Portable executable structure explanation

Question

I am learning the structure of a portable executable. I went through the MSDN article but I am a bit confused about it. I have some confusion with their precise stucture and its

Answer 1

This is the official current PE/COFF spec from MSFT: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/firmware/PECOFF.mspx

Answer 2

You should take a look to the excellent representation of the PE Format at http://www.openrce.org/reference_library/files/reference/PE%20Format.pdf.

Some (64Bits) fields are missing, but it is up to 99% close to the reality.

I used this schema to work on a product to analyze PE Files, which you can be download at www.winitor.com. Hope it helps.

Answer 3

For a more discursive approach than official specs, you should have a look at Matt Pietrek 1994 article Peering inside the PE: A tour of the Win32 Portable Executable File Format. The explanation is more readable than the dry, official style of the specs.