classify files according to their type - by examine their content
The file tool (originating in Unix) classifies files by examining their contents for specific markers. It is driven by a file that specifies the markers, this file can be added to to "classify" new formats.
There are versions for Windows available from the usual sources: Cygwin, Unxutils, GunWin32
tool that can view 1000's of file types
This will have to be a separate tool, probably multiple tools. IrfanView is a viewer that supports a wide range of file types in the image, video, music and document domains:
Supported file formats in IrfanView
Graphic formats:
ANI, CUR Animated Cursor
AWD* Artweaver format
B3D* BodyPaint 3D format
BMP, DIB Windows Bitmap
CAM* Casio digital camera format (JPG version only)
CLP Windows Clipboard
CPT CorelDraw Photopaint format (CPT version 6 only)
CRW/CR2* Canon RAW format
DCM/ACR/IMA* Dicom/ACR/IMA file format for medical images
DCX Multipage PCX format
DDS* Direct Draw Surface format
DJVU, IW44* DjVu File Format
DXF, DWG, HPGL, CGM, SVG* CAD Formats (Shareware PlugIns)
ECW* Enhanced Compressed Wavelet
EMF Enhanced Metafile Format
EPS, PS, PDF, AI* PostScript Formats (Ghostscript required)
EXR* EXR format
FITS* Flexible Image Transport System
FPX* FlashPix format
FSH* EA Sports FSH format
G3* Group 3 Facsimile Apparatus format
GIF Graphics Interchange Format
HDR* High Dynamic Range format
HDP, WDP* Microsoft HD Photo format
ICL, EXE, DLL Icon Library formats
ICO Windows Icon
ICS* Image Cytometry Standard format
IFF, LBM* Interchange File Format
IMG* GEM Raster format
JP2, JPC, J2K* JPEG 2000 format
JPG, JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group
JLS* JPEG-LS, JPEG Lossless
JPM* JPEG2000/Part6, LuraDocument.jpm
KDC* Kodak digital camera format
Mac PICT, QTIF* Macintosh PICT format (Apple Quicktime required)
MNG, JNG* Multiple Network Graphics
MRC* MRC format
MrSID, SID* LizardTech's SID Wavelet format
DNG, EEF, NEF, MRW, ORF, RAF, DCR, SRF/ARW, PEF, X3F, RW2, NRW* Digital camera RAW formats (Adobe, Epson, Nikon, Minolta, Olympus, Fuji, Kodak, Sony, Pentax, Sigma)
NLM, NOL, NGG* Nokia/LogoManager files
PBM Portable Bitmap format
PCD Kodak Photo CD
PCX PC Paintbrush format from ZSoft Corporation
PDF* Portable Document format
PGM Portable Greymap format
PIC* Softimage PICT
PNG Portable Network Graphics
PPM Portable Pixelmap format
PSD Adobe PhotoShop format
PSP* Paint Shop Pro format
PVR* DreamCast Texture format
RAS, SUN* Sun Raster format
RAW, YUV* Raw (binary) data
RLE* Utah RLE format
SFF* Structured Fax File
SFW* Seattle Film Works format
SGI, RGB* Silicon Graphics format
SIF* SIF format
SWF, FLV* Macromedia Flash format
TGA Truevision Advanced Raster Graphics Adapter (TARGA)
TIF, TIFF Tagged Image File Format
TTF* True Type Font
TXT Text (ASCII) File (as image)
VTF* Valve Texture format
WAD* WAD3 Game format
WAL* Quake 2 textures
WBC, WBZ* Webshots formats
WBMP* WAP Bitmap format
WMF Windows Metafile Format
WSQ* Wavelet Scaler Quantization format
XBM* X11 Bitmap
XPM* X11 Pixmap
Video/Audio:
AIF Sound file, Audio Interchange Format
AU, SND Audio format used by Sun and NeXT machines
MED* MED/OctaMED sound format
MID Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)
MP3* MPEG audio layer 3 format
OGG* OGG Vorbis sound format
RA* Real Audio sound format (Real Player required)
WAV Windows audio file
ASF Advanced Systems Format
AVI Audio Video Interleaved
MOV*, MP4* QuickTime Movie format (Apple Quicktime required)
MPG, MPEG Moving Pictures Experts Group format
WMA, WMV Windows Media Audio/Video format
* = PlugIn required, see the plugins page.
