How can i open a .exe file ?!!!

I was trying to look in the forums for a section that could fill this thread and i tought that maby this one does.

I have XP Pro, 256Mb ram, 40Gb hardrive with 10.7 of free disk space, the CPU normaly is a 0 to 1% when im doing nothing and the page file on the 95Mb.

I downloaded yesterday a file, that is 740Mb, and it is in a .exe format.
When i click on it a Dos window flashes and closes imediatly.
Then i tried to open it "via" command line, and when i typed the name of the file in its folder, it said that it wasnt recognized has an internal or external command, operational program or batch file.
I checked to see if the name was correct and it was.

Now, before i ask what do i need to open this file, i must say that, a year or so, i downloaded a file that was 450Mb ex: test.exe and when i clicked on it it didnt do anything has well, but at that point i had win ME and i right clicked it and it allowed me to open it with Winrar.
But in XP that option didnt appeared after i made the Step to Upgrade to XP, that was a year or so.
Now, iv already tried to open it manualy with Winrar but nothing...


What can i do? if there is something that i need..or..i dont know :x

I forgot, even so after i tried to open the file..all my CPU activity, memory etc..remains normal!! :)

Greetings:

Let me give you 2 little pieces of advice. Do with them what you will:

1. Just because you don't SEE the programs do anything, doesn't mean that they're not doing anything.

2. Downloading 450mb files called "test.exe" and running them, can NEVER, under any circumstances, be considered a "good thing" to do.

The file might be corrupt ... sounds indeed like a self-extracting Winrar or zip file.

If like you said you tried to open it by rightclicking on the file and select "open with" and choose RaR out of the list (Rar offcourse needs to be installed ..duh) and it doesn't work ...hmmm

It might be a corrupt file.

You can try a tool named FileAlyzer to check out the file.
Or try a Hex editor ..but that's the last resort because loading a file of 740Mb in a Hex Editor ...takes a long time I think.

Someone else might have some other ideas.

Hope this helps a bit,

Gr33tz

What is the .exe program supposed to be/do? If you don't know, then it's important to understand that you should NEVER download or open/run an .exe file that is unfamiliar to you.

Hmm...I'm guessing you downloaded a game or a program from some warez site...

Make sure the file is in the right format....I.E. if its not a zip file, or anything and that you're using the right tool to open it. Just because its .exe, doesn't neccessarily make it an executable.

Besides the extension, windows (and other O.S.) will look at magic numbers and loader structures inside the object. If Load cant find those structures, it wont execute file (cant be loaded into memory)
self extract utilities are .exe by nature. An .exe with that size should be a kind of "packed file". If programs does nothing, it may be:
- corrupt downloaded software (or its already bad at the site)
- wrong O.S.
- a kind of malware. If you have got thru p2p (like Kazaa), delete it. There is A LOT of back door installers that work like that. You click, nothing happens. You delete it. And a trojan was installed on your pc. be carefull