Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Audio, Video, Photography exe conversion?

OS 10.6.8
I have an exe video file and I'm wondering if there is any reliable software that will convert it to a MP4 which will enable me to play it.
jaybass

The exe extension is a Windows executable application file, not a playable audio file. Probably what you have is a self-extracting zip file containing some sort of windows audio file. The trick is to first unzip the file on your Mac.

• Try simply changing the .exe extension to .zip and double clicking on it to trigger OS X's built in zip expander.
• If that doesn't work open terminal and enter the command unzip thisfile.exe
• The app store catalogs a number of compression/decompression applications for a wide variety of compressed file types. The one I use is called "The Unarchiver" and among the multitude of compression types it can handle is Windows Self-Extracting Zip (.exe).

From there you should be able to tell what type it is from the extension of the expanded file and use an appropriate player/codec. Hopefully it won't be too exotic a codec.

As joemikeb said, .exe files are not videos. They are computer programs dsigned to run on Microsoft Windows.

99% of the time, if you have an .exe file and someone says "this is a video!" what it actually is is a computer virus trying to trick the gullible into running it thinking it's a video. Where did this so-called "video" come from?

Thanks joe @ tacit for your response. I am aware that an EXE file is for windows.
When I downloaded this movie, it never mentioned it being an exe file. The movie in question is " Fish Tank" After googling the possibility of converted it, I decided to trash it and download it again using a different option (source) This one is an avi which I converted to a MP4, my preference. Turned out perfect. I do have "The Unarchiver" which I never thought of trying but I will remember if the occasion should arise again. BTW, if any download contains malware, Virus Barrier alerts me immediately.
jaybass.