What Is an .aspx File (And How to Open It?)

Have you ever downloaded a PDF or JPEG from the web, only to end up with a .aspx file? It’s a lot more common than you might think. Most people discover .aspx files by accident, and don’t know what to do with them!

Here’s a quick rundown on ASPX files and how to open them

What Is A .aspx File?

ASPX stands for Active Server Page Extended. To put it simply, a .aspx file is a webpage. They’re created and used in Microsoft’s ASP.NET framework.

If you see a URL with .aspx at the end, that means it’s using the ASP.NET framework to run.

Another common name for an .aspx file is a .NET web form. When you put a .aspx file into your web browser, it translates the embedded code to HTML. It tells the browser how it should display the coded webpage.

How Do I Open .aspx Files?

A lot of the time, an ASPX file is actually another file in disguise. Your browser might experience an error and confuse another file for an ASPX. This results in the original file downloading as a .aspx.

This is an easy error to fix. If you downloaded a PDF, for example, and it came through as .aspx, just rename it to .pdf. Right-click, click rename and replace .aspx with .pdf.

This should work with any file that comes across as .aspx.

If you want to open the .aspx file as-is, just drag and drop it into any web browser’s URL bar. This will display the web page behind the .aspx.

Convert An .aspx File To PDF

You can convert a .aspx file to a PDF using nothing but your web browser. Just follow this aspx to pdf tutorial, or keep reading.

First, you need to download the .aspx file. Once you’ve done that, drag it into the URL bar of your preferred browser. It does not matter which web browser you use.

The file will open in your browser. Now what you want to do is hit ‘Ctrl+P’ — the print hotkey. This will bring up the ‘Print’ pop-up window.

Navigate over to the ‘Change…’ button under ‘Destination’. Click ‘Change’ and select ‘Save as PDF’. Finally, hit ‘Save’ and your .aspx file will convert to a PDF.

There are also online conversion tools available that will do the same thing. These are usually more complex than the simple ‘print’ option, though. They require converting the ASPX to an OSPX, then converting that to PDF. Go here https://www.sodapdf.com/compress-pdf/ if you want to compress your PDF file in an easy and convenient way.

Skip all the extra steps by using the ‘Ctrl+P’ method.

Dealing With .aspx Files

You probably won’t have to deal with many .aspx files. But it’s good to know what to do with them just in case. There’s nothing worse than being stopped in your tracks by a strange file format.

If you ever come across a .aspx file, don’t panic. Just remember what you learned here and go on with your day.

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