如何读和打开在窗口的.DAT文件

张贴在2008年3月28日在6:51上午

如此您在接受了电子邮件用某人送您的附件，但是引伸 文件是.DAT. 什么确切地是.DAT文件 并且 对您怎么打开.DAT文件? 那些是我设法回答的二个问题，因为这是问题我在我看了许多次它事业!

要了解的第一件事关于.DAT文件是它表明有任意数据的一个文件。那意味它没有同任何一种特殊节目或应用联系在一起。当您看见一个文件以.XLS引伸时，您知道它提到擅长文件，等等。但与.DAT归档，您必须推测如何打开它你自己，并且它可能不每次是同一个节目。

图象来源：http://www.hannonhill.com

最佳的方式打开.DAT文件将使用创造它的节目。然而，如果您不是肯定的，您能总尝试笔记薄。现在，当您打开它在笔记薄时，您也许能认可某些数据，但休息很可能将是创造它的节目呕吐的破烂物。

当接受电子邮件用附件时，您通常只将看这个文件格式。多数共同的节目今天不引起.DAT文件，并且仅计算机程序设计者在任何使用这些文件规则依据。

如此您的第一步将要求送您电子邮件的人，如果他们知道哪个节目用于创造文件。现在，如果他们告诉您他们实际上送了一张图片或文件和他们不是肯定的为什么它是.DAT文件，它可能是文件扩展名在有过程中被改变了电子邮件寻址对您。

为一些奇怪的原因，一些电子邮件程序在电子邮件附件自动地改变文件扩展名到.DAT。如此，如果人送了您一张图片，并且现在它是.DAT文件，您首先需要保存它到您的计算机然后改变文件扩展名到JPG或GIF或者PNG或者什么您认为它假设是。如果他们寄发了您一个词文件，改变它到.DOC等等。

您在文件能通过首先去改变文件扩展名到我的计算机，点击工具然后 文件夹选择.

下点击看法制表符然后移下来到选择“皮引伸为知道的文件类型”并且UNCHECK它。这样，我们现在能看文件扩展名和改变它到其他。

Now simply right-click on the .DAT file and change the file extension after the dot to the desired file format.

You should also see the icon representing the file change to the appropriate program use to open that file type, i.e. Excel in the above picture.

So what do you do if you’re not sure which program it came from or what the original file extension was supposed to be? You can also try right-clicking on the file and then choosing Open With and try different programs. For example, I changed one of my Excel files to a .DAT extension and then right-clicked on it to open it with Excel and it worked!

Now I just chose Microsoft Excel from the list and Excel was able to read the file since the data was written by Excel, it just had a wrong file extension.

You can also try other programs like Windows Media Player since it will open it if it happens to be a video, MP3, or similar media format. So hopefully you are now able to open your mysterious .DAT file using one of the above mentioned methods! If not, post a comment and I will try to help! Enjoy!

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62 Responses to “How to read and open .DAT files in Windows”

Madhur Kapoor said on : March 28th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

I always thought that DAT files were for Videos . My doubts are cleared.

akishore said on : March 28th, 2008 at 10:29 pm

Hey Madhur,

.DAT files can be video files and are a lot of times, but the format itself is for “arbitrary” data. Emails programs have a tendency to change the file extension to .DAT.

lorraine said on : April 13th, 2008 at 9:01 am

my .dat file is a video file but can’t open with windows media player and realplayer. please advise any other software allows me to watch this video file.

Julie said on : May 2nd, 2008 at 5:48 am

Opening the file is not the problem. I can’t figure out what program it was created in and have tried everything–all the instructions say use notepad–doens’t work!!

akishore said on : May 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 am

Julie, who did you get the file from? If you have any slight idea what the DAT file could have been generated from, then just try to rename the extension and see if it opens. I would try .XLS, .DOC, .AVI, .PNG, .JPG, etc etc. It’s got to be a common extension.

zoheb said on : May 12th, 2008 at 7:48 am

you’re the man!! this post was a great help….i was breaking my head in trying to download corel from the internet coz i thought it was a file made in corel. and after reading your post i just chged the extension to .jpeg and hey presto i get my file……thanks buddy for your efforts !!

Galzaga said on : May 26th, 2008 at 5:02 pm

I have a site with videos i surf often but it doesnt allow you to download the “suppoused” wmv files. Now, I play the videos in IE, then I go to settings and view files and the file is there, and of course is a video file lets say 20meg. The name of the file is usually something like this: video1.wmv#0;000;0;0;1:2;2:2. What I do is to copy that file and paste it in desktop and I get a file wich a different name, usually something like: video1[1].dat.
I tried all different kind of codecs, video inspectors, different video programs and no succes, there was no way to open those files, I hope somebody can help, thanks

m? jose said on : May 28th, 2008 at 9:20 am

me es muy dificil abrir el archivo

James Slattery said on : June 2nd, 2008 at 2:35 pm

Many thanks for your ideas on identifying a .dat file. Without your prompts I would not have been able to open the file.

