How can I get a list of all windows recognized exe

Question

I want to get a list of all the file extensions that a windows machine will recognize as an executable.

I tried the following in command prompt:

echo %PATHEXT%

But all I got from that is:

.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC

Which is not a complete list. It's missing things like:

.SCR;.REG;.VB;.VBSCRIPT

and so on.

Answer 1

If the extension is not in %PATHEXT%, then there is no association. If you just type the.vbs at the command line, you will be informed of same.

If you type cscript the.vbs, then the script will run; assuming cscript.exe is somewhere in the PATH variable.

In short, files such as .SCR;.REG;.VB;.VBSCRIPT are not actually executable. It is the association that is used to know which executable can run them.