[DavidG]

Originally posted by Gryphin:
Hiding file extentions makes sence when you have seen as many files with the wrong extentions as I have.

The flip side of that coin is that now you have a whole bunch of new Users who don't know what 'file extension' means. (ie my parents ) I suspect if MS really thought about it they could come up with a better way to prevent the uneducated user from accidentaly changing a file extension (and possibly even educating them as to what those Last 4 characteres mean).
Actually since windows warns you if you change a file extension it doesn't really require much thought at all. instead of having an option to hide file extension how about an option to allow you to change file extension which defaults to NO.