Method of automatically enabling utilization of particular types of files

A method of automatically enabling utilization of particular types of files, the method to be implemented by a user computer when utilizing a file with an unrecognized file type extension, said method comprising the steps of:

• a) determining if the user computer has a file source mapping table stored therein;
• b) if it was determined in step a) that the user computer has the file source mapping table stored therein, searching the file source mapping table with reference to configuration information of the user computer to find source information of an application program server from which an application program suitable for utilizing the file with the unrecognized file type extension could be obtained;
• c) if it was determined in step a) that the user computer does not have the file source mapping table stored therein, or if the source information of the application program server was not found from the file source mapping table in step b), searching a network to find a file source mapping server, and providing the configuration information to the file source mapping server thus found such that the source information of the application program server can be searched from the file source mapping server;
• and
• d) finding the application program server with reference to the source information thus obtained, downloading the application program suitable for utilizing the file with the unrecognized file type extension from the application program server, and installing the application program downloaded from the application program server.