SCR extension: basic file types and ways to open them

Quite often, many users of computer systems based on Windows, when viewing the contents of directories in file managers, run into files that have the SCR extension. Immediately the question arises: what are such objects, what program to open them and whether it is viruses.

SCR extension. What is this: a virus or a secure program?

In general, files of this type in the most common form are ordinary screensaver programs or screensavers (screensavers), which were originally intended to prevent burnout of the phosphor on obsolete monitors. Over time, they began to be used exclusively as decorations or automatic concealment of information displayed on the monitor after a certain period of time when there was no workplace.

In addition, the executable file with the SCR extension is a program that runs as an EXE file, but the program is very unusual, since you can set the use of the password input in order to return the normal view to the screen contents. As it is already clear, such objects do not carry any threats to the system or user data.

But for files with an SCR extension, some dangerous viruses can be masked. However, it is not possible to establish independently that without scanning the system an anti-virus scanner that this is a threat. Such objects can be located exactly in the same location as the original screensavers (System32 directory of the root directory of the system). To make sure that the file is not dangerous, you need to use the right-click context menu with a choice of the scan string set by the antivirus in the standard Explorer, or conduct a complex system test.

SCR extension: than to open a standard file?

Now on how to run such files. Because the file is executable and is a program, the easiest way to open it is to double-click. You can also use the open command in the right-click menu on the object. You can also use the settings that are caused by right-clicking on an empty area of the Desktop, where you select a section of parameters and use the screensaver.

On the other hand, the SCR extension can be opened in special applications to create or edit screen savers. But this is unlikely to be useful to an ordinary user, since such applications are narrowly focused and are now clearly lost in popularity.

Files of scripts and profiles

But this list of files that have the SCR extension is not limited. So, for example, this format is one of the main ones when setting scripts in the form of scripts. In the same game Delta Force, developed by Nova Logic for Windows-platforms, such objects are files of dialog scripts.

In some games like Xpand Rally Xtreme, the SCR files store the player profile settings. You can view the data of the scripts even with the help of a text editor.

Image files

Very often you can find SCR-files related to raster images created in the application Sun Raster from Sun Microsystems. If you do not have an original graphic package at hand, you can open such objects with any advanced viewer (ACDSee, XnView, IrfanView, etc.). But such an image format is used exclusively by this program and is not found anywhere else.

Sometimes such SCR files can be memory dump files for standard ZX Spectrum monitors, which contain data on the first 6192 bytes of memory (x and y axis values for the screen in the 0-255 and 0-192 bands, respectively). Again, you can open them using image viewer applications.

CAE program data

Finally, another variation of the SCR format relates to the EAGLE system of the CAE program developed by CADSOFT Computer Inc. Such files store the settings of the newly created PCB scheme (libraries or scenes), which are valid only for a certain period of time with such an element.

When you close a project file or create a new one, the data is overwritten and automatically saved again in the eagle.scr file. The code in the file is not only rewritten every time, but also read at the time of creating a new schema element or opening an existing one.

Conclusion

It remains to add that here were the most common types of SCR-files that can be found in Windows-systems. The viruses were not particularly carefully considered, since it is quite difficult to detect their presence in the system or to initialize threats without the help of protection in the form of anti-virus scanners. But more often than not, only the files of screen savers are seen from the above. As for setting profiles in games or executable scripts, it seems unlikely that an average user will try to work with them in a manual mode. In general, such information is submitted solely for informational purposes, so that users simply have an idea of what a file with an SCR extension can represent.