Open .DAT File Extension In Windows Quickly

Do you have a .DAT file in your computer and don’t know  how to open it? Firstly .DAT file could be anything like a picture, video, data, email attachment, etc. To open .DAT file you will have to find out what kind of file it is, you can than convert the extension to open it easily. If you don’t know what kind of file it is, you can determine it too. More details after the jump.

.DAT file is never associated with any one program. You can try opening it with notepad and MS Document. If it is a chat session or some text document then it will display the content, otherwise it will show some rough data that only programmers can understand.

Your .DAT file could be anything like a video file or a document, the best way to determine would be to add different extension in place of .DAT extension and see if it works. To do this, follow the method below.

folder options

Go to Tools > Folder Options and click View tab. Now uncheck the Hide Extensions For Known File  Types checkbox and click OK.

hide extensions

Now you will see file extension at the end of every file on your computer. Now change the extension of your .DAT file to .JPG, .PNG, .DOC, .XLS, .AVI, one by one and check if it works. Opening it with IrfanView might solve the problem, as it opens most Picture and Video extensions.

changing extension

If this method doesn’t work, then it means either you have a Email Attachment, or a Video file.

Winmail.Dat Email Attachment

If you have a file named  Winmail.dat, this means you have received this file as an attachment in the email and the sender has used Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express or MS Exchange Server to send you this mail.

To easiest way to open it is to use an online converter called WinMailDat.

VCD Video File

If you find a video file in .DAT extension. You can easily open it using VLC Media Player. But if you want to convert it so that it can be easily played on other video players than you can use VCD Gear to convert .DAT extension to .MPG easily.

That’s all. If it solves your problem, don’t forget to say thanks. If you are still in trouble, feel free to leave a comment.

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15 Comments

  1. Lionel
    Posted April 12, 2009 at 6:28 pm | Permalink

    thanks for the assistant, i was able to open a DAT file with media player classic, as you suggested. thanks for the advice.

  2. KENUS
    Posted April 18, 2009 at 3:17 pm | Permalink

    I have backup my sms.dat but it can’t be restored by my phone software. I tried to change the filename to txt , doc but it never succeed to see my sms again. all coded. HOw can i open the sms.dat file with my window XP ?

  3. kavita
    Posted May 30, 2009 at 12:52 pm | Permalink

    Hello,
    i am having .dat, .blb, .bbk, .ibk, .idx. these all files are related to some database files. but problem is i am not understanding how to open these files and how to see content of these files and in which software (MySQL,SQL server) i have to open these?

    Kavita

  4. the dave
    Posted July 4, 2009 at 3:23 pm | Permalink

    Can I open the file NTUSER.dat from an unbooted drive? thx

  5. Booger99
    Posted September 25, 2009 at 4:48 am | Permalink

    Thanks for the info. I had a file that I couldn’t open. I googled it to find your site. Your information was great. I was finally able to open and read it. Thanks again for your help.

  6. Pankaj
    Posted December 4, 2009 at 5:18 am | Permalink

    hi actually i am also trying to open some temporery files of internet explorer like index.dat history.dat but my all efforts failed, lastly i download some spy s/w with the help of which i got success to open these file if u wish to know the name thne mail me regarding that

  7. Pankaj
    Posted December 4, 2009 at 10:18 am | Permalink

    hi actually i am also trying to open some temporery files of internet explorer like index.dat history.dat but my all efforts failed, lastly i download some spy s/w with the help of which i got success to open these file if u wish to know the name thne mail me regarding that

  8. Pankaj
    Posted December 4, 2009 at 3:18 pm | Permalink

    hi actually i am also trying to open some temporery files of internet explorer like index.dat history.dat but my all efforts failed, lastly i download some spy s/w with the help of which i got success to open these file if u wish to know the name thne mail me regarding that

  9. R.Prakash
    Posted April 10, 2010 at 2:23 am | Permalink

    How to open a .DAT file, which is an application file and I do not know to what format it is to be converted.
    I tried renaming it as .ZIP and .EXE, but it never works.

  10. nandumahato
    Posted May 6, 2010 at 12:17 am | Permalink

    i have some music video which i cant open ……………….. and im big fan of wwe but i cant watch from my labtop i can warch only 1.30minute.plz give me a idea

  11. Posted June 1, 2010 at 2:27 pm | Permalink

    Thanks, now i am able to open the file, after changing its extension from .dat to .doc

  12. Meceo
    Posted June 2, 2010 at 10:59 pm | Permalink

    I am trying to open a customer database file extracted and saved as .DAT still having no luck

  13. teenwolf
    Posted June 21, 2010 at 4:43 am | Permalink

    thanks its working!!

  14. daany
    Posted June 22, 2010 at 2:55 pm | Permalink

    good day!

    the above information helps me a lot about .dat file extentions.
    more power to you and this site.
    god bless

  15. Posted July 14, 2010 at 10:07 pm | Permalink

    thank you math……

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