About FILExt

FILExt is one of the oldest and most respected collections of file formats and file extensions. Over the past 20 years, more than 50 million users have found the right information and tools to open any file on their computer or smartphone. Our knowledge gathered during this period is regularly reviewed and updated. Tom Simondi first provided this information in 2000 as a free online resource for the Internet community.

Founded in California, perfected in the heart of Europe

FILExt was established in 2000 by Tom Simondi in California and is now based in the heart of Europe. Here in Saxony-Anhalt (Germany), we are developing innovative online services as well as the world's largest database of file formats. In doing so, we are supporting media professionals and simplifying the exchange of data in economics, science and society.

Software Pioneer of the 80s

Tom Simondi, the founder of FILExt, gained experience with mainframe computers at the Air Force Institute of Technology back in the 1970s and during his involvement in Space Shuttle development in Space Division, Los Angeles. In the early '80s, he tested Apple II software, wrote reviews and founded 'Computer Knowledge' in 1984. When IBM released his PC, Tom received one of the first and continued doing reviews for both platforms. He taught at Los Angeles area colleges and programmed in Turbo Pascal for his students the Microcomputer and DOS Tutorial Tutor.COM, named after the name of the executable file one ran to start it. Because this was well received by his students, he published the program as try-before-buy (then called shareware). In June 1987 PC-SIG highlighted the program as number three behind the then top programs PC-Write and PC-Calc. According to PC-SIG, Tom Simondi was one of the best-known software programmer in the late eighties. PC-SIG was the first mail order shareware vendor and one of the largest shareware distributors in the 1980s. Its name stands for 'IBM-PC Special Interest Group'.

Founding Member of the World's Largest Association of Independent Software Developers

Together with leaders of the young programming scene, Tom Simondi founded the today's Association of Software Professionals, the world's largest association of independent software developers, in Houston in 1987. Tom was not only a founding member of the ASP but also its original secretary. Due to his merits, he was inducted in 2001 in the ASP Hall of Fame.

FILExt Becomes the Leading Platform for File Information and Extensions

In the 1990s, Tom Simondi worked mainly in computer support, sharing his knowledge with the Internet community. A single file extension page on 'Computer Knowledge' became particularly popular, because this website contained not only the appropriate description but also links to the software manufacturers. PC Magazine has selected Tom's file extension site as one of their Best 100 Undiscovered Sites.

Microsoft became aware of this website and integrated it into Windows XP. When XP tried to open a file it did not know how to open it gave the user the option of choosing a local program or go to the Internet to find the answer. The second option resulted in Tom's file extension research page. Due to the great response to this single web page, FILExt.com was launched in 2001. This split the page into alphabetical sections so that the user does not have to search the entire list and save Bandwidth. That was at least three terabytes per month in 2006. New submissions and additions to existing file extensions also increased steadily. Although Microsoft forwarded requests to its own store and search engine in March 2007, the large community has continued to update and build the database. Also new offers have been added, e.g. Marco's TrID data and Tony's MIME data. FILExt became one of the biggest and best known Website devoted to file types and formats.

For reasons of age, Tom withdrew in 2009 and distributed FILExt on several shoulders. The team of uniblue, took over the responsibility and handed over this 2018 to its long-term partner, who has been performing extensive file analysis for decades. FILExt will continue to be maintained and expanded by competent computer experts and the active user community that has grown over the years. This continuity is guaranteed by your FILExt team, a longtime Lifetime member of the Association of Software Professionals, who has been familiar with FILExt since the beginning, and our technical partner pairNetworks, Pittsburgh, who has been in charge of the technology from the very beginning. Since the late '90s, we have been working with Kevin (Founder of Pair Networks, Inc). We thank you, Kevin. We thank you, Tom.

Many public thanks to the people who have contributed information to this site. You make it the resource that it is! Particular thanks to Stuart Robbins in the UK and V.Y. in Perth, Australia for their extensive submissions and research. Special thanks to Anthony R. Nemmer for the use of his extensive file extension and MIME type collection.

FILExt is committed to helping users to identify, access, open and view unknown files, or convert them with convert.guru. To this end we provide FILExt free to all computers and smartphone users. FILExt has been mentioned in many books over the years. It is used and recommended by experts around the world as a source of information about file extensions, including: from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, PC World, lifehacker, Oracle and Microsoft.