Identify Files with Trid

Users are usually puzzled for a moment if they encounter a file type that they never heard about before and that none of their installed applications seems to be able to load properly. A search on the Internet is probably the main way to identify a file extension and the application it can be opened with.

Another solution is offered by applications like Trid that scan the file and display those information on the local computer. This method has a few advantages over the Internet search. The first and most obvious one is that no Internet is required to identify the file and the second that there will be no danger of landing on a website that might lure the user into downloading malicious software.

Trid (via Shellcity) is actually a very sophisticated software that comes as a command line interface version, a Tridnet version that comes with a GUI, an online version that can be used on the Trid homepage and a scanner that can add new file extensions to the database.

Trid uses a database of definitions to identify files:

TrID uses a database of definitions which describe recurring patterns for supported file types. As this is subject to very frequent update, it’s made available as a separate package. Just download both TrID and this archive and unpack in the same folder.

New definitions can be added by scanning files on the system or by downloading the newest definition file from the Trid homepage.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday June 17, 2008 -
Tags:file extensions, identify files, Software, trid, Windows

Responses so far:

1. Mark0 says:

   June 17, 2008 at 4:54 pm

   Nice to see TrID mentioned here! :)

   Thanks,
   Bye!

   Reply
2. MKR says:

   June 18, 2008 at 2:42 pm

   I just put cygwin in my path variable and use the UNIX “file” command, which does the same thing. Cygwin is a very handy thing to have. :)

   Reply
3. keith says:

   March 21, 2009 at 8:27 pm

   CAn`t find a link to download definitions file

   Reply