Who owns "dat" files? or how can I get my OS to keep its house tidy?
I had a problem with Mozilla Firefox suddenly not displaying video content: swf, quicktime, wmv, you name it. Safari did not have a problem. I spent several months as OS tweaks and updates to MozFire and QT arrived - I did repair permissions, I did repair disc, fsck -fy everything I could think of; yet the problem still persisted. I am currently using 10.4.11, and MozFire 2.0.0.11. I researched the problem on the Apple forum and the Mozfire forums and I was unable find any thing that worked. Then one groggy night I happened to notice that the "pluginreg.dat" file (located at userme>Library>Application Support>Firefox>pluginreg.dat) was "assigned" by the OS to an application of the Windows flavor. First it was a CanonVideo software until I deleted it, then the file took on the guise of a VLC.app file. It is supposed to be a document, and not belong to any app (i think). I opened get info and assigned the file to TextEdit which does do documents and VOILA! upon restart MozFire loaded the video files!!!!! hurrah. however, I still have a question why are these dat and inf and other windows type of files being assigned to applications? I thought they were "app less" files or system files. Is there some way to stop this? For example when I mount a flashmemory stick disc the FINDER.DAT file and the FILEID.DAT on the Wintel formated stick show up with VLC.app logos and are assigned to VLC which will try to open and read the file if I happen to double click it. I hope that there is another solution besides a reinstall of the OS!!!!!. WHat on earth could be causing this problem?
thanks for any help
v
From a google search: +DAT files are data files, usually comma delimited, that contain data in ASCII format. These files are able to be open in a variety of programs including Microsoft Word and Microsoft Notepad.+
Sounds like your LaunchServices database is fouled up. See these for steps on resetting it:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/resetlaunchservices.html
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031215144430486
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