Thanks already.
I will try to reply to each of you. I upgraded by just downloading the 3.3.8 from the official website. I guess I just opened the new version, it stated that a few things had changed, and was going to update the wallet. it seemed to work okay. I can load my address here tomorrow, but funds are there, i can see the balances and transactions, I just can't sign/send/message due to this "forgotten/invalid" password. I use the windows portable executable, windows 10 now, might have been win7 four years ago or initially.
Yes, the file does look like that.

agreed, the password in encrypted, but the file is not.