by Eric Schechter.

You may find these instructions particularly useful if (i) you

are new to the use of Windows, (ii) you have just acquired a new Windows computer,
or (iii) you have just acquired some Windows software from an informal source
(e.g., from a download or from the Math Department's CD, as opposed to a shrink-
wrapped package). Latest alterations to this page: 21 Feb 2006.

About filetypes (including how Microsoft hid the filetypes and how hackers take
advantage of that fact and how you can fix it)
Double-click and Right-click
Some Good Places to Put Shortcuts
Changing your file associations
About downloading and unzipping files
Using automatic installers
Programs that lack installers
The PATH environmental variable
Scheduled events
About filetypes

In the Windows operating system, filenames end with a period followed by a few
letters (most often 3 letters, though it actually can be any number). Generally the
file ending indicates the type of file. For instance, "MYTHESIS.TXT" might be a
textfile containing your thesis, while "MYDOG.BMP" might be a bitmap picture of
your dog.
They don't have to be -- you can rename your files however you like. You could
rename "MYTHESIS.TXT" and "MYDOG.BMP" so that each contains what you'd expect the
other to contain. But that will lead to confusion, not only for you, but also for
your computer. Your computer expects any file whose name ends in "TXT" to be a
textfile, not a picture, and it treats that file accordingly. For instance, if you
double-click on that file, you'll open a text editor, not a picture editor.

Following are some of the most common filetypes. Your Windows operating system
already knows how to recognize and deal with most (but not quite all) of these. You
don't need to memorize this list, but understanding the basic concept will probably
be helpful.

First, there are the documents -- i.e., files that you edit, and that contain your
content:

TXT -- plain unformatted text -- doesn't contain any boldface, italics, or other
formatting. Can be understood by all word-processing programs. The default response
to doubleclicking in this is Windows Notepad (see "Start" "Programs" "Accessories"
"Notepad").
RTF -- rich text format -- includes boldface, italics, etc. Can be understood by
many word-processors.
WPD -- WordPerfect Document.
DOC -- this abbreviation originally stood for "document", so it could be anything
-- even a long file of plain unformatted text. But in recent years, it most often
means a file formatted for Microsoft Word.
HTM or HTML -- hypertext markup language -- this is a web page. Actually, it is a
plain unformatted text file, but the text content is sprinkled with codes like
"href=" and "<br>" that can be understood by web browser programs like Netscape.
BMP (bitmap picture), GIF (graphic internet format), JPG or JPEG ("Joint Picture
Experts Group") -- three common picture formats. For illustrations on web pages, it
is most efficient to use GIF files for pictures with 256 colors or fewer (e.g.,
maps, diagrams, cartoons), or JPG for pictures with more colors (e.g., photos),
because of the difference in how these formats encode the information.
MPEG ("Motion Picture Experts Group") -- a format for moving pictures.
TEX -- source TeX file. This is really a file of type "TXT", but it is used
differently: its content is sprinkled with codes like "\bf" and "\it" and
"$e^{i\pi}$" which can be understood by the program Tex.EXE. That program is used
by mathematicians and some other scientists and people who need fancy document
formatting. The default Windows configuration does not recognize this filetype, so
if you're going to work with TEX files, you'll have to introduce them to Windows. I
usually set up my computer so that the default program triggered by doubleclicking
on a TEX file is TEXSHELL.
DVI -- a picture format used for the main output of the TEX.EXE program. Again,
Windows doesn't know this one, and has to be taught. The picture can only be viewed
through special programs called previewers (such as YAP.EXE), or converted to other
formats by programs such as DVIPS.EXE or DVIPDFM.EXE; I generally set up my
computer to respond to any DVI file with the YAP program. You don't actually edit a
DVI file; but you can edit the TEX file that it came from, and then run it through
the TEX.EXE program to create a new updated version of the DVI file. The
abbreviation "DVI" originally stood for "device independent", but that name isn't
strictly accurate -- the same DVI file may appear different on different computers,
if they have different kinds of fonts installed.
PS -- postscript -- a picture format that can be understood by some printers,
especially laserprinters. This format is largely device independent, because the
file contains all the font information. (Thus, if you're going to email a tex
output to a colleague, or post it on a website, you probably ought to convert it to
postscript form first.) Again, you don't edit these files readily; instead you edit
the source files that these came from, and then update the resulting ps files.
PDF -- portable document format -- This is yet another picture format. This format
is used for many documents on the web, by the US Government, the American
Mathematical Society, and some other large organizations. Converters (such as
DVIPDFM.EXE) or viewers (such as Acrobat Reader) are available for free, but
programs for directly editing PDF files are quite expensive.
ZIP, TAR, ZOO, ARC -- these are archive (compressed) files. Files encoded in these
formats generally take up only about 40% to 70% as much space as the original
files, but they usually can't be used until they are restored to their original
format. Compression is often used for storing files on CD-ROMs or on internet
repositories, to save space and also to save downloading time. This also simplifies
organizing: An archive file may contain many compressed files, not just one, and
those files may even be arranged in directories and subdirectories. To compress or
decompress the files, you need an archive manager program. Actually, almost all the
archive files used for Windows programs nowadays are in the ZIP format, so you
might get by with just a zip manager. (Don't confuse zip files with Zip Disks,
which are high-capacity storage disks made by Iomega Corporation. The two objects
are entirely unrelated, despite the identical names.)
LNK and URL -- These are shortcut files, linking to computer files or to web pages,
respectively. You won't actually see the endings ".lnk" or ".url" on filenames
unless you use a special program to reveal them, because those endings are
concealed most of the time. These files aren't really "documents" in a traditional
sense of the word, but I mention them here because you can edit them very easily.
Just right-click on the icon for one of these files, and then alter any of the
information that appears in any of the boxes that show up. -- Files of type PIF are
similar in nature to LNK and URL but more complicated, and shouldn't be altered by
beginners. (PIF files are used by Windows to set parameters for old pre-Windows
programs.)
In addition to the documents, there are other filetypes. You generally won't be
editing any of these files, but it will help you to understand what they are. To
avoid confusion, you probably should keep all your documents in one set of folders
(such as C:\USERS\MYNAME or C:\MY DOCUMENTS) and keep the other files in some other
folders (such as C:\PROGRAM FILES).
EXE -- executable. This is a program. Typically, it does things to documents --
e.g., display them, edit them, etc. Most programs are of type EXE, but a few are of
type BIN (binary) or COM (command).
INI -- initialization file. The executable file might look in here for
configuration settings or other special instructions when it starts up. Advanced
users sometimes need to alter an INI file, but beginners should not. Usually, the
INI file is a plain unformatted textfile, so it should only be edited with an
unformatted editor (like Notepad), not a formatted editor (like Word). Similar use
for CFG and DAT files, though the abbreviation "DAT" also is used for more
specialized purposes by a few programs.