Executable Image

Executable images are files that contain machine code, metadata, and other information necessary for the operating system to load and run a program. Examples include ELF for Unix-based systems and PE for Windows.

Executable images include both executables (.exe) and dynamic-link libraries (.dll), with the difference being that the former can be an initial module for a process, while the DLL is a module that can only be loaded dynamically by an existing process.

The loaded equivalent of an executable image is a module.