file Alternatives

    file is described as 'standard Unix program for recognizing the type of data contained in a computer file using magic numbers'. There are six alternatives to file for Windows, Linux, Online / Web-based and Mac. The best alternative is TrID. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try TrIDNet or Toolsley File Identifier. Other great apps like file are FileCHK (Free, Open Source), HexBrowser (Free) and JHOVE (Free, Open Source).

    This page was last updated Jan 22, 2020

    1. TrID

      • Free Personal • Proprietary
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • Online
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        Allows to detect file type by recognition of binary signatures. Database with signatures can be downloaded from author site or trained by user with program named TrIDScan(see at author site). Will helpful while restoring files or working with files with exotic extensions.
        No screenshots yet

      • TrIDNet

        • Free • Proprietary
        • Windows
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        TRIDNet is the GUI version of TrID, probably more practical to use than the CLI version, especially for those not very familiar with the command line prompt.

        Discontinued

        TrIDNet v1.95 - 26/01/16. As from 2021 Feb it does work fine on Windows 10

      • Identify files based on the libmagic database in your browser. HTML5/JS port of the "file" tool. No downloads, no installation and no uploads!

      • FileCHK

        • Free • Open Source
        • Windows
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          Identify and recover (as much as possible) data lost in CHK files.
          No screenshots yet

        • HexBrowser

          • Free • Proprietary
          • Windows
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            HexBrowser is a tool that identifies file types. It does not care about the file extension, but opens each file to look for signatures so it can determine the exact type of a file. It now recognizes more than 800 different file formats.
          • JHOVE is a file format identification, validation and characterisation tool. It is implemented as a Java application and is usable on any Unix, Windows, or OS X platform with appropriate Java installation.
            No screenshots yet
          Showing 6 of 6 alternatives