Text files

I have an email with a "txt" extension but can't find a way to open it.
Using Notepad I get jibberish.

Ray

Ray wrote:
> I have an email with a "txt" extension but can't find a way to open it.
> Using Notepad I get jibberish.
>
> Ray

Your computer has Notepad and Wordpad.

Have you tried Wordpad yet ?

Paul

On 18 May 2011, "Ray" <> wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

> I have an email with a "txt" extension but can't find a way to
> open it. Using Notepad I get jibberish.

It's probably an attachment encoded for email transmission. You need to
Save the attachment from your email program, whatever it is, to your
hard disk. That should decode the attachment and make it readable with
your text editor/viewer.

Paul wrote:
> Ray wrote:
>> I have an email with a "txt" extension but can't find a way to open
>> it. Using Notepad I get jibberish.
>>
>> Ray
>
> Your computer has Notepad and Wordpad.
>
> Have you tried Wordpad yet ?
>
> Paul

Working off Nil's idea, you could also check the file type
with a program that checks and detects what is in a file.
(This isn't guaranteed to give a result, but it's worth a
shot if nothing else is working.)

This program originated on Unix. In the Unix OS, the file
extensions are more arbitrary than they are on Windows. Since
that is the case (extensions aren't even needed if you don't want
to use them), it means the OS needs a more reliable way to determine
what kind of file is involved. Applications have to "poke around"
within files, to tell what they are. And the "file" program,
is a program that doesn't do anything other than the poking part.

They invented the "file" program for that purpose, and a typical
usage from a command window would look like this

Prompt>> file somedangfile

Output>> Text file with CR/LF line terminations

That would tell you the file was a certain kind of text file.
You could then rename the file, as in somedangfile.txt .

A port of that program, so it will run in Windows, is here.

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/file.htm

I think there is an installer, in the "file-5.03-setup.exe" download,
and it should put the files in the right place. You can also install the
program by hand. For example, if I look on my computer right now, the
necessary files for a test run would be...

05/07/2009 09:18 AM 45,056 file.exe
08/08/2010 04:18 AM 150,016 magic1.dll
10/24/2007 12:10 PM 79,360 regex2.dll
03/23/2007 07:33 PM 72,192 zlib1.dll
somedangfile

What you'd do, is arrange all those files in one folder. The unknown
(text-like) file "somedangfile", the three DLL files, and the executable.
(On some of the gnuwin32 programs, the DLL files are missing, and
then you have to scrounge around and find them.)

You'd open a command window by using cmd.exe in Windows 7. Presumably it
wouldn't need to be elevated to work (because our folder is just
a data folder). Although elevating cmd.exe to run with administrator,
prevents UAC from hijacking the output of the command and ruining it.

When the command window opens, you'd do

cd \
cd foldername

and so on, until you'd traversed to the place where that folder is set up.

Once you "change directory" to the folder holding the above files, doing

dir

should print the four files like in my example.

If the files are now being listed properly, you've successfully traversed
to the test folder. Four of the files are parts of the program,
while the "somedangfile" is the file we want to test.

When you now run the command, it'll tell you what the real file type is.
You can either use the word file or file.exe . If the file is uuencoded
or base64 or whatever, the program should tell you.

file.exe somedangfile

Some of us could also guess at the contents, based on either seeing a
picture of a hex editor opening the file and displaying its contents.
But we don't really want access to the file, for (your) privacy reasons. So
using the file.exe program as above, is the next best thing. If the sender
of the original message, could send you another email where the attachment
was innocuous, then it would be less of a risk to post it in some way
for analysis. But if the contents of the attachment shouldn't be
exposed to the world, then try out the "file.exe" command and
see what it claims the file is. If it is encoded, with a little work
you can find a decoder.

HTH,
Paul

Paul <> wrote:


>This program originated on Unix. In the Unix OS, the file

It's possible that it's a Unix text file. Unix uses a different
end-of-line sequence than Windows. Most half-decent text editors can
cope with that, but not Notepad.

--
Tim Slattery

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

On 18 May 2011, Tim Slattery <> wrote in alt.windows7.general:

> It's possible that it's a Unix text file. Unix uses a different
> end-of-line sequence than Windows. Most half-decent text editors can
> cope with that, but not Notepad.

If that were true, the formatting might be all messed up, due to the
lines appearing to be concatenated, but the text file should still be
readable (not complete "jibberish").

I just sent myself an email with an attached text file, and specified
that it be UUencoded. If the OP's file looks something like this, it's
probably encoded similarly. There are standalone UU decoders out there:
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Hi, Ray.

Does the DOS "Type" command also produce gibberish?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3508.1109) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"Ray" wrote in message
news:yMTAp.153177$...

I have an email with a "txt" extension but can't find a way to open it.
Using Notepad I get jibberish.

Ray

On Wed, 18 May 2011 16:03:46 -0400, Tim Slattery <>
wrote:

>It's possible that it's a Unix text file. Unix uses a different
>end-of-line sequence than Windows. Most half-decent text editors can
>cope with that, but not Notepad.

As Nil pointed out, Notepad will display the text portions of such
files without any problem. When I run into such files, I open them
with Wordpad (and optionally resave them if I know I want to open them
with Notepad later. Wordpad will silently replace the LF's with
CRLF's.)

Anyway, this isn't the OP's problem since he said the file is
gibberish.

--

Char Jackson

On 5/18/11 9:49 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
> On Wed, 18 May 2011 16:03:46 -0400, Tim Slattery<>
> wrote:
>
>> It's possible that it's a Unix text file. Unix uses a different
>> end-of-line sequence than Windows. Most half-decent text editors can
>> cope with that, but not Notepad.
>
> As Nil pointed out, Notepad will display the text portions of such
> files without any problem. When I run into such files, I open them
> with Wordpad (and optionally resave them if I know I want to open them
> with Notepad later. Wordpad will silently replace the LF's with
> CRLF's.)
>
> Anyway, this isn't the OP's problem since he said the file is
> gibberish.
>

After looking at this file, it sure looks like it has been encrypted.
I've only run into this once a few years back.


--
"If they can make you believe absurdities they can make you commit
atrocities."
by Voltaire

On Wed, 18 May 2011 23:52:29 -0600, GreyCloud <>
wrote:

>On 5/18/11 9:49 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
>> On Wed, 18 May 2011 16:03:46 -0400, Tim Slattery<>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> It's possible that it's a Unix text file. Unix uses a different
>>> end-of-line sequence than Windows. Most half-decent text editors can
>>> cope with that, but not Notepad.
>>
>> As Nil pointed out, Notepad will display the text portions of such
>> files without any problem. When I run into such files, I open them
>> with Wordpad (and optionally resave them if I know I want to open them
>> with Notepad later. Wordpad will silently replace the LF's with
>> CRLF's.)
>>
>> Anyway, this isn't the OP's problem since he said the file is
>> gibberish.
>>
>
>After looking at this file, it sure looks like it has been encrypted.
>I've only run into this once a few years back.

I don't think we've seen the file yet, have we? Where did you find it?

--

Char Jackson