Easily Show / Hide File Extensions in Windows XP, Vista and 7. 0

Easily Show / Hide File Extensions in Windows XP, Vista and 7.

We know that when we want to show or hide file extension in Windows Explorer, we follow these steps:
In Windows explorer Tools > Folder Option > View > Check or Uncheck Hide Extensions for known file types.

It is a tedious job to open all this again and again. Instead we can create a simple script to do all the job, in a single click.

Just create a VB Script and save it as "ShowHideFileExtensions.vbs" including quote. Here is the script:

Code:

FileExt = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\HideFileExt"
Set Sh = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
St = Sh.RegRead(FileExt)
If St = 1 Then
Sh.RegWrite FileExt, 0, "REG_DWORD"
Else
Sh.RegWrite FileExt, 1, "REG_DWORD"
End If
Sh.SendKeys("{F5}")

Now save it in some location in your hard drive and create a desktop or quick launch shortcut. Whenever you need to toggle the show hide file extension option simply run the script.

You can also add a folder context menu option to run the script. Suppose you have saved the script in C: drive. Then make the following Registry File and name it as "ShowHideFileExtensions.reg" without quote and merge it to registry. If you change the file location, change the reg file according to your need.

Windows Vista and 7:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Show / Hide File Extensions]
"HasLUAShield"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Show / Hide File Extensions\command]
@="cmd.exe /c start C:\\ShowHideFileExtension.vbs"

Windows XP:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Show / Hide File Extensions]
"HasLUAShield"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Show / Hide File Extensions\command]
@="cmd.exe /c start C:\\ShowHideFileExtension.vbs"

If you want to delete the entry from context menu, then just go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell (in Vista and 7) or HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell (in XP) and delete Show / Hide File Extensions entry.