EXE

File Format
Name	EXE
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Executables EXE
Extension(s)	.exe

Overview

The EXE executable format has its root in MS-DOS and is still widely used today. The first versions were pure 16 bit DOS executables, identified by either "MZ" or "ZM" as the first two bytes. Later on, lots of additional formats were added, like Windows' NE (New Executable) extension, OS/2's LE and LX (Linear Executable), and later Win32's PE executable (a variant of COFF), as well as some DOS extenders adding overlays, resources and other information into it.

Related formats

EXE files often contain embedded "resources", such as icons. Utilities such as 7-Zip can be used to extract them.

Resources

• Ralf Brown's Interrupt List, INT 21h, Function 4Bh, describes lots of the "older" style EXE formats
• Microsoft has a document on the PE specification
• article on the PE format as used by Windows NT 3 by Johannes Plachy
• Linear Executable (LX) file format here (mirror here and here)
• Another copy of above file (not stuck in an iframe)
• DOS EXE format
• Forensics Wiki: Portable Executable Format