Philippe said on : June 10th, 2008 at 5:20 am

Bonjour,

Si vous recevez un fichier par email dont l’attachement a ete decoup? en plusieurs fichiers .dat par exemple fichier1/2.dat + fichier2/2.dat, il suffit d’ouvrir les deux fichiers sur Notepad, de reassembler le contenu et de le sauvegarder dans un seul fichier.dat puis de l’ouvrir grace ? WinZip

Philippe

alucard said on : June 18th, 2008 at 8:09 pm

disculpa pero yo tengo un juego con extencion .DAT no se puede abrir mediante las opciones q mencionaste…q puedo hacer??

terry said on : June 25th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

Me ha servido de gran manera, gracias…

Paulo Neto said on : June 26th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

Ol?,

Achei muito interessante essa explica??o sobre .dat
no entanto estou ainda com uma pequena d?vida.

Eu tinha um computador que ao receber arquivos .dat abria
os arquivos sem ser necess?rio descobrir que tipo de arquivo realmente era (ex. .doc, .xls, etc).

N?o sei se ele tinha alguma aplica??o que fazia isto, voc?
pode me dizer se realmente isto existe e como posso obt?-lo

Grato.

GRISELDA said on : July 8th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

mil gracias, siguiendo las indicaciones puede abrir
un archivo data sin complicaciones.

saludos

Mehdi said on : July 21st, 2008 at 12:52 am

Dear friend!

If you have a DAT file, Windows Media player and most other software on Windows can not open it. Please try the “Kmplayer” to open the DAT file. It worked for me.

thanks!

Linda Derwick said on : July 25th, 2008 at 11:44 am

my dat file came from a mac–applefile supposedly as a compatible word file–I used your suggestion and changed file extension to doc but still can’t read it in word. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Tammy Storrs said on : July 31st, 2008 at 7:23 am

I did a search on Google for how to open DAT files, and your answer is the best I have found.

thank you,

cyndi said on : August 2nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm

HELP! I got a dat file and I can’t seem to open it at all. it came through in winmail.dat

Shirley said on : August 2nd, 2008 at 10:23 pm

I am having a problem… using PSPX2..when I save and send an image its being received as DAT file yet I saved and sent it as a JPG file …must be a setting that is incorrect but cannot find it…

thanks for any help

Sandra said on : August 8th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

8-8-2008
Good Afternoon..

First thank you for your detailed
instructions regarding how to Open
up a .Dat file in Windows XP Prof.

Well, I went to My Computer, Tools
Folder Options, View and UNCHECKED
the Hidden files..
Then went back and Rt clicked on
the .Dat file..but still it will
not allow me to do a thing..
It says I can go to the Internet
maybe in a List find something
to assist me to Open this .Dat
file..
Must say, this is a tad confusing
for me, as I am so NOT Technically
inclined per say..
So if you can suggest another way
to Open the .dat file.
I haven’t tried Windows Media Player
because it isn’t Music, but a Knitting
Pattern a friend sent me..??

Thanks again.
Regards..

Ket said on : August 16th, 2008 at 10:46 am

I’ve tried to open the dat files for years and I couldn’t open it. They’re still well keeping on my computer and my next computer too.

They are pictures that very important to me. It’s my wedding photos.

I shot them with the digital camera. The guest who participated the event try to impress us. He download them to my computer and make it viewable by PowerDVD. They just worked like a charm.

We love it at first, but as he left, I don’t know why, we cannot open it as he demonstrated.

The pictures can still be viewed by PowerDVD but at very fast rate, less than a seconds per picture I guess, so we cannot actually view the photos.

Since we cannot print them out, I just keep them safe on my computer.

And now I am divorced, I really want to watch those photos again. I search high and low through google and run into your site.

I would be very very appreciated if you can help me.

Thanks

L White said on : August 16th, 2008 at 11:24 am

I am experiencing the same problem Cyndi is. I also received an e-mail with a winmail.dat attachement. I followed the steps and tried renaming the file so I can open it, but no luck. I just sent an e-mail to the person who sent me the attachement to ask which program was used to create the program. This wesbite was very helpful and Akishore, although I was unable to open my attachment the information you provided was very helpful and informational. You didn’t have to create this site, but you did and it is appreciated.

