Speaking of which, it blew my mind when I discovered that .EXEs are just zip files compressed archives. Same goes for .DLLs, and a lot of other common Windows file extensions as well. (.DOC too, for example IIRC). They all open in your favorite archiver software (I like NanaZip; which is a fork of 7-Zip with a modern UI).
I don’t think that’s true for .exe or .dll files, but it’s definitely true for .docx files and other Office files ending with x. Some .exe’s are self-extracting archives or have other files embedded in them, so maybe that’s what you’ve been seeing.
You are actually correct. They can contain archived files or resources that can be unpacked with an archive program (including on Linux btw), but they aren’t just a zip file. That’s why my Linux archive manager (ark I think) offer to open one, but won’t execute it. They can see the extra content even if they can’t execute the file as intended.
Why don’t you just try it and see for yourself?
Remind me in about 5 hours and I’ll upload a screenshot as proof when I get home.
Just because they open in 7-Zip or whatever doesn’t mean they are just a zip file. There are several kinds of archives. EXEs are a special case as well. They aren’t archives at all. Rather they can contain archives or extra content along with being an executable. One reason is self extracting archives. Here an archive is packaged with an extraction program as an exe all in one. The other case is exes that have extra resources like images, videos, graphics textures, etc. Either way it’s an executable plus some extra stuff, not a zip archive. DLLs I am not sure about, but I suspect something similar is happening here.
Next time you should research stuff before posting it on Lemmy. Things are sometimes more complicated than they appear.
docx you are correct about though. Specifically it’s a zip file that contains XML files and resources.
Edit: I actually found an article on self extracting archives, it’s quite an interesting technology to be fair even if it causes confusion: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_compression
By “zip file”, I meant a compressed archive. I’m not as nerdy as you guys are so I see now that there is a difference. I appreciate the correction.
That said, you have to admit that it’s still cool that these different file formats are nothing more than archives. Maybe not to you but it blew my mind when I first learned this.
Bruh an exe is not an archive. Some just happen to contain an archive, not all. As me and the other guy discovered some archive utilities can read them, but what they are doing is closer to a binary analysis tool than unpacking an actual archive. It’s not about being nerdy, it’s about getting your facts right.