nerdexam
EC-Council

312-49 · Question #299

Windows identifies which application to open a file with by examining which of the following?

The correct answer is A. The File extension. Windows primarily uses the file extension (e.g., .docx, .pdf, .exe) to determine which application should open a file. This mapping is stored in the Windows Registry under file association keys. While file signatures (magic bytes at the beginning of a file) can be used by…

Submitted by layla.eg· Apr 18, 2026Disk Forensics

Question

Windows identifies which application to open a file with by examining which of the following?

Options

  • AThe File extension
  • BThe file attributes
  • CThe file Signature at the end of the file
  • DThe file signature at the beginning of the file

How the community answered

(25 responses)
  • A
    88% (22)
  • C
    4% (1)
  • D
    8% (2)

Explanation

Windows primarily uses the file extension (e.g., .docx, .pdf, .exe) to determine which application should open a file. This mapping is stored in the Windows Registry under file association keys. While file signatures (magic bytes at the beginning of a file) can be used by forensic tools or some applications to identify true file types, the Windows shell itself relies on the file extension for its default open behavior.

Topics

#File extension#File association#Windows OS#File identification

Community Discussion

No community discussion yet for this question.

Full 312-49 Practice