Displaying Version Information using PE Explorer

This section provides a tutorial example on how to display version information properties of executable files, .exe and .dll files, using PE (Portable Executable) Explorer.

Another way to get version information on a Portable Executable (PE) file , .exe or .dll file, is to use third party tools.

If you have PE Explorer installed, you can use it to view properties of version information on any PE file. Let's try it on C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe.

Run "PE Explorer 1.99" and click "File > Open File...".

Navigate to the "C:\Windows\system32" folder and select "cmd.exe" to open it. The PE header properties of "cmd.exe" will be displayed.

Click "Tools > Dependency Scanner". List of dependent DLL files of "cmd.exe" will be played in the left pane. But in the right pane, version information of "cmd.exe" will be displayed.

Path: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
Version Info

Info:               VS_VERSION_INFO
Signature:          FEEF04BDh
Struc Version:      1.0
File Version:       6.1.7601.17514
Product Version:    6.1.7601.17514
File Flag Mask:     0.63
File Flag:
File OS:            NT (WINDOWS32)
File Type:          APP
File SubType:       UNKNOWN
File Date:          00:00:00  00/00/0000

   Struc has Child(ren). Size: 820 bytes.

Child Type:         StringFileInfo
Language/Code Page: 1033/1200
CompanyName:        Microsoft Corporation
FileDescription:    Windows Command Processor
FileVersion:        6.1.7601.17514 (win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850)
InternalName:       cmd
LegalCopyright:     c Microsoft Corporation. All right reserved.
OriginalFilename:   Cmd.Exe.MUI
ProductName:        Microsoft Windows Operating System
ProductVersion:     6.1.7601.17514

Child Type:         VarFileInfo
Translation:        1033/1200

Comparing with the output of the previous tutorial, I can see that:

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction of C# (C Sharp)

 Data Type and Variables

 Logical Expressions and Conditional Statements

 Arrays and Loop Statements

 Data Type Features

 Floating-Point Data Types

 Passing Parameters to Methods

 Execution Environment Class

 Visual C# 2010 Express Edition

 Class Features

 C# Compiler and Intermediate Language

 Compiling C# Source Code Files

 MSBuild - Microsoft Build Engine

 Memory Usages of Processes

 Multithreading in C#

 Async Feature from C# 5

 System.IO.FileInfo Class

System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo Class

 What Is FileVersionInfo?

 Public Properties of FileVersionInfo Class

 Creating FileVersionInfo Objects

 ShowFileVersionInfo.cs - Print File Version Information

 Displaying Version Information using Windows Explorer

Displaying Version Information using PE Explorer

 WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation

 Partial Classes and Partial Methods

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/ePUB