So I was using 32-bit python on windows and trying to read a binary in System32. with open(r'C:\Windows\System32\FileHistory.exe', 'rb') as f: content = f.read() Then I was thrown the following error. This makes no sense, I know the file exists in System32. After some hair tearing and swearing, I figured it out. This error occurs because 32-bit applications are redirected to SysWOW64 when they try to access System32 and there is no FileHistory....
Prelude The Windows Binaries I’m talking about here are the ones that comes default with Windows provided by Microsoft. Searching for Strings in the binary I was analyzing a Windows binary C:\Windows\System32\where.exe when I realized the help text of the binary cannot be found anywhere in the binary. After some futher investigation using Process Monitor from Windows Sysinternals I found out that it is reading from C:\Windows\System32\en-US\where.exe.mui during it’s execution....