Sometimes I download a Windows executable and when I run it, I get an error message “Unsupported 16-bit Application”:
This happens when I download a Windows executable via the command-line, and fail to pay attention to the URL.
Like this executable on GitHub:
Downloading with curl from this URL:
And when I run this, I get the Unsupported 16-bit Application” error. That’s because I made a mistake, and downloaded the HTML page from GitHub in stead of the PE file:
When you make this mistake, Windows will often show you that 16-bit error.
With this example from GitHub, I should have downloaded with the “raw” URL.
Didier Stevens
Senior handler
Microsoft MVP
blog.DidierStevens.com
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