"With [the Win95] release, Apple was tested - and they failed miserably. Not only did I warn Apple to take 95 more seriously, I also accurately forecast the massive decline that would happen to them if they didn't do just that. The MS platform has changed dramatically and it is much greater than just the operating system these days. Apple, on the other hand, hasn't advanced nearly as much but they are predominantly consumer-based today and less vulnerable to this comparative weakness as a result. Just like the last time, they will largely leverage hardware this time, and, as before, they will be up against companies with resources that eclipse their own."
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Member since:Depends on what kind of file it is. Rename an *.exe to *.bin and it won't run. Rename it to *.exe and it will run again.
Take a small app, call it britneynude.bin - claim it is a movie, and tell the person to change the .bin part to .exe ... and it will run. And there you go... virus...
Unfortunately, many people are dumb enough to do that 
And windows is dumb enough to be based on filetypes ( *.exe,*.bat,*.cmd etc.)... and with the integration of IE in the OS, bad things are bound to happen.
dylansmrjones
kristian AT herkild DOT dk
Member since:2005-07-02
The file may not run (because if it's not an app it can't be executed) but it will be considered as an executable by the OS, i.e. it will have "execute" permissions. That's the whole point.
In a sane setup, any downloaded file on a *nix system will have the executable attribute turned off, so you can't just run arbitrary code automatically. If you don't understand these very basic security implications, then you have no business discussing computer security at all.
Member since:>>a file won't be executable if you rename it to .exe......... yeah, there will be an error message but the file won't act as an executable program... omg<<
Obviously you fail to understand.
If one renames a file (any file) under with a .exe extension, Windows will happily try to execute it in a certain way. If one renames it with a .com extension, Windows will happily try to load & execute it in another way. Similarly for .bat, .cmd and a surprising number of other extensions.
This is in itself not the core of the problem, except that:
(1) it is possible to rename and then to attempt to run a file without end-user approval, and
(2) the file manager and other applications (particularly Outlook) can be made to hide the display of the filename extension.
Bad. Very bad. Broken by design.
Member since:
"Files can be executable in Windows simply by adding the appropriate file extension. That's the problem, and it's still present in WinXP (and, no doubt, in Vista). "
a file won't be executable if you rename it to .exe......... yeah, there will be an error message but the file won't act as an executable program... omg