Windows Tools, Help & Guides

In this guest post, James Ricketts explores the frequently asked questions pertaining to 3 common file extensions used on a Windows PC.

• Q#1 – I’ve received an .exe file type as an email attachment – how do I open it?
• Q#2 – How do I delete all the .tmp file types from my computer without risking the removal of one or more essential .tmp files?
• Q#3 – What causes file type errors? I’m receiving one when I try to open a .psf file type with Adobe Photoshop – what should I do?

Q#1 – I’ve received an .exe file type as an email attachment – how do I open it?

Answer – Let’s first understand what .ex_ files are. An .ex_ file is a compressed exe file. Various programs’ installation libraries use exe files in compressed form, that is, as .ex_ files. Now, just like .exe files the .ex_ files are self-executing, in other words to execute these files you just need to double-click on them. Keep in mind that as a user you can’t open .ex_ files or use a program to view the contents of .ex_ files (just like .exe files).

However, before you go ahead and double-click the .ex_ file attachment, you should scan it using the protective tool installed on your computer. Writers of malware programs are known to spread infection by disguising their malicious programs as genuine .ex_ files. So, beware of any .ex_ file attachment that you receive from an unsolicited source.

Q#2 – How do I delete all the .tmp file types from my computer without risking the removal of one or more essential .tmp files?

Answer – Actually, you can’t. .tmp files are created by various programs to hold temporary data. Typically, .tmp files are deleted automatically by the program that created it after the file has served its purpose. But then… nothing is prefect and this applies so aptly to Windows.

To free up hard disk space, every user must delete leftover temporary files. But here comes the catch – there is no way through which one can tell for sure to which program a .tmp file belongs to or whether the file will be required later.

So, should one just let .tmp files sit there and occupy essential hard disk space? The key is to follow a cautious approach when removing .tmp files. What one can do is to remove those .tmp files that are old, say that were created prior to 30 days. If you didn’t require them by now, you probably never will.

You may also use the Disk Cleanup utility in Windows to get rid of these files.

Q#3 – What causes file type errors? I’m receiving one when I try to open a .psf file type with Adobe Photoshop – what should I do?

Answer – A file type error may occur due to a variety of reasons, the most common ones are shared below:

• Incorrect installation of the program that uses or opens the file type with which you are getting the error.
• Malware infection.
• Damaged File openers.

To fix the file type error, we recommend you perform the following tasks in the sequence they appear below:

• Uninstall and reinstall Adobe Photoshop – In case the Adobe software is not installed correctly or one or more Adobe files are missing or corrupt, this step should resolve the error.

• Run a malware scan – The second step is to remove any threats that may reside in your computer.

• Use a File Extension Repair program – If the above two steps fail, chances are that the file opener of the file generating the error is damaged. The remedy is simple – use a reliable file extension repair program that will fix the damaged openers and enable you to access to the .psf file.

James Ricketts is a writer whose work can be seen at Instant-Registry-Fixes.org. To find out more about his work or to contact him, please visit Instant-Registry-Fixes.org.

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