they're doing to find what they need.

The more "helpful" they try to be, the less helpful and usable they actually are.

Re:File extensions?

[Qzukk]

The filetype is now contained in the icon

The icon of an executable is set by the executable. Enjoy your porn.jpg.exe with a thumbnail icon.

Re:Missing the problem by a mile

[Chris Mattern]

Looking at the name extension will tell you absolutely nothing.

Looking at the name extension will tell you what the system will attempt to do with it by default. This can be very important to know.