I'm surprised wordpad wouldn't open the files. That implies it's not so much a size issue as a formatting issue. In the future, with a known-text file, MS-Word is pretty good about opening big things.
For files of questionable content you want something that doesn't care about the format (and won't every try to RUN anything). Ideally you'd want a binary editor or "Hex editor" which will show you the file's contents in two panes, one listing the data nibble by nibble and one decoding that into ASCII.
The one I have on hand was written for Windows 3.1. It works ... as long as the command line arguments you give it include no long filenames and no spaces. Haven't seen a free one more up-to-date than that... but haven't looked very hard.
If you want that one, just ask. If you find a better one, share its location. :)
The same concept is a standard command line tool under most unices.
opening a random file
For files of questionable content you want something that doesn't care about the format (and won't every try to RUN anything). Ideally you'd want a binary editor or "Hex editor" which will show you the file's contents in two panes, one listing the data nibble by nibble and one decoding that into ASCII.
The one I have on hand was written for Windows 3.1. It works ... as long as the command line arguments you give it include no long filenames and no spaces. Haven't seen a free one more up-to-date than that... but haven't looked very hard.
If you want that one, just ask. If you find a better one, share its location. :)
The same concept is a standard command line tool under most unices.