The Portable Executable (PE) format is a file format for executables, object code, DLLs, and others used in 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows operating systems. The PE format is a data structure that encapsulates the information necessary for the Windows OS loader to manage the wrapped executable code. The File infectors that infect these executables are detected by Trend Micro as PE_malwarename.

These files are referred to as Portable Executable (PE) and Common Object File Format (COFF) files, respectively. The name "Portable Executable" refers to the fact that the format is not architecture-specific.