Would it be more palatable if I had used the Wiki-PediA reference, given by Gemini AI, to an article discussing how magic (file) numbers help to identify file types, even ones lacking a filename extension? Agreeing, as it does, with what Jon alluded to earlier in the discussion.
Is Gemini AI correct in stating that the magic number of an XLSX file is ’PK’ in the hex header? If REN56 loaded his no-ext XLSX file into a hex editor, he would likely find ’PK’ at the start of the hex header. I just created a new XLSX file with only one cell entry and then examined it using a hex editor. Just as suggested, the first two bytes are “PK”.
Next up, is Gemini AI wrong when another of its four suggestions point to the location for the Shell Icons Cache, IconCache.db? On my Win 7 machine there is only one such file located in %appdata%\Local.
Now, I well know that AI can be wrong. It suggested the cache file is in %appdata%\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer. Is it wrong about the location or is that a Win 10 location? In any case, since the icons were not missing in REN56’s examples, does that mean the Shell Icon Cache is complete? Or perhaps REN56 may find creating a new cache file will shed more light on the missing extensions, as they may rebuild in the cache as he opens the files. Or at least prompt more research about the contents of the Shell Icon Cache.
I know AI can get confused, especially after several rounds of questions and refinements. I’ve seen where it loses track of time after “we” have set up a discussion for the next morning of the results of today’s course of testing by it asking, ten minutes later; “How did the test go?” But my experience tells me that the more concise and conservative the query, the better the answers received from AI (only two that I have experience with; XhatGPT and Gemini AI).
Should we be so picky about where all information comes from? When Gemini AI refers to a WikiPediA article, should that info be heavily discounted because the AI LLM gathered it in rather than we ourselves having done the digging? Having said that, I understand, allowing AI a free hand in coding is asking for trouble.
No matter where on the internet we fish for info, it is up to each of us to decide whether the info found is reasonable and correct. I am quite sure that I am not the only one to find errors in MSKB and yet we rely on it heavily. Will you still once it takes on (soon) the AI hat?
As the foot soldier to some ancient Greek warlord said, “Don’t kill the messenger”, ......just before they quartered the poor bastard for bringing bad news.
In the end, the appearance of the XLSX File in the Type column was due to some action by Windows not related to the file’s non-existent file extension. Gemini gave REN56 some avenues to explore.