All about RC Files

The RC file type is primarily associated with Visual Studio.

RC	File extension: RC
	File type:	resource script

What is an RC file?

RC files mostly belong to Visual Studio by Microsoft. An RC file is a resource script used by compilers for applications written in various programming languages. A resource script (RC) file contains information such as source file references, version information, and identifiers for an application. Visual Studio integrated development environment, for example, uses an RC file to store its resource compiler script for a C or C++ application. RAD Studio and C++ Builder integrated development environment also use an RC file to store their resource compiler scripts. Configuration and initialization data used by UNIX-like platforms are also saved in RC files.

How to open RC files

You need a suitable software like Visual Studio to open an RC file. Without proper software you will receive a Windows message "How do you want to open this file?" or "Windows cannot open this file" or a similar Mac/iPhone/Android alert. If you cannot open your RC file correctly, try to right-click or long-press the file. Then click "Open with" and choose an application. You can also display a RC file directly in the browser:. Just drag the file onto this browser window and drop it.

Online RC Text Viewer

Choose your .rc file to analyze

or drag and drop it here

Online File Viewer

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RC file format details:

A file format defines how the data in the file is structured. The file format can be deduced from the file extension and the signature. If the file extension does not match the file format, double-clicking on the file will cause an error upon opening. When there is a problem with a file, the first step to solving it is to determine the file format. Our evaluation of the RC files looks like this:

You will often come across the RC file type. This includes a lot of different file formats for different programs. But the following two file formats are common:

• 15% of all RC files are using the well-known Source file format to store the data. A source code is the set of instructions written by a programmer using a computer programming language like JavaScript, C++ or Basic. This code is translated into machine language by a compiler. The translated result is called app, program or executable. If you open these files in a text editor, you can view and read the content yourself. The files are 1 KB to 17 KB in size, with a median of 3 KB. It is a modern file type. Several words can almost always be found in the files, e.g. This, // Microsoft Visual C++ generated resource script, #define APSTUDIO_READONLY_SYMBOLS, your, ////////////, #include "resource.h" and valve. Some examples of file names are spray.rc or headshot.rc. Such files are related to valve.
• 10% of all RC files are based on the well-known UTF-16 (LE) file format. UTF-16 (LE) is an character encoding system for Unicode. UTF-16 files can be viewed in any modern text editor. These files start with the two bytes FF FE, the so called byte order mark (BOM). If you open these files in a text editor, you will see only illegible characters. RC files can be up to 380 KB in size, but are often around 170 bytes - 7 KB. The keywords LANG, LANGUAGE, SUBLANG, #include "resource.h", Microsoft and Visual are typical for these files.

All the rest of the RC files (75%) have different formats, the following 7 formats can be found: PDF, service, IDI and use. The category is ueventd, resource, service, board, info, hardware, rtorrent, android, environ, sample, server, system or teach. If you want to find out which format your RC file belongs to, just click on the button "Choose your .rc file to analyze".