Every so often you come across a file and think "What's this?" or "What type of file is this?". A useful way to find out is to open the file in Windows' Notepad utility and see if anything is recognizable. That's what this tool is for. Just right-click any file, choose Open In Notepad, and Notepad will open and display the file. Of course, you may see nothing but garbage if the file isn't a text file, but you may be able to decipher enough of the garbage to work out what program you should use.

If you have a different text editor that you prefer to Notepad, you can use that instead. In fact, you can switch this tool to use any application you like. For example, if you do a lot of work with images, you may like to make this tool open files in Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. You can switch to a different tool in the ShellToys XP Settings window.

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