HexBrowser.NET

File information is dictated by more than just the extension, but it’s not too easy to get your hands on them. Needless to say that there are specialized applications which can read the necessary details behind every kind of file, and one such example is HexBrowser.NET.

A first good thing about it is the lack of an installer, allowing you to benefit from what it has to offer from the moment download is done. More than that, it can fit on a thumb drive in case you want to use it on other computers. Just make sure that the computer you use it on already has .NET Framework installed, otherwise HexBrowser.NET doesn’t work.

The window contains different elements to minimize browsing effort and info viewing. There’s a built-in navigation panel which lets you easily jump from one folder to the other, while also showing the item type. The second panel contains several tabs for a comfortable view of general info, HEX view, as well as text content where available.

The application doesn’t really put emphasis on file extension, given that it already displays it in the navigation panel. General info shows name and path, short filename, size, attributes, related date variables, serial number, hardlinks, as well as real file size. Everything is selectable in case you want to extract info and save it somewhere else.

The HEX view is devoid of any editing options. Decimal values are displayed, as well as corresponding text elements. Sadly, selecting decimal values doesn’t highlight the corresponding character. The text tab mostly speaks for itself, and there are no editing options here either. The settings panel makes it possible to select the info fields to show.

Taking everything into consideration, we can state that HexBrowser.NET is a powerful tool you can use to gather more info on any kind of file. No setup is required, offering a lot of flexibility, while the tabbed structure makes navigation between info sections pretty comfortable.