Plugins are mini-programs that extend features of other programs. Also, you can use HEX editors to open DLL file and view its content, but to extract any useful information you should use dumpbin.exe tool.Īnother common usage of DLL files are 'plugins'. Some useful information could be extracted from DLL file using Dependency Walker which allows to open DLL files and shows dependencies between different DLLs. That is why it is impossible to open DLL file and view it using regular text editors. This DLL is used by browsers, email clients, instant messenger programs etc.ĭLL is a binary file. A good example would be wsock32.dll that contains code for sending data over the Internet. Attempting to execute or open DLL file and run its code on the wrong type of system will cause a failure.ĭLL files usually contain code that is shared by many different applications. 64-bit systems are still uncommon while 32-bit systems are mainstream. This code can be designed to run on either 16, 32 or 64 bit systems. DLL files contain executable code in 'Portable Executable' format. DLL file extension is used by Microsoft Windows to store Dynamic- Link Library.

What is a dll file?