Quite often, many users of Windows-based computer systems, when viewing the contents of directories in file managers, encounter files that have the SCR extension. The question immediately arises as to what constitute such objects, what program to open them, and whether it is viruses.
SCR extension. What is it: a virus or a safe program?
In general, files of this type, in the most common version, are ordinary screensaver programs or screensavers (screen savers), which were originally intended to prevent the phosphor from burning out on outdated monitors. Over time, they began to be used exclusively as a decoration or to automatically hide information displayed on the monitor after a certain period of time in the absence of the workplace.
In addition, an executable file with the SCR extension is just a program that runs as an EXE file, but it is a very unusual program, because in order to return the contents of the screen to their normal appearance, you can specify the use of password input. As already clear, such objects do not carry any threats to the system or user data.
But some dangerous viruses can also be disguised as files with the SCR extension. At the same time, without checking the system with an anti-virus scanner, it is not possible to establish that this is a threat. Such objects can be located in exactly the same location as the original splash screen (System32 directory of the system root directory). To make sure that the file is not in danger, you need to use the right-click context menu with the choice of the scan line set by the antivirus in the standard "Explorer", or conduct a comprehensive system test.
SCR extension: how to open a standard file?
Now about how to run such files. Since the file is executable and is a program, the simplest way to open it is to double-click it. You can use the open command in the right-click menu on the object. You can also use the settings caused by right-clicking on an empty area of the "Desktop", where the section for parameters and using screensaver is selected.
On the other hand, the SCR extension can be opened in special applications for creating or editing screen savers. But this is unlikely to be useful to an ordinary user, since such applications are narrowly targeted and today they have clearly lost popularity.
Script and profile files
But the list of files with the SCR extension is not limited to this. So, for example, this format is one of the main when defining scripts in the form of scripts. In the same Delta Force game developed by Nova Logic for Windows platforms, such objects are dialog script files.
In some games like Xpand Rally Xtreme, player profile settings are saved in SCR files. Viewing these scripts can even be done using a text editor.
Image files
You can often find SCR files related to raster images created in Sun Microsystems' Sun Raster application. If you don’t have an original graphic package at hand, you can open such objects using any advanced viewer (ACDSee, XnView, IrfanView, etc.). But this image format is used exclusively by this program and is not found anywhere else.
Sometimes such SCR files can be memory dump files for the standard ZX Spectrum monitors, which contain data on the first 6192 bytes of memory (x and y axis values for the screen in the ranges 0-255 and 0-192, respectively). Again, you can open them using the application for viewing images.
CAE Program Data
Finally, another variation of the SCR format relates to the CAE EAGLE system developed by CADSOFT Computer Inc. Such files store the settings of the newly created PCB circuit (library or scene), which are valid only for a certain time of working with such an element.
When you close the 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 is also read at the moment of creating a new circuit element or opening an existing one.
Conclusion
It remains to be added that the most common types of SCR files that can be found on Windows systems were listed here. Viruses were not considered especially carefully, since it is quite difficult to detect their presence in the system or to initiate threats without the help of protection tools in the form of anti-virus scanners. But most often from the above only screen saver files are found. As for the settings of profiles in games or executable scripts, it seems unlikely that an ordinary user will try to work with them in manual mode. In general, such information was provided for informational purposes only, so that users simply had an idea of what a file with the SCR extension could be.