what is a stand-alone file?

Question

A friend sent a DVD to me that my pc can't open. The pc just stalls every time I insert the disc. I wrote back to him to complain and he replied that it's a stand alone file. Can somebody tell me what to do to let my pc open the file?

Answer 1

A stand-alone file is a self-contained file. It requires nothing more than itself. This is opposed to a dependant file. Word documents and spreadsheets are, by nature, dependant files as they need a program like Word or Excel to open them. A stand-alone file doesn't need anything more.

Almost all "stand-alone files" are programs. Programs are things such as Notepad.exe, Mspaint.exe and Winword.exe. The first is stand-alone as it can be copied onto a disk and run on any other Windows computer without worrying about any other files involved. Mspaint is not stand-alone, as it requires a separate file or two which must be present on the computer in certain places to allow it to run. Winword.exe is your Microsoft Word program. It requires so many other files, such as Office Assistant, Spell Checker, filters, converters and add-ins that it is in no way a stand-alone program (in the sense it will not run if you copied that one file to another, random computer and tried to run it).

But they all run if you double-click on them, without any other program running first or with it.

What your friend means is a little vague. Either he is telling you it is a program, in which case it is missing a file or two to run properly, or a stand-alone program, in which case it is damaged as it's not working.

Answer 2

it means that it doean't need the cooresponding program to run it. Such as WinZIP and a WinZip self extractor. its stand alone

Answer 3

You mean a stand-alone software, right? That means it does one thing.