File formats
What a format can tell you about a file, and, in the section most references leave out, what it cannot. Written for people who have to decide something about a file they did not create.
4 formats documented in depth. Added to when a format warrants a page and it can be written properly, rather than to reach a number.
formats
- .exeWindows executable
A program the Windows loader maps into memory and runs directly. The extension is a convention: what makes it executable is the header, not the name.
- .msiWindows Installer Package
A database of instructions the Windows Installer service reads to place software on a machine. Not a program that runs, a package that is executed on your behalf.
- .vbsVBScript file
Text run by the Windows Script Host. A small language whose reach comes entirely from the COM objects it can create by name.
- .zipZIP archive
The general-purpose container. It executes nothing itself, and it is the substrate under a surprising proportion of the formats that do.
Executables · Installers · Scripts · Archives