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I realize I'm probably in the wrong place, but am trying to figure out in what language a certain program was written. How can I determine that? Looks like this ( 6C:\Program Files\MacGAMUT 2003\MGProgressions 2003.mgh $Ùë m ‘|ôÚë W D~`ÕA~ÿÿÿÿYÕA~ð™I ~ f ) but I realize it may be encrypted or something.

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For : the bytes you pasted look like an opaque binary blob. As suggested, a hex editor is a useful first step, and is right to point out that embedded strings or compiler tags are not definitive. A concise, practical workflow that works in most cases:

  1. Work on a copied file in an isolated VM.
  2. Run a signature tool (file or TrID) to get a first-pass type guess.
  3. Run strings to pull readable text (author names, library names, version info).
  4. Open the file start in a hex editor and look for magic headers (for Windows executables look for "MZ" + a PE header). See the PE specification for details: PE format. Many other formats and their magic numbers are listed here: List of file signatures.

If the file is a PE, inspect imports/resources (version info often reveals build tool or runtime). For managed code try a decompiler (ILSpy for .NET). If a packer/obfuscator was used, run a detector such as Detect It Easy first to identify packers and wrappers: Detect It Easy.

Cautions: extensions can lie — a .mgh or similarly named file may be data, not an executable. Packed, encrypted, or stripped binaries can hide provenance; do not run unknown binaries on a production machine and be aware of legal limits on reverse engineering.

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Member Avatar for techniner

You can use hex editor and evaluate the headers of the .exe.

Member Avatar for jwenting

which may or may not tell you anything whatsoever.
A compiler may or may not put any specific strings in there, and those strings may or may not uniquely identify that compiler.

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