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What Is a DIZ File?

Discover what's inside a ZIP archive with a DIZ file

By Tim Fisher Tim Fisher Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability Emporia State University Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the VP and General Manager of Lifewire. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on May 28, 2020 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email File Types File Types Apps Windows MS Office Linux Google Drive Backup & Utilities Design Cryptocurrency A file with the DIZ file extension is a Description In Zip file. They're text files found within ZIP files that contain a description of the contents of the ZIP file. Most are called FILE_ID.DIZ (for file identification). DIZ files were originally used with bulletin board systems to describe to the website administrators what files the users were uploading. This process would happen automatically by having web scripts extract the contents, read the files, and then import the DIZ file into the archive. Nowadays, DIZ files are most often seen on file sharing websites that have downloads for archives full of data. The DIZ file is present for the same purpose, though: for the creator to tell the user what it is that's contained in the ZIP file they've just downloaded. NFO (information) files serve a similar purpose as DIZ files but are much more common. You may even see the two formats together in the same archive. However, according to the FILE_ID.DIZ specification, the DIZ file should contain just basic information regarding the archive's contents (just 10 lines and a maximum of 45 characters per line), while NFO files may have more information.

How to Open a DIZ File

Because DIZ files are text-only files, any text editor, like Notepad in Windows, will successfully open them for reading. To convert from DIZ to PDF, you can use a text editor in combination with a PDF printer. Since just opening a DIZ file won't launch it in a text editor by default, you can either try opening it and then choose Windows Notepad or, if you have a different text editor installed, open that program first and then use its Open menu to browse for the DIZ file. If neither of the above programs work, we recommend trying NFOPad or Compact NFO Viewer, both of which support ASCII art, which some DIZ files may contain. macOS users can open DIZ files with TextEdit and TextWrangler. If you find that an application on your PC does try to open the DIZ file you have but it's not the one you'd like, see How to Change File Associations in Windows for a quick how-to on changing the program that opens DIZ files.

How to Convert a DIZ File

Since a DIZ file is just a text-based file, you can use any text editor to save the open DIZ file to another format like TXT, HTML, etc. You can't usually change a file extension to one that your computer recognizes and expect the newly renamed file to be usable. An actual file format conversion is often necessary. However, since a DIZ file is just a text file, you could rename FILE_ID.DIZ to FILE_ID.TXT and it would open just fine. DIZ files are just descriptive text files, meaning they can only be converted to other text-based formats. So even though the DIZ file is found within a ZIP file, you can't convert one to another archive format like 7Z or RAR.

Still Can' t Open the File

If your file won't open with the above suggestions, it's possible that you're not really dealing with a file that ends in that file extension. This might happen if you've misread the file extension, which is really easy to do. DZ, for example, looks an awful lot like DIZ even though it could be used for something entirely different. Some DZ files are used by the video game Land of the Dead and have nothing to do with text files. Some other file extensions that are easy to confuse for DIZ include DIF, DIC, DIB, and DIR. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire M File (What It Is and How to Open One) DO File (What It Is & How to Open One) CFM File (What It Is & How to Open One) What Is a Text File? XAML File (What It Is & How to Open One) DIRECTORY File (What It Is & How to Open One) What Is a DAT File? (And How to Open One) AHK File (What It Is and How to Open One) ACV File (What It Is & How to Open One) MQ4 File (What It Is & How to Open One) What Is a CGI File? RVT File (What It Is and How to Open One) 000 File (What It Is & How to Open One) CSV File (What It Is & How to Open One) HPGL File (What It Is & How to Open One) DMC File (What It Is and How to Open One) Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies