What is an EXE File?
If there is one single factor that can be pointed to as being the root of all the fear that some people have about computers, it is the bizarre world of file extensions. Some file extensions have become so common place that even your grandmother knows what they are. Words like jpg and mp3 are now used in common speech to denote a picture file or a music file. Not all file extensions are created equally, however. The mysterious .exe file is one file extension people dont know much about, except to be afraid of it. While clicking on the wrong .exe file can be extremely bad for your computer, especially if your anti-virus software is out of date, .exe files shouldnt be feared. With a little education, .exe files can be used wisely by even a novice computer user. To begin, the extension .exe is short for executable file. Dont let that big word scare you; all it means is that an .exe file is a program that is going to run on your computer. Remember, all computer programs are simply lines an
An exe file (pronounced as letters E-X-E) is a computer file that ends with the extension “.exe” otherwise known as an executable file. When one clicks on an exe file, a built-in routine automatically executes code that can set several functions into motion. Exe files are used to install and run programs and routines. An exe file is just one of several file format types that are recognized by various operating systems. Text files, which are files that do not generate code but simply display text, end in txt. Microsoft Word saves files with the doc extension, short for document. Another common file type is the compressed or zipped file, which uses the zip extension. The exe file is one of the most useful types of files precisely because it runs programs; however, this also makes it potentially harmful. It can be used as a delivery system for viruses or other malicious routines. Outwardly, the infected exe file might seem quite benign. Clicking on it might appear to launch nothing more t
An .exe file is an executable application, meaning that you can execute it, or (in plainer terms) do something with it. Nowadays, the overwhelming majority of software programs that you download will come as .exe applications, and all you need to do is download the file, and double click it on your PC’s desktop. This simple double-click action will then run the program itself, and often begins the program installation process. The humble .exe file is so popular because it is so simple for both the designer to create and for the end-user to use. This popularity comes at a price, however, as the proliferation of thousands of .exe files means that many of the most common errors you are ever likely to encounter when using your PC day-to-day are probably going to be .exe errors. There is no doubt that .exe errors are as common as they are as a direct result of the file format’s popularity. All .exe files are elegantly compact and provide a tremendously convenient method of installing even t
One of the first things that we need to do is understand what an EXE file is and more importantly what it looks like. Quite simply, an EXE file is an improvement over the COM file format in that allows the program size to exceed one segment (64k). COM programs are limited to 64K, including 256 bytes for the PSP. EXE files, on the other hand can occupy a much larger space by using more than one segment. The limit on an EXE file’s size is the amount of memory/hard drive space you have. There are other characteristics that differ between the EXE and COM formats. In a COM file, the stack is automatically defined, whereas, in an EXE file, you need to initialize it yourself. This is probably the single most difficult concept to grasp when writing EXE files, the stack. Care must be taken that you define the stack large enough to handle all of the push and pop instructions that your program will use. If your stack is to small, your program is sure to crash. The next difference in the two file
