I am a long time Directory Opus user (I started on the Amiga with Directory Opus 4). I am wondering if it is possible to identify filetypes via the file/meta data and not a filename extension.
This is how it was done on the Amiga, and I find file extensions as a whole to be a pain in the bottom.
I still do alot with the Amiga and that rarely used filename filetypes, but instead cpould be configured to look within the file for metadata (for example a jpeg image has JFIF approx 7bytes into the file).
In all contexts. So on Directory opus on the amiga I can create a file type based purely on the 'header' of the file. I know that the image viewer in the newer versions does identify 'some' images without a filetype.
An example if i have two zip files one name 'bob.zip' and one named 'bob' double clicking will bring up a "Select an app to open filename" selector, however if Directory Opus looked at the header it would know that the first two bytes are $5045 (PK) and treat it like a zip file.
So in essence the filetype configurator works like it did in 1994 which is far more bullet proof than a filename extension.
Lots of file types are really (specially made) zip files with different extensions. Overriding the Windows filetype system like that for them would break a lot of programs/files by opening them as archives instead of opening them in the programs they're made for.
You could do something by overriding the double-click action for All Files with a script that looks at the headers before deciding what to do, but I'm not sure it would be worth it. It would probably cause more problems than it solved.