How to Open and View NFO Files in XP and Vista

Contributor Icon Contributed by MickeyMouse  
Tag Icon Tagged: Windows  

Many users who download program files on the internet find it difficult to open or view NFO files. These are just text files and using them is very easy.


NFO files are really “info” files. These text files frequently contain information regarding the installation or use of downloaded packages. Here is how to open and use these files.

If you click on it without following these directions, you will probably get this error:

---------------------------
System Information
---------------------------
System Information cannot open this NFO file. It might be corrupted or an unrecognized version.

You can download many programs to view these text files; however, why not just use notepad to view them?

1. Browse to the NFO file on your computer

2. Right-click on the file and click Open With

(If you are given several options in the menu here, select Choose Program…)

3. Select Notepad under Other Programs

(In Vista you might need to actually click the Other Programs drop down arrow on the right of the Open With window)

4. Make sure that Always use the selected program to open this kind of file is checked.

5. Click OK

 

82 Comments -


  1. Krishna Kumar said on October 9, 2008

    Nice info(nfo)…lolz

  2. Celeste said on October 19, 2008

    Very helpful – been confused for months.

    Thanks!

  3. Kirk said on October 20, 2008

    I can open the note pad but what do I do from here? There is no information only symbols etc??

  4. Rod said on October 31, 2008

    In Vista, I don’t have any problem opening NFO files that accompany downloads however, all they ever contain is my own PC system information.

  5. Andrew said on November 5, 2008

    Thats not what is in the nfo tho, thats what comes up when it doesn’t open peroperly. open it with notepad like it describes above and you’ll find that something totally different opens! ;)

  6. popaye said on November 23, 2008

    Many many thanx …i just came to know it from u …..
    previously i thought it might be really a corrupt file ….
    it really open with notepad or wordpad…
    one more question … why windows by default dont open that nfo file by notepad …
    didn’t he recognise that …

  7. Rohan said on December 3, 2008

    thnx Im already using this!!

  8. Rudy said on December 3, 2008

    Ths didn’t work .How else?

  9. Graham L Farrell said on December 9, 2008

    Bollox… It just pops up “Access Denied.

  10. Gogu Ologu said on December 12, 2008

    if you have total commander installed then click on .nfo file to select it then press F3 or click the button F3 View. The file will open in a window. In that window press the key S to switch from ansi to ascii. Click the key A to switch back to ansi.

  11. >>>?<<<< said on December 12, 2008

    Lol i donwloaded a movie but it has totaly no sound … my pc gives that error thing
    but could it countain sound ???

  12. ashelectron said on December 13, 2008

    Thank you for the advise, works as you said.

  13. kieren said on December 15, 2008

    wow, its that simple :S
    thanks alot

  14. yeri said on December 19, 2008

    you are a lifesaver! thank you

  15. LowRider said on December 27, 2008

    for my NFO file WordPad worked instead of NotePad, by the way thank a lot for usefull post

  16. nice guy said on January 5, 2009

    thx mate

  17. Sally Ann said on January 7, 2009

    thx

  18. ray said on January 16, 2009

    thanx
    helps much

  19. Netherlands said on January 23, 2009

    sorry.. but this WONT work on ANY Computer.
    just download and instal :

    DAMN NFO VIEWER

    Good Luck!

    MMFWCL

  20. chuk said on January 26, 2009

    thanks man ….
    this lil piece of info …..was very helpful

  21. prosper said on February 12, 2009

    thnk man u r a life saver

  22. ibcaleb said on March 9, 2009

    nice lol i didnt know that

  23. zai said on March 29, 2009

    geee thanks a lot! you helped me so much =)

  24. Toni said on April 3, 2009

    I’ve always copy/paste the file and rename the new one to *.txt and then it opens

  25. chetan said on April 5, 2009

    Nice

  26. Someone from the Lithuania said on April 15, 2009

    very thank you!!

  27. dc said on April 21, 2009

    I don’t understand why people don’t just export it as a .txt file if that is all you can get when opening in notepad? It’s much more coherent when you do so.

    Why can’t you open it in the System Info Dialogue? What’s the purpose of having the “open” option?

  28. ghee said on May 6, 2009

    thanx, works just fine

  29. ghee said on May 6, 2009

    thanx,,,works good

  30. Godfather said on May 21, 2009

    Thanks a lot!

  31. UFV Student said on May 27, 2009

    thanks. the idea worked but I had to first go to notepad and then open the .nfo file from the “open” browser because notepad wasn’t on the list of other programs

  32. Bunghole said on June 2, 2009

    If you use Windows 7, you have to go through the Control Panel, and find Default Programs, and then click “Associate a file type or protocol with a program” .

    Then go down the HUGE list of file types, ’till you find: .nfo (& follow the above instructions)

    =D

  33. lisa said on June 4, 2009

    Thanks a lot! Works perfectly!

  34. Pakmail said on June 19, 2009

    Gracias por la información, fue muy productiva

  35. Thiago Bomfim said on June 27, 2009

    It was helpful, friend. Sometimes internet needs of this basic info, in a simpke language, just like in this post. I know hot to do a lot of things in computer, but don’t had used NFO files before.

    See you!

  36. Bishno said on July 12, 2009

    Thank you very much, great explanation and it’s so easy.

  37. Anonymous said on July 15, 2009

    Well its nice but there is another way to open a nfo file.
    Simply… rename the file as “.txt” instead of “.nfo” by right clicking on d file & now open it… here u go…its that easy…..

  38. Anonymous said on July 18, 2009

    thank you soooo much this has helped me A LOT

  39. JimiJamz said on July 21, 2009

    Thanx, this helped alot.

