Portable Executable

Not to be confused with Portable application or Windows Preinstallation Environment.
Portable Executable
Filename extension
.acm, .ax, .cpl, .dll, .drv, .efi, .exe, .mui, .ocx, .scr, .sys, .tsp, .mun, .msstyles
Internet media type
application/vnd.microsoft.portable-executable[1]
Developed byCurrently: Microsoft
Type of formatBinary, executable, object, shared libraries
Extended fromDOS MZ executable
COFF

The Portable Executable (PE) format is a file format for executables, object code, DLLs and others used in 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows operating systems, and in UEFI environments.[2] The PE format is a data structure that encapsulates the information necessary for the Windows OS loader to manage the wrapped executable code. This includes dynamic library references for linking, API export and import tables, resource management data and thread-local storage (TLS) data. On NT operating systems, the PE format is used for EXE, DLL, SYS (device driver), MUI and other file types. The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) specification states that PE is the standard executable format in EFI environments.[3]

On Windows NT operating systems, PE currently supports the IA-32, x86-64 (AMD64/Intel 64), IA-64, ARM and ARM64 instruction set architectures (ISAs). Prior to Windows 2000, Windows NT (and thus PE) supported the MIPS, Alpha, and PowerPC ISAs. Because PE is used on Windows CE, it continues to support several variants of the MIPS, ARM (including Thumb), and SuperH ISAs.[4]

Analogous formats to PE are ELF (used in Linux and most other versions of Unix) and Mach-O (used in macOS and iOS).

  1. ^ Andersson, Henrik (2015-04-23). "application/vnd.microsoft.portable-executable". IANA. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
  2. ^ "Portable executable (PE) - Definition - Trend Micro IN". www.trendmicro.com. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  3. ^ "UEFI Specification, version 2.8B" (PDF)., a note on p.15, states that "this image type is chosen to enable UEFI images to contain Thumb and Thumb2 instructions while defining the EFI interfaces themselves to be in ARM mode."
  4. ^ "PE Format (Windows)". Retrieved 2017-10-21.