Very old files on my computer that are mislabeled

I’ve got some files on my computer that date from the early 90s, probably from my first computer. I seem to have given some of these files a dot in the middle for some reason (“person.al” or “bookpropo.sal”) and my current computer won’t open them up because it doesn’t recognize what a “.al” or “.sal” file is. I’d hoped I could just rename them (old files without a stupid .suffixname seem to open up okay) but “rename” isn’t one of the options when I right-click on the filename. Is there another way to rename a file?

Are you on Windows? If yes, in Explorer right-click on the file and choose “rename”, then you are able to edit the filename.

Are the file extensions intact? Person.al.txt or bookpropo.sal.jpg

My first thought would be to just tell Windows to open them in notepad. If you’re lucky, they’ll be text, or mostly text, or at least include enough plain text that you can figure out what they actually are.
You don’t even need to change the extension, just right click on it and go to “open with”.

Thanks, all. The option to rename files wasn’t there when I right-clicked before, but this time it was, so I renamed and the files open fine now in Notepad and in Word.

I don’t think I was doing anything different this time. (Is it even possible to right-click in different ways? Rightclicking is rightclicking, no?) So it’s all good now. I got to read some letters i sent to friends 30 years ago, and some notes I wrote to my kids when they were small.

One could use a program like Bulk Rename Utility.

It’s certainly possible to rightclick in different contexts (e.g. Windows Explorer vs. some other thing that shows you a list of filenames), which would give you different options.

Sounds like the problem has been solved, but another option (instead of Renaming the files) would have been to right-click (again, in Windows Explorer) and select “Open With.”

And choose what? Notepad?

I wonder what I was thinking (IF I was thinking) when I gave these files those bogus suffixes. It was cool? Other files had “dot randomletters” after the filename? Or did these filenamesdotsuffixes work at some point on some primitive system?

Right clicking is right clicking, but if you want to change a file name (even right from the icon on the desktop), it’s two single left clicks. Click on it, then click on it again, not a double click.

Yes.

If you’ve really had those files on your computer since the 90’s (so, either DOS, Win 3.1 or Windows 95/98/ME), the file names probably got corrupted at some point. It’s not uncommon for a file to mysteriously lose it’s extension and end up with something like what you have. Especially if the files ever moved back and forth between a system that only allowed 8 character (plus extension) file names and ones that allowed longer ones. So, if you created a file at work/school on a Windows 95 box and called it "bookproposal.txt, and then stuck the disk in your home computer with Win3.1, it might turn it into bookprop.osa.

Here’s how I screwed up an entire directory of files by attempting to manipulate them in DOS without realizing that DOS couldn’t handle the longer file names. To this day, what, 30 years later, when I still get a little twinge of anxiety every time I see a file that ends with ~1.

It’s also possible you deliberately named them that way because you wanted the extra characters. I know I would do that sometimes. You were limited to 8 characters, a dot, and then 3 more characters, and sometimes I thought using the full 11 made more sense than trying to abbreviate.

One of the quirks of Windows Explorer is that you have to click to select the file and then right-click to open the context menu. Sometimes.

But if you ever have to rename a bunch of files again I’d recommend Bulk Rename Utility mentioned above.