  40. bobjob said on August 16, 2009

    thanks alot i can open my file at last

  41. You don't need to know said on September 5, 2009

    Thanks, I’ve been wondering how you open those things

  42. Anonymous said on October 19, 2009

    Thank You!

  43. Anonymous said on October 20, 2009

    THIS WORKED PEFECTLY…THANK YOU LOTS :)

  44. Anonymous said on November 22, 2009

    thanx man this was amzing info really thanx

  45. rR0xxx said on December 3, 2009

    it works…thnks

  46. sad Panda said on December 13, 2009

    I followed your instructions…this is what notepad presented ܲܰ Ü Ü
    ÜÛß ß²Ü ÞÛÛÜÜ ÛÛÜÜ
    ßÛÛܲ²ß ²ÛÛÛ²ÛÜ ßÛÛ²²ÜÜ
    ÛÜ° ²ÜÛÛÛܲ þÜ ±ÛÛÛÛÝ ²ÛÛÛÛ °
    ÛÛ²²ÜÜ °²ÛÛÛÛ ÞÛÜ °ÛÛÛÛ ²ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ²±±° °²
    ÛÛÛÛ²° Üþ ²ÛßÛÛ Ü²²ÛÝÛÛ²Û² ÛÛÛÛÛ
    and then some :(

  47. night01 said on January 20, 2010

    thanks. Now i know. :)

  48. Lori said on January 25, 2010

    What if it says the file is too large and I need to use another text editor? Any you’d suggest?

  49. Anonymous said on February 11, 2010

    didnt work. got a bunch of letters

  50. Merovingian said on March 8, 2010

    A handy use for the now seldom used .nfo file extension is to save your user|pass lists for sites etc… as a BlackBook.nfo to a SDcard that you don’t leave on your laptop. Just pop the SDcard in and use your handy dandy text editor to open ‘er up and access your passes once you’re done pop the SDcard back out and store it away from your laptop until needed again. For heavier security, encrypt your SDcard with Trucrypt volume(s).
    Since .nfo’s appear “invisible” on most sytems its a nifty way to hide your .txt files and affords a small measure of privacy you can always use your text editor to view it as Open/All files (*.*)

  51. chatchitto said on March 30, 2010

    Great advice thank you don’t have to install .nfo viewers like damn nfo viewer

  52. Anonymous said on April 10, 2010

    i does not work in vista, jus a bunch of letters

  53. Anonymous said on May 9, 2010

    perfect answer. Thanks.

  54. Bridgitte said on May 30, 2010

    those symbols are just what people put in the nfos actually, to start it off. If you read further there will be info. They try to be interesting or creative that way but thats most of them. SOME of them keep the info clear.

  55. jAY said on June 9, 2010

    thanks

  56. Popopop said on June 11, 2010

    loser!

  57. Jdmrexx said on June 13, 2010

    yah i open it with notepad and all it says is cd keys and “enjoy” at the bottom. can someone help?

  58. Rony1xyz said on July 11, 2010

    Thank you very much for the information. I will try to do that now. Rony

  59. Salim said on July 29, 2010

    great thanks for help thank u muuuuuuuhhh

  60. www said on August 1, 2010

    your a loser cause you say to folks that need help then GAL (Get A Life)

  61. Khankamru said on August 8, 2010

    superb just superb thnxxxx

  62. Gaygirlie said on August 11, 2010

    Thank you lol!

  63. wheelie said on August 23, 2010

    notepad doesn’t know how to display that type of information, that is why you get the funky symbols.

  64. U2avishek said on September 4, 2010

    Hi,
    It really helped me. Thank you and keep going……..

  65. Evans said on September 6, 2010

    I want to make sweet love with you. (jks) thx so much.

  66. Raa714 said on September 6, 2010

    So how do you do it, because like you ,I have no files that are just .nfo at present in computer and quite a few titled info but when right click give me all kinds of files and adobe different files which I thought maybe read or something but what am I really to do. and which file to click on. thanks

  67. Kakashka said on September 10, 2010

    Yes, but somtimes the format of the .nfo wont go with notepad. Is there any good software to open it the way it should be showed?

  68. Abced said on October 3, 2010

    thanks. helped me alot!

  69. Manishlink88 said on October 11, 2010

    Thanks nice information.
    Nice team work

  70. Munkee_balls said on October 19, 2010

    Thanks alot for the information. I too thought it was a corrupt file i had d/l’ed.

  71. thewatcher said on October 21, 2010

    great piece of info!

  72. paul said on October 30, 2010

    Cheers for that. Any idea why i’d need this info if file already extracted? I have had some with info explaining contents of files and i’ve had some that are just line after line of nmbrs ltrs and symbl, i keep wondering what am i missing, other than a brain

  73. paul said on October 30, 2010

    Penny dropped lol i scrolled down and found full descript. Cheers

  74. Grateful said on November 2, 2010

    Thanks, helped a bunch.

  75. Caca said on November 22, 2010

    yup thx

  76. Anwari Naim Azran said on December 5, 2010

    Thanks.Its very useful.

  77. Narry90 said on December 12, 2010

    good thxxxxxx

  78. Akhil said on December 26, 2010

    that was a good nfo thankz

  79. Mr.L. said on January 14, 2011

    im clueless

  80. Decryptor said on January 21, 2011

    I’m going to reply to this one to get it at the top. when all you see is garbled stuff, then maximize your notepad. People use these .nfo files to hide giant pictures made of junk letters.don’t look at it as pictures, maximize the notepad and disable wordwrap.

  81. Midgetgadget said on January 26, 2011

    Very useful… actually i had a lot of problems with this format!! Thanks :D

  82. sushil said on April 14, 2011

    hooks_rapper011@yahoo.com:-
    The file directory C:windowssystemL.G is currupt and unreadable computer says please run the chkdsk utility what to do for my computer on appering this information with black screen.

 

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