problem with changing .dat file to original form

[nisarg]

hi,
i downloaded an advert off kazaa about a peugeot 306.
When i looked in my shared folder i noticed the icon had
not changed to a "media player" icon but remained as
a .dat icon (or the icon which appears 'while' you are
downloading off kazaa). So i right clicked and went
to "opens with" and click windows media player. sure
enough the file worked but the file remained a .dat file
(and did not change to a media player .mov file) and had
a strange windows media player icon. now i think there
was a checkmark in "apply this for all programs for this
type" which meant all the other .dat files on my computer
have also been affected by only being able to open with
windows media player (including system and norton files).
i am wondering how to get these files back to their
original form (icon) and original program (program which
originally was used to open file).

if you could reply to me at
that would be great.
thanks
nisarg

[Tom Porterfield]

nisarg wrote:
> hi,
> i downloaded an advert off kazaa about a peugeot 306.
> When i looked in my shared folder i noticed the icon had
> not changed to a "media player" icon but remained as
> a .dat icon (or the icon which appears 'while' you are
> downloading off kazaa). So i right clicked and went
> to "opens with" and click windows media player. sure
> enough the file worked but the file remained a .dat file
> (and did not change to a media player .mov file) and had
> a strange windows media player icon. now i think there
> was a checkmark in "apply this for all programs for this
> type" which meant all the other .dat files on my computer
> have also been affected by only being able to open with
> windows media player (including system and norton files).
> i am wondering how to get these files back to their
> original form (icon) and original program (program which
> originally was used to open file).

Well, the good news is you haven't broken anything. There is really no
need to change anything. Even with dat files associated with WMP Windows
will still be able to properly read your system dat files, as will Norton
be able to properly read its dat files. The association simply determines
what action happens by default when you double click on a dat file through
Windows explorer. Any program that simply reads or writes to one of these
files will not be impacted by the file association.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows XP & Smart Display
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/tp.porterfield/support

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