The "Module" page is inserted by &xwp; for all executable files
to display additional information about the executable.
This information is retrieved directly from the file and cannot be changed.
All executables on operating systems which maintain some compatibility with DOS
(such as OS/2 and Windows) still use the same EXE header as DOS 3.x. However,
for the "extended" EXE formats used by OS/2 and Windows, after the old DOS header,
additional executable headers appear in the file. &xwp; attempts to analyze
the various headers in the file and shows the results on this page.
In the "Module format" group, the "Executable format"
will be one of the following:
- "DOS 3.x": the file has just the old DOS EXE header, so it's
probably a DOS file.
- "New Executable (NE)": this format has been introduced
by IBM and Microsoft with OS/2 1.x and is still used for 16-bit executables
under both Windows and OS/2. Most Windows 3.x applications will have this
format, as well as 16-bit OS/2 applications (including 16-bit libraries,
such as device drivers).
- "Portable Executable (PE)": this format has been introduced
by Microsoft for 32-bit Windows applications and is extensively used under
both Windows 95 and NT. Also, some Win32s applications (i.e. 32-bit applications
running under Windows 3.x) will have this format.
OS/2 neither uses nor understands this format per default, but if you have Odin
installed, OS/2 can load such executable.
(BTW, that's where the name of Odin's
PE.EXE
comes from.)
- "Linear Executable (LX)": this format has been introduced by
IBM. All 32-bit OS/2 applications will have this format, including 32-bit libraries
(i.e. most DLL files).
The "Target OS" shows you the operating system for which this
executable was written. This will show one of "DOS 3.x", "DOS 4.x", "OS/2",
"Win16", "Win386", or "Win32". For some executable formats, &xwp; will
display the target OS as specified in the executable itself, for others it
will do a best guess.
The "Module description" group shows you additional information about
the executable as specified by the executable's creator.
This can be retrieved for LX and NE formats.
This information will be the same as returned by the BLDLEVEL.EXE
command-line utility, which is shipped with OS/2.
For OS/2 executables,
IBM has introduced a special format to specify the vendor, version, and description
all in one string; if this format is obeyed, &xwp; will display this information,
otherwise only the "Description" field will be set.