How to view .dat files as movies

[Rally]

Hi. I have downloaded some .dat files that were sent to me but cannot open them. I am sure it used to be easy in previous versions of Windows. Can someone please explain how to view .dat files.

 

[cyanna]

As a rule you need to open them with the program that has been used to create them. You can try right clicking, choose 'open with' and see if any of the movie playing applications on your computer will open them. VLC is the most tolerant app I know in that it is willing to at least attempt to play incomplete or corrupted files.
If these came in an email attachment and were not meant to be send as .dat, try uploading them to Open winmail.dat attachments.

 

[Rally]

Thanks. VLC did not work for me, nor does media player. Never mind - I don't think the videos were important.