What is a .EXE file?
EXE is a Windows executable program. Run on Microsoft Windows.
- Did you know
- The EXE format traces back to MS-DOS in 1981 and is still how Windows programs launch.
- Every Windows EXE still opens with the letters MZ, the initials of Mark Zbikowski, who designed the MS-DOS executable header in the early 1980s.
- Modern Windows .exe files use the Portable Executable layout, the PE format introduced with Windows NT that also covers DLLs.
- Analyser spots a .EXE file by its signature bytes
4D 5A- ASCII for "MZ", the initials of MS-DOS architect Mark Zbikowski.
- What Analyser reads
- Identify and read metadata from programs and installers: Windows (EXE, DLL, MSI), Android (APK and the XAPK / APKM / APKS app bundles), iOS (IPA), macOS (DMG), and Linux (AppImage). For Android APKs it decodes the binary AndroidManifest.xml - package name, version, min/target SDK, the full permission and feature list, launcher activity, signing scheme (v1/v2/v3) and the native-code ABIs. Android app bundles (XAPK from APKPure, APKM from APKMirror, APKS from bundletool) are read from their manifest - app name, package, version, SDK levels, ABIs - with the base plus split APKs and OBB expansions listed and the whole bundle browsable as an archive.
- Depth of analysis
- .EXE is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .EXE file
- Drag a .EXE file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.