Advice years ago from a respected security expert says that's nonsense.

 

But hey it's your risk to take, not mine.

I've tried this with ascii files, known scripts, known binary data, known $application_file types and known executables, plus renaming as "different types" and if you do right_click => open with => Notepad nothing will ever run.

 

OTOH if you double click something that purports to be *.txt but is actually exploit.bat then yes it will run rather than opening in Notepad.

I've tried this with ascii files, known scripts, known binary data, known $application_file types and known executables, plus renaming as "different types" and if you do right_click => open with => Notepad nothing will ever run.

 

OTOH if you double click something that purports to be *.txt but is actually exploit.bat then yes it will run rather than opening in Notepad.

 

Thank you.

OTOH if you double click something that purports to be *.txt but is actually exploit.bat then yes it will run rather than opening in Notepad.

This is what I was referring to and why I would never even attempt to open something iffy at all. It's far too easy to still get infected.

As I say this advice comes from someone well known & respected in cyber security who I used to have contact with so I'll stick with the squint and bin approach everytime

This is what I was referring to and why I would never even attempt to open something iffy at all. It's far too easy to still get infected.

As I say this advice comes from someone well known & respected in cyber security who I used to have contact with so I'll stick with the squint and bin approach everytime

So you were told to "not open anything suspectedly iffy" rather than "switch off the insecure 'hide extensions for known file types' setting" which straight off means that "exploit.txt.bat" shows up as being a batch file and not a plain text file and then "open stuff that's iffy in Notepad using right-click so you can inspect it".

 

Sorry, but to me the failure to educate rather than infect with paranoia makes your adviser part of the problem.

When I learned to drive ,I got one brilliant bit bit of advice. it seems to have been removed from driving tuition, and the HC . WHAT was it -"IF IN DOUBT- DON'T". Same applies to attachments to strange e mails.