Hello trid users,
some days ago i run TrID on some reports (*.nfo) generated by Microsoft
System information tool msinfo32.exe. Such files are described by
xml-utf16le.trid.xml too general as "Generic XML (UTF-16 LE)" with wrong
file name extension ( See output/trid-old.txt).
So i run tridscan on inspected samples to generate nfo-msinfo32.trid.xml.
Microsoft claim to support the open source movement, but apparently they
never published the file format used for NFO reports. So it not clear which
XML constructs always appear like "<MsInfo>". Or other elements seems to
optional or vary with used system language like "<Item>" on English systems
or "<Element>" on german systems.
Luckily i found at least a document on Microsoft servers about the
command-line switches of MSINFO32 tool. So i add that as reference URL.
But there are more annoying items. I tried to gather samples from different
Windows versions with different languages. So i also run msinfo32.exe on
Windows 98. The generated NFO sample on that system do not use the XML based
format, but instead a OLE2 based file format is used on that old system.
But when i try to open that sample on new system a get a message like "the
Windows 98 file format is not supported any more". So i mention this fact
about different incompatible versions inside remark line.
I have tested only a dozen of NFO reports. Maybe for systems with other time
zone settings or other locale setting time expressions like
<CreationUTC>01/05/19 00:35:15</CreationUTC> are different.
With new trid definition all my modern Microsoft System Information files
are now recognized ( see appended output/trid-new.txt). TrID definition,
some examples and output are stored in archive nfo.zip. I hope that the XML
file can be used in future version of triddefs.
With best wishes
J?rg Jenderek
