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I'm trying to edit a file FRED.COM in Windows XP by right-clicking it and selecting "Open With...". But no such option appears. Does anyone know why, and what I can do about it?
I've looked at this question here but the circumstances are not quite the same.
Brian Hooper
Posted 2011-09-27T15:34:38.840
Reputation: 1 755
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.com files are binary executeables. To be honest they are not intended to be editable. To make changes you would need to get the source code then re-compile the file. There are decompilers out there, but generally they don't provide particularly useful code.
EBGreen
Posted 2011-09-27T15:34:38.840
Reputation: 7 834
Ah! That explains it. It so happens that this particular file is a VMS command procedure currently residing on my PC, and therefore text, but with a file extension .COM as is customary on VMS. – Brian Hooper – 2011-09-27T15:48:01.053
1Well, it certainly makes sense to edit COM, EXE, and DLL files (or, for that matter, any file at all) using a hex editor. – Andreas Rejbrand – 2011-09-27T15:50:56.967
While you can edit any file in a hex editor, that is still not the intention for binary executeables. – EBGreen – 2011-09-27T15:52:13.163
In the future if you reference a specfic file, you need to describe what it is, otherwise there isn't any sense in using the exact filename. It makes your question to specfic to you. – Ramhound – 2011-09-27T16:52:06.953