Whatisthatfile.com
Beta site set up to help people identify files on their Windows computers by the filename. Whatisthatfile
I’ve always just typed the file name in a search engine (seems safer with more than one source). YMMV…
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Recent Comments
Evil Functions
Support the EFF!
March 27th, 2006
While the web is often lauded as a great resource and reference, its inaccuracies and biases are as vast as the numbers of people who use and maintain it. I concur with your conclusion that relying on multiple sources for the purpose of concurrence of data being a reasonable, yet fallible test.
Perhaps a time will come when we can develop a means to verify the accuracy of references on web sites. There are those who currently go out of their way to seek accuracy, and those who choose other routes. There are also those who deliberately seek to obfuscate in an effort to sway or distract their audiences. An example of the former might be a site such as http://www.snopes.com, which tends to cite their sources and seeks balance, at least by my reading. An example of the latter might be sites and the thousands of e-mails forwarded to millions of people stating falsehoods framed in the clothes of legitimacy until they believed, passed along as truth. An example of another route might be http://www.wikipedia.org, with their user built database, which allows other users to alter, edit, rebut, or “correct” entries.
I do like the idea of trying to establish a repository such as http://www.whatisthatfile.com but generally such things, being commercial in nature, are ultimately engaging in “rent seeking behavior”. Therefore, biases and inaccuracies may creep or race in when profit is threatened. Were they a .org, I might be more at ease with using them as a sole source, but I would still be inclined to seek concurrence, which is the only way to test, since the originators of the files in this question, Microsoft, are disinclined to acquiese to public requests about the purposes of the files in their software.
On an unrelated note, pedantry can be fun, especially if you get your fancy words from other sources rather than from seeking them out.
March 27th, 2006
One thing you get with a commercial service is indemnification.