DLLs as Plugins.

DLLs as Plugins.

Frequently files with file extension DLL are used to extend popular applications like Media Player, Photoshop, etc.

For example if you want to make Media Player support additional media file formats or Photoshop to support some new cool effects you may have to download extensions.

Most of these extensions contain DLL files. It is good and bad at the same time.

• Good in a way that you downloading not only additional data but some new executable code which will improve your application
• Bad in a way that if you accidentally download such extension from malicious site you can harm your computer badly. Thus you should be very careful where you download files from.

File Extension SCR and screen saver

Often DLL files have different file extensions but still used as an extension for application. An example of such use is Windows SCR file which is responsible for storing screensaver executable code. Even though this file is named as SCR inside it is a DLL file. You can verify it by looking at it in Visual Studio or text editor. It has MZ at the beginning.

Many application developers rename their DLL files to some other extensions which makes dealing with all the files more confusing. But you can always check whether this file is DLL by looking for MZ letters at the beginning of it.

If you are not able to open file with certain file extension make sure to check if extension for the file is correct. It is possible that information in the file doesn't match file extension.