reading and writing to *.dat files

[alex_read]

I will be told otherwise here (I'm sure there's a proper way someone will point out) but I like to cheat.

1) Set the .dat files attributes to normal :

SetAttr "C:\file.dat", VBNormal

2) Rename the file to .ini

NAME "C:\file.dat" as "C:\file.ini"

3) Carry out the ammendment as normal
4) Change it back after.

This will work, watch the number of other posts to critisise this & show you a proper way though, come on where are they ?