L White said on : August 16th, 2008 at 11:42 am

I stumbled onto this website http://www.kopf.com.br/winmail/download.php and was able to open the attachment winmail.dat. Hope this helps everyone else.

jefu said on : August 21st, 2008 at 8:33 am

this site was very helpful. although i wasnt able open my winmail.dat file, i did learned something from here.. i tried following the solutions you provided but it didnt work. ill just have to ask my customer to ask the person who sent that file and ask him what kind of software he used to create that file.. thanks a lot..

anm said on : August 22nd, 2008 at 4:34 am

Hi… How do you open .dat files that are archived conversation from Yahoo Messenger? i tried what u said but i didn’t work.. will appreciate ur help.. tq

Silver said on : September 2nd, 2008 at 2:22 am

@ ket: chance the file extension of the file to .psz
so instead of .dat you will have psz and will be able to open with powerdvd if im correct.

@anm: try to open with .txt

i hope this helps for you guys.

Gaiyya said on : September 16th, 2008 at 8:37 am

actually i want to open one of my yahoo messenger archives! and its in this “Video CD Movie” format or whatever and it has the .dat format. and i open it using notepad but i get a lot of gibberish!! :S heeeeellllpppppppp!?

Tom Tonks said on : September 19th, 2008 at 9:49 am

Try IrfanView. It will open many pictures and movies.

Gigi said on : September 21st, 2008 at 3:47 am

Thank you. This is very helpful.

KP said on : October 6th, 2008 at 9:44 am

downloading a setup.exe file from ITunes, saves as a .dat file and not an executable. If I change it to .exe, will i then perform the setup?
Secondly, why would it download as a .dat as opposed to a .exe in the first place?
Many thanks

Sudhir Vardhan said on : October 12th, 2008 at 6:35 am

This information was simply great. It saved me a lot of hassle of finding out what kind of file it was. I was perplexed to see the .dat extension files in my email. the sender told me to open in the fax viewer. I was unable to open the same in Window Vista. Ultimately based upon your guidance stated above i inserted the extension .jpeg and behold!!!!! the file opened. BINGO!!! BINGO !!!

jamil said on : October 19th, 2008 at 8:42 am

I have a dat file and i don’t know by which program it was created.Is there any way to open the file other than checking with different program

Esteban said on : October 22nd, 2008 at 10:58 am

Ecellent post man, I resolved this with that. Was simply amazing and easy *-* Jeje! *-* Thank you again!!

Anthony said on : October 23rd, 2008 at 9:49 pm

I have a .dat file that is part of a program how can I open that file.

Matt said on : October 31st, 2008 at 3:27 am

Ah well done.
Changed the attachment extension to .jpg, and viewed the photos without a problem.
Thanks for the excellent explanation too.
Seems my service provider has an email server that strips off the extensions and replaces them with .dat for email attachments.
Cheers!

drago said on : November 2nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm

hello
I have a .dat file downloaded from a website to unlock my iphone but i just can’t open it whit anything. it’s a program but it doesn’t want to open. can someone help me please. I’m from holland (netherlands)
thanks

chen said on : November 6th, 2008 at 8:05 pm

thanks for the info. i just want to know if there is a relation between DXF Files, SDNF files and DAT files?
can you explain it to me please.

Recker said on : November 11th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

I’ll say it again in English! Your advice was a great help and I’m really thankful, since I do receive files that I canb’t open from time to time, and it was usually with a dat extension. My question was just if I should leave the box “Hide ….” unchecked without any risk or if I should check it again. Thanks anyway, people like you are really godsent!

Chate said on : November 17th, 2008 at 3:18 am

I have a .dat file but it isnt a text format it is from an unknown program.Is there a way i could find out which program it is?

Garry said on : November 17th, 2008 at 11:01 pm

Hi, I received a cd that had information copied to it from MYOB13 and when I place it in my laptop, it comes up as a dat file. My computer is Windows XP, I have read your article but I am still stumped (and frustrated)my partner’s computer whom copied it for me, is Windows 98. Please help!

natalie said on : November 20th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

i restart my laptop everyday which has vista on it an i get a box pop up saying that qysmuim.exe has caused a problem an needs to close it came with 3 dat files also named qysmuim dont know where it came from… its in my user\username\appdata\local\microsoft\qysmuim.exe did a search on the web to see what qysmuim was an found nothing.. needless to say the exe an the dat files wont open an i scaned for virus an there was none.so now what? lol

Wayne said on : November 26th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

Thanks for the help. Just a side hint for everyone;
At bare minimum, if you do open a DAT file in notepad or some other text editor - often you can read in the file header what the file type is and then what you can open it with.

Good luck!!

