gHacks technology news » exe http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:11:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 MSI or EXE Setup http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/23/msi-or-exe-setup/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/23/msi-or-exe-setup/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:47:10 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/23/msi-or-exe-setup/ Some software programs are unpacked to both an msi ans exe setup file. If you are a end user you might wonder which to execute to install the application properly. Chance is that you tried both ways at least once and noticed that clicking the msi or the exe setup file would install the application properly. The setup.exe that you encounter in lots of software distributions is called a bootstrapper. This setup.exe file will check if the computer system is capable of running the software program; If it is it will initiate msiexec.exe which will launch the installation using the msi file.

Users who double-click on the msi file directly will also install the application but with the possibility that it will not run properly on the computer system. Take a computer program that requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 for example. If the user has an older version of the framework installed setup.exe will download the files needed and launch the installation of the compatible framework and launch the installation using the msi file afterwards.

If the user installs using the msi file the installation will go through without problems but might experience an application crash or warning message while starting the application. It is therefor recommend on end user systems to always install applications using the setup.exe file if both a setup.exe and xyz.msi are available after unpacking the software program.

setup ms exe

There are even some msi setup files out there that will not perform the installation upon execution but request an installation using the setup.exe file instead to ensure that all necessary components are installed.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/23/msi-or-exe-setup/feed/ 6 Create executable media files http://www.ghacks.net/2008/05/14/create-executable-media-files/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/05/14/create-executable-media-files/#comments Wed, 14 May 2008 09:31:41 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=4122 Want to send a video to your friend that you found on Youtube only to find out that Youtube is blocked at his school or workplace or that the video is not playable because it is missing the needed codec and the installation of new applications or codecs is blocked ? Audio / Video to Exe might be the solution. I’m usually not very fond of executables sent over email or offered on websites and very cautious before I even think of double-clicking those files.

I think it’s ok as long as you can validate that the executable has been send by a friend. I would still scan it using an online scanner though. The software supports a lot of different audio and video formats, all the important ones are included like mov, flv, mp4, mpg, avi, swf and wmv.

Audio / Video to Exe (via Instant Fundas) can process multiple files at once and either convert them into a different format or create one executable for each multimedia file that has been added to the interface. The output size is roughly the size of the audio or video file.

audio video to exe

I did encounter several errors while testing the application. It seems to have trouble with large files. The conversion of a 1.7 Gigabyte video to the executable format succeeded but I was not able to play it afterwards. Some videos were not playing correctly as well after the conversion.

The only advice that I can give is to try it out for yourself and see if the conversion worked for the audio or video files before you upload them or send them to a friend.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/05/14/create-executable-media-files/feed/ 1 Check Exe Files on Your Computer http://www.ghacks.net/2008/02/21/check-exe-files-on-your-computer/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/02/21/check-exe-files-on-your-computer/#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:54:26 +0000 Cheryl http://www.ghacks.net/2008/02/21/check-exe-files-on-your-computer/ If you ever open up your task manager and navigate to the processes tab, you will see a bunch of entries with the extension ‘exe’. While entries with application names on them tell you exactly what they are, you will also find entries with names that have no real identifying characteristics.

Let’s say you’re curious to know exactly what each entry does. In that case, head over to Exelib. This site is a database of executable programs. When you type in the name of an exe file, you get information about what that file does, where it is located, what effect does it have on your system, and how much of a threat it is to your machine.

Take svchost.exe for example. This entry in the Task Manager scans the ‘to be started’ section of your machine and creates a list of processes to launch. While this application itself does not pose a threat, it may occasionally launch a critical process.

Exelib helps you determine what executables your computer is running or possesses. While it is always good to keep track of executable files, this site can also help protect your computer. You can check new executables that have newly appeared to see if they are viruses or have spyware properties. Occasionally, you may come across an exe file that isn’t in the database. However, the database is always being updated so you can always check back later.

Do you have any special way to check what your executable files can do? How do you deal with unknown files?

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/02/21/check-exe-files-on-your-computer/feed/ 8 Extract Flash Files from Browser Cache http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/13/extract-flash-files-from-browser-cache/ http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/13/extract-flash-files-from-browser-cache/#comments Wed, 13 Dec 2006 07:37:53 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/13/extract-flash-files-from-browser-cache/ Whenever I want to save a flash file, like a game or animation that I have been playing / watching, I have to go to the cache folder of Firefox and search for a file with the right extension and size. This is a lot of work if you have either a large cache or want to extract many flash files at once.

A far easier method would be to use the freeware Movie Extractor Scout lite. The Movie Extractor Scout scans the cache of Opera, Internet Explorer and Firefox automatically and create a list of all the flash files that it finds in there. You may watch them once the list has been created, grab the download link or add them to your favorites which means that the file is saved to another place on your hard drive.

You may wonder how you can get those flash files into your cache in the first place. This is really easy, just visit the website and view or play. The file will be automatically transferred to your cache. Some multi file games might not work with Movie Extractor Scout lite but most single ones do.

The developers website has a tutorial on how to create executable files from swf (the flash files) which is great if you want the application to be standalone. (sending to a friend for instance).

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