Windows Explorer's Properties dialog shows Size, Created/Modified/Accessed timestamps, and other generic file attributes — but nothing about how the binary was actually built. WhatPE adds a "PE Info" tab to the standard Properties dialog for EXE/DLL files, so the answer to "what PE is this?" is one right-click away:
Right-click a .exe or .dll → Properties → PE Info:
- Actual build timestamp (the file's Created/Modified date is often wrong — copies, extracts, and CI artifacts reset it)
- Build configuration (Release or Debug)
- Bitness (32-bit, 64-bit, or AnyCPU)
- Compiler / Visual Studio toolset version
- Target .NET Framework version and assembly version (for .NET binaries)
- Security mitigations baked into the binary: DEP, ASLR, CFG
This information is technically all present in the PE header, but reading it normally means opening the file in a full-blown PE viewer and digging through raw header fields. WhatPE decodes it and puts it exactly where you already look for file info — no separate tool to open, no fields to decode by hand.