Joel said on : December 3rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm

I want to open .dat file. Let me know from which application it will get opened…since it is a file which has to be filled and sent to a company

Let me know ASAP

Regards
Joel

Lisa Love said on : December 5th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

Thank you L White for your post in response to Cyndi’s problem because I was experiencing the same issue, and even though this posting itself was very helpful I still needed more help. Your post, which I C&P here: “L White said on : August 16th, 2008 at 11:42 am

I stumbled onto this website http://www.kopf.com.br/winmail/download.php and was able to open the attachment winmail.dat. Hope this helps everyone else.”

with the link was my lifesaver. Thank you so much for sharing. Hope this helps a lot of other people, too.
Happy Holidays!! (^_^)

shravanti said on : December 13th, 2008 at 11:47 am

gr8 post… it was really helpfull

jignesh said on : December 15th, 2008 at 9:25 am

Thanks very much. After changing DAT extension to pdf i can open file with adobe acrobat.

Ronald said on : December 16th, 2008 at 3:56 pm

I have a .dat file and still can’t open it. Tried renaming to .doc -NO PRIZE! Tried opening with notepad, excel, access - NO PRIZE! I tried your directions, nothing works. Any ideas?

BRUCE said on : December 17th, 2008 at 12:52 am

I have dat files created with a multitrac recording studio, the mrs1044cd by ZOOM. I copied the audio files usb02 to a folder/desktop, and although I can play them on the zoom hardware I would like to have copies on my harddrive. any tips would be cool. Bruce

sekhar said on : January 1st, 2009 at 6:17 am

I got wonderful answer to my problem. Actually I have a .dat file and still can?t open it. After reading the artcile from ur website, i opened it.

Thank u very much
Sekhar

Summer said on : January 7th, 2009 at 11:44 pm

I went to burn a video disc through Nero and somehow it has changed it into a dat file. I have tried everything and I am getting really frustrated. It will be 2 years in May, and am still trying to open it. I have my son’s birthday and my niece’s 21st birthday on there. Please help!!!

Jorge said on : January 9th, 2009 at 6:03 pm

After following your step by step instructions and applying the change in MY Computer.

I went to the folder where I stored the .dat file , I right clicked and went to properties , there I replaced the .dat with .jpg and clicked on Change….

It worked like a charm , my .dat file was now .jpg and the picture was viewable , Thank You for the information.

Ben said on : January 15th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

I have a vista, if I clicked properties and saw “opens with:(program here)” what would that mean? Should I download the file or what?

Ritesh said on : January 21st, 2009 at 1:12 am

Thanks Boss…thanks a ton…

Aisha said on : January 21st, 2009 at 6:40 am

Hey this is a great and useful post however i amk still stuck and i wonder if you can help me. you see i downloaded some DAT files from the following site http://www.ffxidats.com/list.php?c=E2. I clicked on the links to get them, they are images but they appear to be in DAT format, however, I cant seem to access them when using a PNG BMP or JPEG extension. Would you be able to help? ill be most grateful Thanks in advance.

ken said on : January 23rd, 2009 at 3:21 am

If you need to open .dat files from Yahoo Messenger try this link:

http://www.ikitek.com/products.....coder.html

It worked on my older YM archives from 2007

Good Luck

Dean said on : February 2nd, 2009 at 1:10 pm

I RECOMMEND TRYING TO OPEN .DAT FILES (THAT YOU KNOW ARE SAFE OF COURSE) IN INTERNET EXPLORER. IE CAN HANDLE MANY FORMATS AND ALOT OF TIMES IT WILL BE OBVIOUS WHAT PROGRAM YOU SHOULD USE TO OPEN THE FILE. BEWARE THAT .DAT FILES FROM UNKNOWN SENDERS CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR COMPUTER AND SHOULD BE HANDLED WITH CAUTION.

SORRY caps.

aytee said on : February 17th, 2009 at 12:29 pm

You are my hero! THANKS

Hany Nadim said on : February 21st, 2009 at 4:54 am

I always send excel files as mail attachments, but they receive it in .DAT extension. i do not know why it changes
to a DAT file. i want the file to arrive in it’s original format Excel. pls help

Dilian said on : February 25th, 2009 at 7:53 am

I have an Icy Tower game MOD and the file format is .DAT, so how can I open it, which program must i use???

el super terminator 2 rebelandose contra las maquinas said on : March 4th, 2009 at 9:33 am

what you can try also is to open it with internet explorer, It worked for me (it was an image)

Rita said on : March 5th, 2009 at 2:53 pm

Dear friend,

I have read your article cause I was searching a method to open my .dat file. Unfortunately this system does not work with me. I have converted this file in numerous extensions but nothing! Could you help me to solve this matter? It’s important cause is a file for working!

Thanks

Rita

Sacha said on : March 6th, 2009 at 10:46 am

i emailed myself outlook contacts, but when i recieve them they appear as attachment of .dat files. i followed your instruction on changing it to approriate application (.vcf) but when it opens all the data on the contact card is missing! PLEASE HELP!!!
not sure what i need to do to make the contact details appear with the card!