How do I open a .dat file?

3 thoughts on “How do I open a .dat file?”

1. Azrael says:

   March 7, 2011 at 9:08 pm

   Usually .dat refers to a file which holds raw data from a program. It’s designed to be opened only by the program that has created it so you need that program.

2. conehead says:

   March 7, 2011 at 9:08 pm

   Generally, a .dat file isn’t something you open directly; it usually has system info.

   I would try opening it in notepad and see if it’s just a text file. Right-click and choose Open with… and then scroll thru the list and find Notepad. (Don’t make this the default for this file type.)

   If that doesn’t work, try Microsoft Word. It seems that these would be text files of some sort.

   Otherwise you’ll have to call them and ask what application to use to read the files.

3. Stormeh says:

   March 7, 2011 at 9:08 pm

   If these are simple documents try opening them with notepad. Right click, Open with, and choose notepad.

   If that fails, you’ll have to give them a call/email and ask what formats the documents are in. This is because .dat is not really an exclusive data type. I can have a Video stored in a .dat format and open it with Windows Media Player, but at the same time I can have a .dat file storing text document instead.

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