FOAK WINdows 7

Can anyone tell me how to stop windows 7 hiding the extensions of known
types, please (for a friend, before you recommend mint)

 

Bring up and explorer window.
Hit alt on the keyboard, then go to tools, folder options.
In the window that appears about halfway down is a checkbox that does
exactly that, uncheck it.

 

Ah! Thank you. Does the Alt thing work for all windows that have lost the
File... Edit... etc. menus at the top? Is this the new win7 way at
getting to these menus? I stopped at XP so was unable to help said
friend. I knew there was a box to untick, but how to get to it???

 

Yes but the menu used to be present by default, now you have to press ALT to
bring it up.
IE7 introduced that AFAIK.

 

That'll do nicely sir,

True, but that is not the route described by Gavin above. He used the Tools
menu in Explorer which used to be visible by default but which is now
brought up with ALT.

It doesn't, but its the first time I noticed this ALT to bring up the Tools
menu feature. It probably arrived with Vista but I'm not sure because I
skipped that episode.

 

Windows 7 (and Vista probably).
IE has a similar Menu Bar which disappeared in IE7

True, but in Windows Explorer (and IE) it makes the Menu Bar
appear/disappear ( I think toggle maybe the correct term).

 

Are you having a blonde moment?

 

Hitting alt in Vista and above does "unhide" the old menu system. You
dont have to use it, but I find it easier.

Note that this doesnt work with Office 2007 or above, you are stuck
with the ribbon.

 

He is right actually, IE7 was the 1st application that sported this
behaviour. Vista and now W7 both use it all over the place for many
windows.

It doesnt MAKE the OS do it, in that Installing IE7 on XP wont make the
other Windows do the same thing, but it was the first time that Windows
did hide the menu system.