DESQview Program Information File

File Format
Name	DESQview Program Information File
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Executables DESQview Program Information File
Extension(s)	.dvp
Released	~1985

DESQview Program Information File (PIF) is a file format used by the DESQview operating environment by Quarterdeck. It is an extension of the original 369-byte PIF format. For the original format, and other extensions of it, see Program information file.

A PIF file is a companion to a DOS program. It stores various settings, mainly to tell what resources are required by the program.

Filenames normally have the pattern "??-PIF.DVP", where "??" identifies keystrokes associated with the program.

The DESQview extension is an extra 47 bytes at the end of the file, so the file is always (?) exactly 416 bytes in size. This extension is different from, and incompatible with, the extended PIF format used by Windows 3.x and later.

There are at least three different versions. The version number is given by the byte at offset 382.

Specifications

• PIF220.ZIP → PIF220.DOC

Software

• DESQView 1.x, at WinWorld
• DESQView 2.x, at WinWorld

Sample files

• Quarterdeck DESQview v1.11 → ... → *.PIF (format version 0)
• API_EXAM.ZIP → *.PIF (mostly format version 1)
• DESQVIEW (v2.31?) → DESQVIEW.ZIP → *.PIF (format version 2)
• Some of the files at [1] include DVP files.

Further reading

• Wikipedia: DESQview