Editing Portable Executable (section)

== .NET, metadata, and the PE format ==

In a .NET executable, the PE code section contains a stub that invokes the [[Common Language Runtime|CLR]] virtual machine startup entry, <code>_CorExeMain</code> or <code>_CorDllMain</code> in <code>mscoree.dll</code>, much like it was in [[Visual Basic]] executables. The virtual machine then makes use of .NET metadata present, the root of which, <code>IMAGE_COR20_HEADER</code> (also called "CLR header") is pointed to by <code>IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_COMHEADER</code> (the entry was previously used for [[COM+]] metadata in COM+ applications, hence the name{{cn|date=July 2024}}) entry in the PE header's data directory. <code>IMAGE_COR20_HEADER</code> strongly resembles PE's optional header, essentially playing its role for the CLR loader.<ref name="PE Format (Windows)"/>

The CLR-related data, including the root structure itself, is typically contained in the common code section, <code>.text</code>. It is composed of a few directories: metadata, embedded resources, strong names and a few for native-code interoperability. Metadata directory is a set of tables that list all the distinct .NET entities in the assembly, including types, methods, fields, constants, events, as well as references between them and to other assemblies.