A lot of exe files are secretly zip files. zip files can contain arbitrary data at the end of the file. exe files can have arbitrary data at the start of the file. It’s a match made at Microsoft.
This is true for the code part, but executables can also contain data does compress well and maybe not be compressed inside the EXE (e.g. - to avoid the need to decompress it on every run)
On a somewhat related note, why do so many open source projects give me a zip file with a single exe inside it instead of just the exe directly?
Because zipping it can reduce the size
Plus a lot of antivirus whatevers will straight up block the downloading of *.exe
EXE files don’t really compress well, plus the files should already be internally compressed when the exe is built.
A lot of exe files are secretly zip files. zip files can contain arbitrary data at the end of the file. exe files can have arbitrary data at the start of the file. It’s a match made at Microsoft.
This is true for the code part, but executables can also contain data does compress well and maybe not be compressed inside the EXE (e.g. - to avoid the need to decompress it on every run)