WhatFile

Windows files use extensions like "bmp" and "exe" to allow you and other programs to tell what type they are. But a lot of files have the incorrect extension. For example some programs, even Windows itself, will often change the extension of image files. A lot of viruses also masquerade as non-executable files to encourage you to run them.

However, many files can be identified by the first few bytes of the file itself, enabling you to discover the true extension. This is the main purpose of WhatFile, but it will also be usable as a quick file viewer, and also will provide an analysis of the file content.

Currently the WhatFile application can only ID 20 file types and provide a word / line / character count, but more is coming. We would like to have WhatFile in a releasable state before the end of the year.