If you find a .dat file on your computer, it will simply be a general data file containing important information about the program used to create the particular file.
This can be anything, such as an email attachment (in the form of winmail.dat files), an image or video, a document, or even data that stores information for software processing. The information contained in the .dat file can be binary or plain text, but is associated with the program that created the file.
To read or open a .dat file, you need to know what the file is and then convert it to make it easier to open.
However, such files are not associated with a specific program, so if they are in plain text, you can try opening them with other programs such as MS Document or Notepad and they will display the content. Otherwise, you will see only approximate data that you cannot understand if you are not a programmer.
However, on rare occasions, you may find .dat files containing actual data for video files that are opened with programs such as CyberLink Powerdirector or VCDGear.
How to read and open DAT files
Most files have default programs that read and open files, for example MP3 opens audio files while plain text files are opened using TXT files, but with .dat files there is no obvious program to open them.
If you feel stuck with a .dat file and don’t know how to open it, what to do with it, or even think that it should be used or opened in a certain way, you need to figure out if it’s video or text. based, email attachment or other .dat file.
The easiest way to find out is to go back to where and how you got the .dat file, as this usually gives you the information you need to read the .dat files.
Using a .dat file A text editor to open DAT files
For .dat text files, you can easily read and / or open them with a text editor. This is the first tool to try if you are unsure of how to open your DAT file.
On Windows, the standard Notepad text editor will help you, although there are other alternative programs that can replace Notepad
However, not all .dat files are text files, so you cannot open them with a text editor. .Dat files can be difficult to edit, delete, or even move because they can be locked or be part of a program’s configuration files, in which case you may never have to manually open or manipulate them.
To open a .dat file in Windows using a text editor, right-click the file you want to open and choose Open With.
Select the text editor you want to use and click OK.
You will be able to read the contents of the file if it is a text .dat file. Otherwise, you will see many NUL references and incomprehensible characters.
If you received an email attachment as a winmail.dat file, you can easily open it using Winmaildat.com without having to re-mail it to the sender. After downloading the attached .dat file, go to Winmaildat.com and click the Browse button next to Upload File.
Find the .dat file and click Open. After downloading, click “Start” to enable file analysis.
Check the results on the results page to see the contents of the .dat file. You can also click on it to download it to your computer and view everything in the .dat file.
For .dat video files, you can check the program from which they were saved and try to open with that program. If it is in the program folder associated with a specific video file program, you can use that to play the file, or try using VLC on your computer.
How to convert DAT files
You can also convert your .dat file using a free or paid file converter The steps you take to convert .dat files depend on the type of file you have, but you really don’t need to convert it to a different format, especially if it’s used to store configuration data like we mentioned above.
Likewise, converting a .dat file can also render it unusable. For example, you can open a .dat video file in the program that was used to create it, and then save it or export it to another format such as the popular MP4, WMV, AVI, or FLV.
Another way to read and open .dat files that have been attached to emails is to rename them to the correct extension that your computer recognizes, especially if you know it must be a certain type of file but is a DAT file instead.
For example, if you know it should be an image file, you can rename it to JPG or PNG, and for Microsoft Word documents, you can rename the DAT file extension to .doc or .docx. Be sure to read the article on how to open a file without an extension as it explains the process in more detail.
However, before renaming the DAT file, configure Windows to display file extensions correctly.
We hope you now know how to read and open DAT files in Windows. Let us know which of the three methods worked for you by sharing your comment in the section below.
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